Category Archives: Political Economy & History

On Being Pakeha: Some Thoughts Of a New Zealander

This entry was posted in Literature and Culture, Maori, Political Economy & History on by .

For Kapiti U3A, August 11, 2005

Keywords: Maori; Political Economy & History;

This paper begins with a little about my experience of growing up a Pakeha New Zealander. Although I dont think there is much of interest in me, it is perhaps worth noting that most of us have similarly conventional histories. I will then talk about my relationship with the Maori, and try to draw a few useful conclusions. I will finish with a discussion on nationalism and being a New Zealander, which is the topic I am currently working on in the context of my Marsden Research Grant on globalisation.

Europe Moves East: We Need to Change Our Perspective on Europe.

This entry was posted in Listener, Political Economy & History on by .

Listener: 16 July, 2005.

Keywords: Political Economy & History;

New Zealanders largely see Europe from the Atlantic offshore. Few – myself included, until the German Government and the Goethe-Institut enabled me to spend two weeks in Germany last month – would know about the “Battle of the Nations”. In 1813, Austria, Prussia, Russia and Sweden decisively defeated Napoleon’s army, just outside Leipzig – the monument is pure megalomania. Because Britain was not involved, it hardly registers to us. Yet, with the end of the Cold War, the centre of Europe is moving east, evident in the reconstruction of Berlin as its transport hub.

Non & Nee for the European Constitution

This entry was posted in Globalisation & Trade, Listener, Political Economy & History on by .

But it’s still Ja for the European Project.

Listener: 2 July, 2005.

Keywords: Globalisation & Trade; Political Economy & History;

When New Zealand voted on MMP in 1993, many people said they voted “yes” because the Business Roundtable told them “no”. Whatever their logic, the example illustrates that voters do not necessarily vote on the precise referendum question before them.

The Economics Of Globalisation: an Introduction

This entry was posted in Globalisation & Trade, Political Economy & History on by .

Paper for the 2005 Conference of the New Zealand Association of Economists, June 29-July 1: Christchurch.

Keywords: Globalisation & Trade; Growth & Innovation;

Introduction

The Royal Society of New Zealand has awarded me a grant from the Marsden Fund to study globalisation. The study is a continuation of my earlier research program, especially that which is summarised in my book In Stormy Seas with its central message that the fate of New Zealand will be largely a consequence of what happens overseas, together with our ability to seize the opportunities and manage the problems those events create.

Some Nationbuilding Economists

This entry was posted in History of Ideas, Methodology, Philosophy, Political Economy & History on by .

Paper to The History of New Zealand Economics Session at the June 2005 conference of the New Zealand Economist’s Association.

Keywords: History of Ideas, Methodology & Philosophy; Political Economy & History;

In the course of describing the evolution of the New Zealand political economy between 1932 and 1984, my book, The Nationbuilders, highlighted four economists: Bernard Ashwin, Bill Sutch, Bryan Philpott and Henry Lang. This paper looks at those economists from the earlier phase of the period, thereby leaving Philpott and Lang and others for a later assessment. By focussing on the period in which economics first became important in the New Zealand policy process, it adds to the first two a number of other economists: particularly Horace Belshaw, Dick Campbell, Douglas Copland, and James Hight.

The Globalisation Of Time

This entry was posted in Globalisation & Trade, Political Economy & History on by .

Paper for the Symposium “Institutions and Economic Development”, University of Otago, 18-19 March (Also draft of chapter for “Distance Looks Our Way”.)

Keywords: Globalisation & Trade; Political Economy & History;

Introduction

The Royal Society of New Zealand has awarded me a Marsden Grant to study globalisation. The ultimate output will be a book. This paper presents a draft of one of its chapters. Because it is a conference paper, it is necessary to say something about the context in which the chapter takes place. The study is based on five primary principles.

Free Beer Tomorrow

This entry was posted in Growth & Innovation, Listener, Political Economy & History on by .

Yeah right. No wonder there is reform exhaustion.   Listener: 15 January, 2005.   Keywords: Growth & Innovation; Political Economy & History;    For 40-odd years, economic pundits have been telling us that our economic output is growing too slowly, and that we should adopt their policies to accelerate it. Sometimes we have, but before…
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Dull, Philistine and Conforming: How Have We Changed over the Years?

This entry was posted in Listener, Literature and Culture, Political Economy & History on by .

Listener: 1 January, 2005.

Keywords: Political Economy & History;

Returning after graduate studies at Oxford and war service in Europe, M K (Michael Kennedy) Joseph thought the New Zealand of the late 1940s and 1950s was dull, philistine and conforming. He famously expressed his reservations in “Secular Litany”, which begins:

The Right Stuff

This entry was posted in Listener, Political Economy & History on by .

Two books analysed the US presidential election outcome before it happened

Listener: 18 December

Keywords: Political Economy & History;

Politically, Americans are not like the rest of us. Personally, they have been as courteous and hospitable to me visiting them as a Fulbright New Zealand scholar, as I expect New Zealanders to be to American visitors. But their re-election of George W Bush illustrates the underlying political differences, for, in some ways, challenger John Kerry was to the right of, say, our National Party, while the US Congress became dominated by the Right in 1994.

After Neoliberalism: the Growth and Innovation Framework.

This entry was posted in Growth & Innovation, Political Economy & History on by .

Paper for the “After Neoliberalism? New Forms of Governance in Aotearoa New Zealand” Symposium, Auckland University, December 13, 2004.

Keywords: Political Economy & History;

The policy clash in the 1980s and the 1990s was more complex than a Left-Right divide. At the very least it was tripartite. One group we might call the ‘conservatives’, many of who were on the Left, who wanted to defend the existing economic and social policies whose beginnings go back to the 1930s – making minor modifications from those which we associate with Muldoon. The concerns of the nostalgic Left has been more about human rights, foreign affairs and redistribution, than about economic policy, the main concern of this paper.

The Land-rover That Time Forgot (review)

This entry was posted in Business & Finance, Listener, Political Economy & History on by .

The Trekka Dynasty, by Todd Niall (Iconic Publishing, $29.95)

Listener 6 November, 2004.

Keywords: Business & Finance; Political Economy & History;

Making the boxy Trekka the centre of New Zealand’s contribution to the 2003 Venice Biennale bemused New Zealanders, as well as those who visited. Apparently artist Michael Stevenson saw it as a story about a small nation building an industrial economy, to be swept away by 1984. An easy image perhaps, but a superficial one.

Russian Lessons

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The Economic Prognosis is Not Good for the Latest Russian Revolution
Listener: 27 January, 1996

Keywords: Political Economy & History;

Recently economist Rufus Dawe described himself, in the National Business Review, as the Trotsky of the rogernomics revolution. Who he had in mind as the Lenin and the Stalin of rogernomics is unclear. Trotsky said of Stalin that his rise to power was evidence of the mediocrity of the system.

The Unrepentant Reformer: What Does Michael Cullen Think Of Rogernomics Now?

This entry was posted in Listener, Political Economy & History on by .

Listener: 17 July 2004.

Keywords: Political Economy & History;

Only two ministers opposed the Labour Cabinet’s proposal for a flat income tax in December 1987. A month later, one, Prime Minister David Lange unilaterally canned the proposal because it would make the poor worse off. The other was Michael Cullen, then Minister of Social Welfare, now Minister of Finance.

John Ballance: Nationbuilder

This entry was posted in Political Economy & History on by .

‘The Hidden Irish: Ulster: New Zealand Migration and Cultural Transfers’, a conference of the Irish-Scottish Studies Programme of the Stout Research Centre, 29-31 July, 2004.

Keywords: Political Economy & History;

John Ballance was the first New Zealand premier to die in office, and is the second youngest to so die – at 54 years and a month, 30 months later than Norman Kirk. Like Kirk he was premier for a very short time, 26 months – although he had earlier been a cabinet minister for a total of four and a half years. Yet his premiership was one of the most important in New Zealand’s history, even if it gets forgotten behind that of his immediate successor, Richard John Seddon.