liberation

[Act Party history] 11: Policy moderation

The reinvention of Act did not only involve stylistic change through a moderated image and new leader. The main part of Act’s re-launch was in fact a substantial re-evaluation and overhaul of the party’s programme. In April 1996 the party leadership launched a new manifesto shorn of the party’s initial radicalism. The name of the manifesto – ‘Commonsense for change’ – was indicative of the new approach: less experimentalism and more orthodoxy. The new Act manifesto was most striking for the fact that it omitted two of Act’s most radical and defining policies: its voucher scheme and the zero income tax policy. At the launch, new party leader Richard Prebble stated that such policies made Act appear as ‘loopy’ and rightwing. [Read more below]

Trotter on: Key vs English

Apparently John Key is a policy entrepreneur and engineer, while Bill English is an ideological passenger – and which of these two controls the direction of economic policy as the country grapples with the economic crisis will strongly decide the fate of New Zealand. In this week’s Independent Financial Review column, Chris Trotter characterises the future of the New Zealand economy as being determined by the natural ideological schism between John Key as prime minister and Bill English as finance minister, and whose vision wins out. English is painted as being conventional and Key as risk-taking and bold. Trotter clearly hopes that Key wins out, but suggests that this is unlikely. [Read more below]

[Act Party history] 10: The new leadership

A new strategic focus by the Act Party on leadership image coincided with the announcement in December 1995 by Roger Douglas of his decision to stand down as leader. Douglas had always maintained that he was only a transitional leader, but he now also announced that he would not even stand for Parliament. This decision could only improve Act’s public standing. Douglas, after all, had actually been a liability for Act because of the public’s association of Douglas with the pain of the Fourth Labour Government’s economic reforms. However, Douglas was also not a strong leader – lacking leadership drive and charisma. [Read more below]

Did Marx predict the current economic crisis?

The following quote from Karl Marx has apparently been doing the rounds of Wall Street:

Owners of capital will stimulate the working class to buy more and more of expensive goods, houses and technology, pushing them to take more and more expensive credits, until their debt becomes unbearable. The unpaid debt will lead to bankruptcy of banks, which will have to be nationalised, and the State will have to take the road which will eventually lead to communism (Das Kapital, 1867)

The only problem is that it's a bogus quote. Yet the whole saga is still a fascinating insight into the current state of politics. After all - most of the quote does apparently actually exist in various parts of Das Kapital, and the fact that so many people find the quote of interest is significant in itself. [Read more below]

[Act Party history] 9: Reinvention of the Act Party

Act’s disappointing performance in the opinion polls in 1995 very quickly lead to a re-evaluation of their political message. The fact that the party was run by marketing professionals, entrepreneurs and managers meant that the party and its message were always treated largely as a ‘product’. The background of the personnel involved, therefore, had a significant influence on the party’s development. [Read more below]

[Act Party history] 8: Initial failure

Like most new parties, Act had an initial honeymoon period where it obtained credible support (4-5%) in the opinion polls. This support slowly declined over 1994 and 1995 until the party hardly even registered. Act was as far away as possible from their prediction of winning 50% of the vote at the 1996 election. Two competing explanations for the failure pointed to either the basically unattractive political product being sold, or alternatively the poor packaging and selling of it. [Read more below]

[Act Party history] 7: Party structure and organisation

The new professionalism of the early Act party was represented most starkly by its organisational structure. The party did not just have a ‘leadership’, but also a ‘management’. The leadership obviously consisted of the public figures of Roger Douglas and Derek Quigley et al., while the management included the higher echelons of the party activists and paid organisers. The founders were attempting to create a modern highly-professionalised political party with a structure very different to the traditional ones. [Read more below]

[Act Party history] 6: Initial strategy and expectations

The radicalism of the early Act party was matched by the leadership’s strong confidence in its future. Roger Douglas, for instance, expressed the belief that Act would win at least 50% of the vote in general elections. This prediction went against all available evidence that political scientists could offer. Such research showed that the New Zealand electorate was only ever likely to yield a maximum of 5-15% support for a radical free-market party (see Hubbard, 19 March 1994: p.30). The leadership quickly downplayed the 50% figure and the prediction was later downgraded to the smaller number of 30%. Many in the party continued to fret over whether to sell Act as an ideological party of blue or red [Read more below]

[Act Party history] 5: Initial radicalism and branding

Libertarians pushed the newly-formed Act Party to stand on a platform of an unfettered free market society, free from all state interference, except on ‘necessary’ intervention to ensure the maintenance of law and order – in particular the protection of private property. Early in its life, Act presented itself clearly as an overtly ideologically-focused party advocating a minimum state. Roger Douglas was personally opposed to state involvement in everything from health care to fire-fighting. Likewise, even Richard Prebble was on record saying that the state should be limited to a role of minimal regulation of enterprise and that of ensuring law and order – although he also conceded that much of the law and order operations could be contracted out to private firms (Kilroy, 30 April 1996: p.9). [Read more below]

Useful economic, social and political research material

The Parliamentary Library produces some very useful research and publications on economic, social and political issues. Its latest report (by economic analyst Luke Roper) is a paper that explains all the main economic, international trade and business indicators used in New Zealand. There is an explanation of each indicator, how it is calculated and how it is used in measuring New Zealand’s economic performance.  Download the PDF here.

This explanatory paper takes the same format as the Parliamentary Library’s Monthly Economic Review (MER) reports, which are also very useful. [Read more below]

[Act Party history] 4: Initial factions and differences

Like all new political organisations, Act had many factions (or political tendencies”) within the organisation in both its initial phase as a lobby group and then as a political party. There were rural tendencies, pragmatists, social conservatives, ex-Labour social liberals, and libertarian ideological purists. The relationship between these early factions was far from harmonious, as the internal life of the party fitted well to the theorem that ‘the intensity of party politics is in inverse proportion to the amount of power the party has achieved’. Yet because the party was instigated by its leadership rather than its membership, there was little in the way of disputes between the rank-and-file and the leadership – especially with Roger Douglas possessing a rather messiah-like standing with many. [Read more below]

Electoral Commission student scholarships

The Electoral Commission 2009 Wallace Scholarships for tertiary student research are soon to close. The topics on which the Commission wishes to give awards to are ‘related to the 2008 general election and the use, understanding, trust, or valuing of New Zealand's electoral framework and processes’. They also say that topics could include (but are not limited to):

• understanding aspects of turnout
• the election online
• the election in the school classroom
• third party campaigning
• political or electoral marketing

The piece of work may be part of a thesis, dissertation or research project. The scholarships range between $500 and $2000. Applications close: 2 February

[Act Party history] 3: Early ideology

For a brief period this new vehicle was a radical new right force that was serious about substantially changing New Zealand society. In its early days, the Act was known for promoting very low taxes, a minimal state, increased individual responsibility, and a general continuation of the new right “revolution”. Roger Douglas’s book Unfinished Business was essentially the party's founding document, and Douglas played the role of the party’s guru or thinker. In reality, however, Act’s political ideology was derived from the political economy of Milton Friedman and Frederick A Hayek. In a sense, Douglas’s Unfinished Business represented the views of Hayek and Friedman as applied to the New Zealand case. The essence of Act’s philosophy was a strong belief in deregulated markets and a minimal State. As opposed to other variations of new right political economy, the place of the consumer played a significant role in Act’s schema. Accordingly, the consumer, rather than simply the capitalist, should be entitled to the maximum “choice” and “freedom” in the marketplace. [Read more below]

[Act Party history] 2: Formation of the party

The question of whether to turn the Association of Consumers and Taxpayers group into a political party proper initially divided the organisation into two groupings that held diametrically opposing views. One group wanted to continue as a think tank, while the other more ambitious group wanted a party launch in anticipation of an election win (Carr, 1997: p.85). [Read more below]

[Act Party history] 1: Formation of a pressure group

16 years after being formed, the Act Party has finally become part of the New Zealand Government, joining the John Key National Party administration at the end of last year. The following blog post series seeks to analyse the political nature of this party of government by looking at its initial history during the 1990s. Hopefully this series of postings will complement the excellent research work of Geoffrey Miller, published on his Act Watch blog. This first post looks at the formation of the original Association of Consumers and Taxpayers lobby group and the personnel involved. [Read more below]