Since the latter half of the twentieth century patterns of economic flows
and the deployment of systems of production have encouraged greater political and
social integration between nation states. This phenomenon, called globalisation,
has reinvigorated debate about the nation state as a mode of organisation, and
created the conditions for an ongoing natural experiment concerning state
adjustment. This experiment, while on a global scale, has led to different responses
from national governments, as each grappled with how best to accommodate both
domestic and international interests. One neglected aspect of analysis in these
processes is the role played by national bureaucracy in state adjustment as a means
to move with globalising pressures or to resist their impact.
This thesis presents a qualitative analysis of the interaction of one
globalising process, foreign direct investment (FDI), and the workings of the
nation state, as a means of assessing the way in which the national government has
used regulatory processes and its bureaucracy to control FDI. An extended
historical case study is used to examine changes in policy, regulation and the
organisation of the national bureaucracy concerned with FDI in Australia. The
period examined is from 1968 to 2004 enabling comparisons to be made across the
experience of seven successive national governments (those led by prime ministers
Gorton, McMahon, Whitlam, Fraser, Hawke, Keating and Howard) in the way they
managed the domestic and international circumstances that impacted on FDI.
This thesis makes a contribution to the literature on the interaction of
globalising processes, the nation state and the role played by national public
bureaucracies where national and transnational interests intersect. In particular, this
thesis identifies the national bureaucracy as a key agent for government in enabling
and domesticating the processes of globalisation. This finding demonstrates that
national bureaucracy is significant as both a facilitator and the inhibitor of
processes of globalisation, and therefore is a key factor in understanding the issues
of state adjustment in studies of globalisation.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/219591 |
| Date | January 2007 |
| Creators | Sadleir, Christopher John, n/a |
| Publisher | University of Canberra. School of Business & Government |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | ), Copyright Christopher John Sadleir |
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