Learning Accountability in Tasmania: The Move from Command to Neo-Pluralist Politics, 1(5)

Abstract

Command politics may be defined as the reconciliation of interests solely through central government. Neo-pluralist politics may be defined as the reconciliation of interests through multiple processes and institutions which co-exist and, therefore, share forms of limited government. In Tasmania, the public school system has traditionally resisted federal accountability initiatives driven by resource politics. Simultaneously, however, it has strictly controlled the local politics of accountability with bureaucratic structure and "self-managed" school planning processes. It has tried to both resist and yet insist on forms of command politics. This paper argues that this approach is unsustainable and shows, in fact, that it is not being sustained in the views of stakeholders. The evidence presented suggests instead that the unrequited demand for more communitarian forms of accountability and professionalism in Tasmanian public school communities is inconsistent with command politics. It also appears that neo-pluralist methods of reaching policy settlements are gradually being generated.