Conspiracy and The Policy Process: A Case Study of the New Zealand Experiment

1997 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-29 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joe Wallis
Keyword(s):  
Social Network ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Policy Process ◽  
Policy Reform ◽  
Change Agents ◽  
Pivotal Role ◽  
Window Of Opportunity ◽  
Mutual Trust ◽  
The Way

ABSTRACTThis paper advances the concept of a policy conspiracy – perpetrators strive together to steer the policy process in a direction which they believe to be worthwhile and possible. A policy conspiracy is conceived as an exclusive social network of policy participants who commit themselves to the advancement of a policy quest which embodies their shared hopes and who promote one another to positions of influence on the basis of the mutual trust they develop through regular interaction. The degree to which the network of technocrats, technopols and change agents who played a pivotal role in the implementation and consolidation of the ‘New Zealand experiment’ between 1984 and 1993 exhibit these characteristics is considered. By examining the way this policy conspiracy took advantage of a significant window of opportunity for reform, this paper seeks to make a contribution to the literature concerned with the conditions for radical policy reform.

scholarly journals The Politics of Activism and Biculturalism: the emergence of bicultural consultancies in New Zealand

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Ethan McKenzie
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Policy Reform ◽  
The State ◽  
Public Servants ◽  
Case Study Methodology ◽  
The Public ◽  
Policy Paper ◽  
State Activism ◽  
Study Methodology

<p>In what many commentators have characterised as a contradictory trajectory, a number of people involved in radical anti-state activism, which defined New Zealand from the late 1960s to the 1980s, became consultants on biculturalism for government agencies by the late 1980s. These consultants ran seminars for Pākehā public servants on the history and contemporary impact of Māori oppression under colonialism; Māori language, culture, and protocol; and the proposed future of the Crown-Māori relationship. This thesis uses genealogy and case study methodology to track the emergence of bicultural consultancies, their ideology and techniques, and their role in Māori policy reform beginning in the late 1980s. It aims to reveal the connections and disjunctions between the goals of anti-state activists active from the late 1960s to the 1980s, and the bicultural consultancies which emerged by the late 1980s.  Māori anti-racist and anti-state activists and their Pākehā allies skilfully leveraged the state by invoking the 1840 Treaty of Waitangi to call for a new partnership between Māori and the state, a partnership that by the 1980s was officially termed biculturalism. The public sector, which was identified as institutionally racist by activists, was an important focus of this activism. Activists demanded that Pākehā-dominated government departments be reformed to better reflect and serve Māori. The state’s response to these demands, beginning in earnest with the 1988 policy paper Te Urupare Rangapu and additionally sustained by the precepts of so-called ‘bicultural’ or ‘Treaty’ issues, created the demand for consultants to assist with reforming Māori policy making and delivery, and by extension, those public servants that would be responsible for the success of these reforms. While bicultural consultants were still working with anti-racist ideas and frameworks, the ascendancy of bicultural and Treaty discourses by the end of the 1980s somewhat obfuscated the ontologies of race and institutional racism in their work.</p>

scholarly journals Examining the Connections within the Startup Ecosystem: A Case Study of St. Louis

2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yasuyuki Motoyama ◽  
Karren Knowlton
Keyword(s):  
Social Network ◽  
Network Approach ◽  
Entrepreneurial Ecosystem ◽  
Bottom Up ◽  
Support Organizations ◽  
Social Network Approach ◽  
Institutional Dimension ◽  
Organizational Collaboration ◽  
The Way

AbstractWe critically examine how an entrepreneurial ecosystem is structured using an exploratory and bottom-up approach. Past studies in this area have discussed the presence of elements in the system or captured the ecosystem as holistically as possible by extending to social, cultural, and institutional dimension. However, we find that such aggregated conceptualizations gave limited understanding to how different elements are connected and constitute the system. Here, we apply a social network approach by analyzing the connections of the ecosystem at multiple layers: (1) among entrepreneurs, (2) among support organizations, and (3) between and among entrepreneurs and key support organizations. Through a series of interviews with entrepreneurs and support organizations in St. Louis, we find that the ways in which support organizations in this region interacted with each other and with entrepreneurs, including explicit cross-organizational collaboration and strategic structuring of resources, significantly impacted the way that entrepreneurs interacted with one another and with organizations, thus deepening our understanding of these connections and identifying intervening points within the ecosystem.

When dating shows encounter state censors: a case study of If You Are the One

2016 ◽  
Vol 39 (4) ◽  
pp. 487-503 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shaohua Guo
Keyword(s):  
Current Understanding ◽  
Pivotal Role ◽  
Critical Juncture ◽  
Television Programming ◽  
State Mandate ◽  
Chinese Characteristics ◽  
Culture Production ◽  
The One ◽  
The Way

Postmillennial China has witnessed a surge of TV entertainment programs that constantly straddle the line between market demands and state mandate. Taking If You Are the One, a top-rated dating program that has evoked much controversy as a case study, this article seeks to expand current understanding of the entangled relationship between entertainment and politics in contemporary China. Delving into the critical juncture at which If You Are the One encounters state censors, this article illuminates how the official mandate has played a pivotal role in catalyzing the transformation of If You Are the One from a copycat of Western reality shows into one imprinted with Chinese characteristics. Moreover, the readiness and flexibility of those involved with television programming to negotiate, reciprocate, and adjust their stances characterize the nascent norm of television culture production. Thus, the way in which If You Are the One reinvents its agenda to meet state expectations, pacifies the irritated audience, and subsequently enhances its critical agency illustrates the mutually reconfiguring relationships between official, commercial, and mainstream forces.

“On Wooden Churches”: William Scott and the Colonial Church

2014 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 297-324
Author(s):  
Emily Turner
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Practical Application ◽  
Gothic Revival ◽  
Contentious Issue ◽  
British Colonies ◽  
The Way ◽  
Colonial Church

The use of wood in Gothic Revival buildings was a contentious issue in the middle of the nineteenth century. Because of the need in the British colonies to use timber in church construction due to financial and material restraints, a re-examination of wood as a building medium consistent with the principles of the Revival became necessary. For the Cambridge Camden Society, the breakthrough in understanding timber as a truly ecclesiological material came in an essay by Rev. William Scott entitled “On Wooden Churches” (1848), which traced the historical and symbolic features of wood in ecclesiastical design. This article examines the rationale that Scott put forward to validate the use of the medium in colonial settings, focusing on his theological and historical arguments as well as his scheme for practical application of theoretical constructs. This study will also demonstrate the way in which Scott’s advice was applied in the colonial setting in the case study of Frederick Thatcher’s Old St. Paul’s, Wellington in New Zealand.

scholarly journals The Politics of Activism and Biculturalism: the emergence of bicultural consultancies in New Zealand

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Ethan McKenzie
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Policy Reform ◽  
The State ◽  
Public Servants ◽  
Case Study Methodology ◽  
The Public ◽  
Policy Paper ◽  
State Activism ◽  
Study Methodology

<p>In what many commentators have characterised as a contradictory trajectory, a number of people involved in radical anti-state activism, which defined New Zealand from the late 1960s to the 1980s, became consultants on biculturalism for government agencies by the late 1980s. These consultants ran seminars for Pākehā public servants on the history and contemporary impact of Māori oppression under colonialism; Māori language, culture, and protocol; and the proposed future of the Crown-Māori relationship. This thesis uses genealogy and case study methodology to track the emergence of bicultural consultancies, their ideology and techniques, and their role in Māori policy reform beginning in the late 1980s. It aims to reveal the connections and disjunctions between the goals of anti-state activists active from the late 1960s to the 1980s, and the bicultural consultancies which emerged by the late 1980s.  Māori anti-racist and anti-state activists and their Pākehā allies skilfully leveraged the state by invoking the 1840 Treaty of Waitangi to call for a new partnership between Māori and the state, a partnership that by the 1980s was officially termed biculturalism. The public sector, which was identified as institutionally racist by activists, was an important focus of this activism. Activists demanded that Pākehā-dominated government departments be reformed to better reflect and serve Māori. The state’s response to these demands, beginning in earnest with the 1988 policy paper Te Urupare Rangapu and additionally sustained by the precepts of so-called ‘bicultural’ or ‘Treaty’ issues, created the demand for consultants to assist with reforming Māori policy making and delivery, and by extension, those public servants that would be responsible for the success of these reforms. While bicultural consultants were still working with anti-racist ideas and frameworks, the ascendancy of bicultural and Treaty discourses by the end of the 1980s somewhat obfuscated the ontologies of race and institutional racism in their work.</p>

scholarly journals The Politics of Retirement Savings Taxation:  a Trans-Tasman Comparison

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Lisa Marriott
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Institutional Theory ◽  
Interest Groups ◽  
Policy Process ◽  
Historical Institutionalism ◽  
Retirement Income ◽  
Retirement Savings ◽  
Historical Account ◽  
Taxation Policy

<p>The thesis makes two primary contributions. The first is in the provision of a comprehensive historical account of the events, personalities and environment that formed the policy for the taxation of retirement savings in New Zealand and Australia. This historical account is analysed through institutional frameworks to explain the antecedents that have resulted in the retirement savings taxation policy outcomes that exist in the two countries at the present time. The second key objective of the research, in using institutional theory to assist with the first objective, is to provide some insights into the utility of institutional theory, and historical institutionalism in particular, in this comparative case study. The different retirement savings policies that were implemented in the mid to late 1980s in New Zealand and Australia have resulted in substantially different levels of retirement savings in each country. New Zealand s retirement savings figures and participation in occupational superannuation are among the lowest in the OECD. Conversely, Australia now has the fourth largest managed fund pool in the world, and the largest in Asia. Australian retirees can expect to have an income of 70 - 80 per cent of their final retirement income, after 40 years of Superannuation Guarantee participation. Retiring New Zealanders, assuming National Superannuation continues unchallenged, will receive a minimum of 60 - 65 per cent of the average wage. The difference in standard of living that these amounts will support is significant. Retiring Australians will be advantaged with some relationship between their pre-retirement and retirement income. This is a benefit many retiring New Zealanders will not receive. The research findings indicate that the key independent variables highlighted in this research (the environment, institutions, power and ideas) contribute a contestable explanation to the policy directions adopted in each country. The thesis argues that the concept of ideas is the key dimension that shaped the retirement savings taxation policy in the 1982 to 1992 period in New Zealand and Australia. The use of a coherent ideology facilitated the communication of a consistent world view in both countries, and provided a set of established ideas to support the direction adopted. This assisted with validation for trade-offs incurred in the policy process. The investigation of institutional factors highlighted the lack of potential for interest groups to make their voices heard. Conversely, the privileging of certain interest groups, those aligned with the prevailing ideas, was also prevalent. The institutions with the strongest influence on the policy process were those that, through historical events or historical opportunity, had preferences that were aligned with the state. This case study indicates that historical institutionalism has less utility for the study of a more detailed component of policy, rather than broader structural policy reform, as typically used in other studies. Thus, it is suggested that the utility of historical institutionalism may be reflected by the level of detail both undertaken in the research and desired from the research output. The indication that historical institutionalism may have greater utility for larger case study analyses may have application for future research.</p>

scholarly journals LEGAL FORUM: MMP: Aligning the Judicial and Parliamentary Functions

1970 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Kiely
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
Legislative Process ◽  
Legal Environment ◽  
Public Power ◽  
Employment Contracts ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Way

The advent of MMP may make a considerable difference to the way law is practised in New Zealand. It will change both the policy making environment and will ultimately change aspects of the legal environment. In essence, MMP is going to alter the distribution of public power in New Zealand. The changes in the way our system of government operates will have significant implications for the legislative process, decision making within the executive government and it is suggested, the role of judiciary and the legal profession. The focus of this paper is the possible impact of MMP on the alignment of our parliamentary and judicial functions. On the issue of policy making I will discuss the extent to which these roles may overlap and the desirability of such an occurrence. As a case study I will discuss the impact of judicial activism in the context of New Zealand's employment contracts legislation. Finally, I will examine the role of lawyers as advisors in the new regime.

It's My Site, and I'll Do What I Want

2016 ◽  
pp. 50-63
Author(s):  
Melissa Kelly ◽  
Anita Jetnikoff
Keyword(s):  
Social Network ◽  
Critical Literacy ◽  
Qualitative Case Study ◽  
Social Network Sites ◽  
English Teachers ◽  
Male And Female ◽  
The Way

This chapter is based on a qualitative case study that researched the perceptions of nine male and female pre-service English teachers' in regards to their preparedness to mentor positive digital conduct in Social network sites (SNS). These sites enable individuals to perform public representations of identity, consumed by virtual audiences, with various degrees of perceived privacy. The chapter frames what we call “identity curation” through three theoretical lenses; of performativity, customisation and critical literacy. This chapter discusses one of the themes that emerged from the research, which is the way in which “normalised” and naturalised representations of femininity on SNS were judged more harshly than masculine representations.

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