Suchergebnisse

Introduction to the issue.

Bios of contributors of articles and book reviews.

In the 2021 June issue of the Journal (NS 33), Anna Green announced that it was to be her final issue as editor, a role she took up in 2013. The December issue last year was a Special Issue with a particular focus on Pacific Research in Aotearoa, so it is appropriate to begin this open issue with an acknowledgement of Anna's exceptional work as editor of what is the most significant journal of New Zealand studies. Only those who have themselves edited a journal over any length of time fully appreciate the challenges of the task—the more so when it evolves from a print journal to one that is wholly online. Anna's stewardship of the Journal through that time has been exemplary, and that it remains a strong and vibrant home for the publication of research in New Zealand studies is its own tribute to her energy and her scholarly care for the field. Readers of the Journal are very much in her debt.

Brian Easton's book Not in Narrow Seas: The Economic History of Aotearoa New Zealand was published by Victoria University Press in 2020. Rightly described as a magnum opus, the book attracted considerable attention for its extraordinary historical breadth and vision. Part of that attention was a panel discussion of the book hosted by the Stout Research Centre for New Zealand Studies at Victoria University of Wellington, on 21 April 2021, as one of its continuing series of research seminars.

Bios of contributors.

AbstractIn the past decade, libertarians, free‐market think tanks, and conservative media and politicians in English‐speaking countries (Romney, 2012; Ryan, 2010; Morrison, 2016) have increasingly argued that a growing share of the population is receiving more in benefits than they pay in taxes and is "voting for a living". This presentation of a class conflict between "tax producers" and "tax consumers" is related to public choice theories (MacLean, 2017) and has also been argued in Sweden (Lindbeck, 1985; American Economic Review, 1997). Statistics on the share of the taxed and the "taxed‐not" are used to argue that tax systems are too progressive and that welfare states have become overgenerous and unsustainable. This article analyses the creation, interpretation and development of measures used to estimate the number of the taxed and the taxed‐nots. The article shows that the share of households who receive more in benefits than they pay in taxes is very similar across countries and is not related to the size of the welfare state, the distribution of benefits and taxes or the welfare state regimes commonly used to classify different countries. The article analyses the relationship between these concerns and political rhetoric justifying austerity policies.

Abstract'Robodebt' is the label applied to an Australian government initiative designed to increase recoveries of 'overpayments' made to social security recipients. Following complaints from many of those affected, there have been multiple investigations and inquiries, and a Federal Court Case which ruled the policy unlawful. The government is in the process of paying back more than $1000 million to more than 400,000 people after conceding the largest class action settlement in Australian history, and faces calls for a Royal Commission. Robodebt resembles a 'policy fiasco', as the outcomes could have been foreseen at the inception of the initiative. But it differs from other examples of policy failures in that it was intentional, and not the result of mistakes in design or implementation. The initiative not only failed to achieve the Budgetary savings anticipated, it has undermined rather than protected the integrity of the social security system. It poses serious questions about the quality of Australian public administration. The objective of this article is to clarify exactly how this fiasco occurred and identify the similarities and differences between this case study and other policy failures.

Arthur Prior is scarcely a household name in New Zealand, but in some respects his story repeats a narrative we like to think of as quintessentially Kiwi—that of the small town boy who 'makes it' on the world stage. Born and raised in the rural township of Masterton in 1914, Prior became a leading philosopher of the 20th century, feted for his invention of tense logic (or temporal logic as it is now called), invited by no less a figure than Gilbert Ryle to deliver the prestigious John Locke lectures in Oxford in 1956, offered a Chair in Philosophy at Manchester in 1958, then a Fellowship at Balliol College, Oxford, in 1966. Tragically, he died at the relatively young age of 54, but he remains one of the central figures in the development of logic in the 20th century.

Baxter's early poem 'Letter to Piers Plowman' includes references to characters known to us not from Langland's poem but from one of the letters of John Ball (Royal manuscript). This note identifies a likely source in which Baxter could have encountered this little-known political text.