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Making Economic Policy
Author(s) -
BRAY JEREMY
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
the political quarterly
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.373
H-Index - 37
eISSN - 1467-923X
pISSN - 0032-3179
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-923x.1996.tb01601.x
Subject(s) - parliament , citation , politics , sociology , political science , library science , law , computer science
An article published in the April/June "Review", "The Making of Economic Policy", suggested that we should establish in Australia a national economic advisory authority, similar to the Council for Economic Advisers in the United States but tailored to fit Australian circumstances. This article was an elaboration of a paper originally published in the May/ June "Review" of 1952, entitled "A C.E.A. for Australia". We believe this proposal to be of such great national significance, and of such paramount importance to business itself, that we invited a number of people engaged in industry, politics and academic life to comment upon it. These comments are published here. It is not necessary to recapitulate all the many arguments we have advanced in support of this proposal in the two articles mentioned above. But one or two things need to be said. Nothing is more vital to the survival of free democratic enterprise in Australia than the prevention of a serious business recession or depression and of the unemployment by which it would inevitably be accompanied. Large-scale and longcontinued unemployment would deal a blow which could be fatal to the free enterprise system as we know it (even though such an occurrence might be due to no fault on the part of business itself) . If a depression should occur, far-reaching measures of government control would almost certainly be introduced and a strong impetus would be given to socialistic doctrines. In that event all the educational work being done by the I.P.A. and other institutions to promote a wider understanding of the merits of free enterprise would be seriously undermined. Quite apart from the all-important human aspect, it is clear that business, perhaps even more than any other section of the community, has a strong vested interest, both political and economic, in the maintenance of economic stability and the prevention of large-scale unemployment. What businessmen and others should ask themselves is whether the machinery of government in Australia today,