Conclusion

By revisiting the quandary over the relationship between policy ideas and economic interests — and by including in that investigation an examination of the role of institutions and occasional shocks that influence or alter the interaction — this investigation has argued that the breakdown of Keynesianism in Australia can be best understood with reference to politics. In placing itself in what could be called the democratic socialist or radical social democratic tradition, the discussion has had within its sights the claims of the economic and political right that have contributed to the demise of Keynesian policy-making over the past two decades. But a more minor aim was also taken against at least one of the claims of the Australian left: the view that Keynesianism cannot be said to have broken down because it has never been tried.