The rise and fall of economic rationalism

Abstract

The term economic rationalism is one of political categorisation, commendation and criticism. Although economic rationalist thought and policy were part of a broader international trend, the term itself represents a particularly Australian contribution to political rhetoric. First deployed in the 1970s to commend the ‘economic rationality’ of Gough Whitlam’s Labor government, the term came to increasing prominence in the late 1980s and early 1990s to disparage market-oriented economic policies, economics and economists. During this later period, advocates and opponents of the economic reforms of the successive Labor governments of Bob Hawke and Paul Keating (1983-96) often argued their case within