Thus, Australia, inasmuch as it is studied, is studied very much as if it were a
unitary state.
What interest there has been in federalism was in the past largely a practical
or technical matter. Accordingly, Geoffrey Sawer’sModern Federalism(1969)
had a fair readership and ran to several editions. ButThe Federal Principle:
A Journey Through Time in Quest of Meaning(1978), a major study of federal
theory by S. R. Davis, the professor of politics at Monash University for a
quarter century, struggled for a readership in Australia itself, although it seems
to have done reasonably well in other federal countries.
In shaping the Australian Federation, economists have been the main force,
apart from the lawyers, who, in this matter, have something of a home-
ground (High Court) advantage. In the raising, management, and allocation
of government revenues in the Federation, their influence has been felt in
many highly relatedfields, from taxation policy to distribution of the revenue,
especially after the Commonwealth cornered the income tax during the
Second World War.
Their influence has moved in two directions. As allocation of revenues to
the states and territories became increasingly significant, economists, both
through budget agencies and the Commonwealth Grants Commission, had a
major role in devising the formulae and, later, the models for how the monies
should be dispersed among states and territories.
Others, by contrast, have a more abstract view of the economy and are
hostile to unnatural barriers to trade or the free movement of goods and
services, capital and labour. For some of them, federalism may simply be a
means for imposing artificial restrictions upon the workings of the economy.
In this view, federalism is seen as something of a successor to feudalism so far
as economic development and progress is concerned, imposing local impedi-
ments to the workings of markets.
Where there should have been some conspicuous unity between political
scientists and economists concerns the very large disjunction between respon-
sibility for raising government revenue and its subsequent public expenditure,
usually referred to as verticalfiscal imbalance. Commonwealth pre-eminence
in revenue collection, including the goods and services tax, and the allocation
of monies to states and territories using equalization methodologies, effect-
ively curtails self-government within the Federation and renders a good deal
of rhetoric about enhancing accountability little more than cant.
Thistour d’horizonlargely concerns the undergraduatefield. It is at that level
that minds are largely shaped, but it is not the whole story. In university
circles, the strongest interest in federalism has been at the postgraduate/
research level, usually among economists or lawyers. These endeavours have
had some impact, particularly in informing discussions among officials, dis-
cussions which sometimes involve academics and other observers. But, with
Australia’s‘Talent for Bureaucracy’