The present issue of the Journal of Australian Poltiticl Economy is devoted to an examination of ... more The present issue of the Journal of Australian Poltiticl Economy is devoted to an examination of the breadth of heterodoxy in economics, that is to the range of perspectives on economic issues (production and its growth, exchange, the distribution of income) that differ from the orthodox or mainstream perspective. This orthodoxy is essentially what is known as neoclassical economics. What are generally understood to be the heterodox perspectives are non-neoclassical, including different approaches within 'surplus-orientated economics' (Butler, 2002; Baranzini and Scazzieri, 1986) 1. The latter share a concern with human agency as well as structure, and with the power of human agency. The more a perspective emphasises the exercise of power in social relations the more it represents not only heterodoxy but, more explicitly, political economy in one or another of its variants. The genesis of a variant of political economy may be classical political economy, Marxian political economy or more contemporary (for example, in the cases of post-Keynesian economics, the Monthly Review strand of Marxism, 'old institutionalism'/evolutionary economics, feminism, ecological economics, etc). These different elaborations of political economy are all opposed to the neoclassical view that people can be understood as sovereign individuals whose interactions are essentially mediated by markets. In this brief article I present a case for making the study of negotiations and bargaining power central to the further development of political economy. I take it that in actually existing capitalist economies (i) there 1 Some recent approaches such as behavioural economics and experimental economics are different but are not within what is generally thought of as heterodox economics. 2 Clegg (2003) states that '[a]ll forms of organization are forms of organization of social relations'. A little more specifically, organisations are more or less formally constituted groupings of people that are vehicles for collective human agency in the pursuit of more or less definite purposes. 3 See also 'Contracts on the Political Economy of a Nation' (Butler, 1990).
Australian Journal of Public Administration, Jun 1, 1996
Identifying the ‘downside’ of competition policy raises the question of whether there is an ‘up‐s... more Identifying the ‘downside’ of competition policy raises the question of whether there is an ‘up‐side’. Competition is supposed to drive the organisers of commodity production to minimise the costs they have to bear in some short to medium term, within environments more or less circumscribed by government regulations. The actual period tends to be that for which the providers of finance are prepared to wait for returns after a poorly performing company is restructured. Economists used to say that cost minimisation requires an industry structure in which there are many independent producers. Nowadays, more enlightened writers speak of ensuring that the market positions held by existing producers are contestable by prospective new producers.The question of what government in Australia may do to establish competition in this sense of competition has recently focussed on the desirable re‐organisation of public enterprises, perhaps especially those that exist at the level of the states. So what are the dimensions of the ‘downside’ of opening the market positions occupied by public enterprises to contestation by private companies, especially those which are monopolies? The answer takes a large measure of the gloss off the Hilmer promises. The problems to be addressed are: the limit put on contestability where there is an element of natural monopoly; the tendency for cost minimisation to depend on the tighter management of labour; and, the difficulty of insisting simultaneously on both ‘competition’ and the satisfaction of ‘community service obligations’ (CSOs).
Changes have been made to the provision of post-secondary education in Australia with little evid... more Changes have been made to the provision of post-secondary education in Australia with little evident reflection as to the merit of the existing public universities or the nature of public education. This paper by Gavan Butler sets out some notes for the discussion that should be happening. It then lists some possible scenarios for change into the next couple of decades and draws attention to some of the implications of these changes for the Australian public universities and the preservation of public higher education. It is the author\u27s hope that the changes that do occur will be governed by consideration of the nature of higher education as a public good and of the effect of the curriculum on education as a public good
Late in 1981, the Bureau of Industry Economics (BIE) finally reported on its study of the prospec... more Late in 1981, the Bureau of Industry Economics (BIE) finally reported on its study of the prospective demand by the mining sector of the Australian economy for commodities produced by manufacturing industries.1 The study was of "backward linkages" between mining and manufacturing only; it did not consider "forward linkages", that is existing and prospective supplies of Australian minerals to local processing and fabricating industries. Nonetheless, it is an important study in a number of respects. It provides careful predictions in place of rather opaque information, such as that garnered by W.D. Scott & Co. in relation to expansion by Hamersley Holdings Ltd ,2 and in place of guesswork and reference to experience in other countries. It is important, also, in that it indicates how relatively unimportant are the mining sector's backward linkages in comparison with value added in the mining sector itself.3 The bulk of the value added is to be found in the gross...
Political economy needs to be something more than a cnllque of neoclassical economics and the ass... more Political economy needs to be something more than a cnllque of neoclassical economics and the associated neo-liberal economic policy prescriptions. It needs to present a coherent view of the functioning of the economic system and its relationship to social and political processes. For this purpose it is useful to construct the discipline of political economy around the core notion of a social surplus. As Robert Heilbroner (1985) notes, every economic system beyond the hunter and gatherer society has been designed to ensure the creation of some portion of social product beyond what is needed for the sustenance of the population and its productive apparatus. The social surplus is what is produced over and above the necessities for economic reproduction. Understanding its size, disposition and distribution is the central politicoeconomic concern, because this is the key to understanding what shapes economic growth, periodic crises, the distribution of income and wealth and the essentia...
The present issue of the Journal of Australian Poltiticl Economy is devoted to an examination of ... more The present issue of the Journal of Australian Poltiticl Economy is devoted to an examination of the breadth of heterodoxy in economics, that is to the range of perspectives on economic issues (production and its growth, exchange, the distribution of income) that differ from the orthodox or mainstream perspective. This orthodoxy is essentially what is known as neoclassical economics. What are generally understood to be the heterodox perspectives are non-neoclassical, including different approaches within 'surplus-orientated economics' (Butler, 2002; Baranzini and Scazzieri, 1986) 1. The latter share a concern with human agency as well as structure, and with the power of human agency. The more a perspective emphasises the exercise of power in social relations the more it represents not only heterodoxy but, more explicitly, political economy in one or another of its variants. The genesis of a variant of political economy may be classical political economy, Marxian political economy or more contemporary (for example, in the cases of post-Keynesian economics, the Monthly Review strand of Marxism, 'old institutionalism'/evolutionary economics, feminism, ecological economics, etc). These different elaborations of political economy are all opposed to the neoclassical view that people can be understood as sovereign individuals whose interactions are essentially mediated by markets. In this brief article I present a case for making the study of negotiations and bargaining power central to the further development of political economy. I take it that in actually existing capitalist economies (i) there 1 Some recent approaches such as behavioural economics and experimental economics are different but are not within what is generally thought of as heterodox economics. 2 Clegg (2003) states that '[a]ll forms of organization are forms of organization of social relations'. A little more specifically, organisations are more or less formally constituted groupings of people that are vehicles for collective human agency in the pursuit of more or less definite purposes. 3 See also 'Contracts on the Political Economy of a Nation' (Butler, 1990).
Australian Journal of Public Administration, Jun 1, 1996
Identifying the ‘downside’ of competition policy raises the question of whether there is an ‘up‐s... more Identifying the ‘downside’ of competition policy raises the question of whether there is an ‘up‐side’. Competition is supposed to drive the organisers of commodity production to minimise the costs they have to bear in some short to medium term, within environments more or less circumscribed by government regulations. The actual period tends to be that for which the providers of finance are prepared to wait for returns after a poorly performing company is restructured. Economists used to say that cost minimisation requires an industry structure in which there are many independent producers. Nowadays, more enlightened writers speak of ensuring that the market positions held by existing producers are contestable by prospective new producers.The question of what government in Australia may do to establish competition in this sense of competition has recently focussed on the desirable re‐organisation of public enterprises, perhaps especially those that exist at the level of the states. So what are the dimensions of the ‘downside’ of opening the market positions occupied by public enterprises to contestation by private companies, especially those which are monopolies? The answer takes a large measure of the gloss off the Hilmer promises. The problems to be addressed are: the limit put on contestability where there is an element of natural monopoly; the tendency for cost minimisation to depend on the tighter management of labour; and, the difficulty of insisting simultaneously on both ‘competition’ and the satisfaction of ‘community service obligations’ (CSOs).
Changes have been made to the provision of post-secondary education in Australia with little evid... more Changes have been made to the provision of post-secondary education in Australia with little evident reflection as to the merit of the existing public universities or the nature of public education. This paper by Gavan Butler sets out some notes for the discussion that should be happening. It then lists some possible scenarios for change into the next couple of decades and draws attention to some of the implications of these changes for the Australian public universities and the preservation of public higher education. It is the author\u27s hope that the changes that do occur will be governed by consideration of the nature of higher education as a public good and of the effect of the curriculum on education as a public good
Late in 1981, the Bureau of Industry Economics (BIE) finally reported on its study of the prospec... more Late in 1981, the Bureau of Industry Economics (BIE) finally reported on its study of the prospective demand by the mining sector of the Australian economy for commodities produced by manufacturing industries.1 The study was of "backward linkages" between mining and manufacturing only; it did not consider "forward linkages", that is existing and prospective supplies of Australian minerals to local processing and fabricating industries. Nonetheless, it is an important study in a number of respects. It provides careful predictions in place of rather opaque information, such as that garnered by W.D. Scott & Co. in relation to expansion by Hamersley Holdings Ltd ,2 and in place of guesswork and reference to experience in other countries. It is important, also, in that it indicates how relatively unimportant are the mining sector's backward linkages in comparison with value added in the mining sector itself.3 The bulk of the value added is to be found in the gross...
Political economy needs to be something more than a cnllque of neoclassical economics and the ass... more Political economy needs to be something more than a cnllque of neoclassical economics and the associated neo-liberal economic policy prescriptions. It needs to present a coherent view of the functioning of the economic system and its relationship to social and political processes. For this purpose it is useful to construct the discipline of political economy around the core notion of a social surplus. As Robert Heilbroner (1985) notes, every economic system beyond the hunter and gatherer society has been designed to ensure the creation of some portion of social product beyond what is needed for the sustenance of the population and its productive apparatus. The social surplus is what is produced over and above the necessities for economic reproduction. Understanding its size, disposition and distribution is the central politicoeconomic concern, because this is the key to understanding what shapes economic growth, periodic crises, the distribution of income and wealth and the essentia...
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Papers by Gavan Butler