Law and governance in Australian Aboriginal communities: liberal and neo-liberal political reason

McCallum, David (2005) Law and governance in Australian Aboriginal communities: liberal and neo-liberal political reason. The International Journal of Children’s Rights, 13 (3). pp. 333-350. ISSN 0927-5568

Abstract

This paper examines Aboriginal governance in Australia in the 1890s, at a time when the mission station was the main instrument used to manage certain categories of Aboriginal person. The paper compares these arrangements with aspects of current practices of the Howard conservative government that deploys techniques such as ‘Shared Responsibility Agreements’ in order to govern Aboriginal communities. These forms of governance are compared and contrasted in terms of their attachment to liberalism, understood as a distinct form of political reason that is concerned with the practical implications of the belief that members of the population are endowed with, or capable of acquiring, a capacity for autonomous, self-directing activity. Finally, the paper draws connections between liberal and neo-liberal political reason on the one hand, and Aboriginal peoples’ historical relations with the criminal justice system.

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Item type Article
URI https://vuir.vu.edu.au/id/eprint/1403
DOI 10.1163/157181805775007594
Official URL http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/157181805775007594
Subjects Historical > Faculty/School/Research Centre/Department > School of Social Sciences and Psychology
Historical > RFCD Classification > 370000 Studies in Human Society
Keywords ResPubID9544, Australian Aboriginal communities, government policies, Shared Responsibility Agreements, law and governance, Australia
Citations in Scopus 8 - View on Scopus
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