The federal election: Options and prospects

F lor most Australians who think or act politically there is nothing like an election to concentrate the mind. This is as true of mainstream commentators as it is of radical activists. Though many, particularly on the Left, may rightly question the extent to which electoral outcomes shape the realities of power, there is nonetheless a widely held assumption that the electoral thermometer bears an important, though not easily definable or quantifiable relationship, to the health of the body politic. What adds considerable poignancy to the forthcoming federal election is the possibility of a Hewson victory which, when added to the recent and anticipated victories of conservative parties at the state level, would suggest that a particularly obnoxious form of the virus generally referred to as ‘economic rationalism’, may yet cause even greater social and political havoc.