Governing Ideas and Collective Expectations: The Australian Cases

People see their political world through a lens constituted by implicit ideas. These ideas are instilled through political socialization and through more programmatic schemas advanced by the parties and interest groups with which an individual identifies. Each society cultivates such processes in unique ways depending upon its historical circumstances; but as circumstances change, so ideas evolve and are adapted. Thus, a distinctive core culture and associated public expectations about the possibilities of collective action emerges. This chapter traces the development of an Australian political culture, identifying the inheritance at its core and the successive modifications that have shaped the contemporary polity.