Can Australia look beyond the two party system?

 

Mint condition. PB. 424pp. $30 including postage anywhere in Australia

Also available here and here.

The demands placed on western governments have increased exponentially in recent years, but the fundamental structure of most of these governments - the two party system - has not. Governments are now not only required to be competitive in the global economy, but the societies they represent have changed, becoming culturally and ethnically diverse. 

Ian Marsh's challenging book suggests that the two party regime cannot accommodate these changing needs. It outlines the ways in which politics might change to meet these new demands and achieve genuine participatory democracy. The book explores the nature of citizenship from a historical perspective, proposing a new definition of citizenship for the future. 

Ian Marsh argues that political learning will be central to the development of this new citizen, so that they, and not only the leadership elite, have genuine political input.

Toward a genuinely environmentally conscious capitalism

 

Mint Condition. HB. 576pp. $50 including postage anywhere in Australia.

Amazon is selling this for $86.

This book is about innovation, solutions, competitiveness and profitability. It is also about building environmental integrity and sustainability now and for future generations. The Natural Advantage of Nations pulls together for the first time a vast literature to demonstrate the need for a new paradigm of sustainable development. The book brings together the work of more than 30 leading thinkers, and fresh evidence from around the globe, to show that the drive for an ecologically sustainable world need not be in conflict with economics and business practices. This book draws a bold vision for the future and tells us how to get there by building on the lessons of competitive advantage theory and the latest in sustainability, economics, innovation, business and governance theory and practise. This is top-drawer reading for business people, economists, engineers, consultants, policy-makers, researchers, students and indeed anyone working to create a better world.

The authors incorporate innovative technical, structural and social advances, and explore the role that governance can play in both leading and underpinning business and communities in the shift towards a sustainable future. Coupled with a companion website, this book builds on from the latest in the business case for sustainability and goes beyond it. This book shows how in a tripartite world where business government and civil society all have power, how each can best play their part and better work together to achieve win win outcomes. The result is nothing less than the most authoritative and comprehensive guide to building the new ecologically sustainable economy.

Ross Garnaut on Australia's economic future

 

Excellent condition. PB. 304pp. $18 including postage anywhere in Australia.

A blueprint for the nation after the boom.

Australians have just lived through a period of exceptional prosperity, but, says influential economist Ross Garnaut, the Dog Days are on their way. Are we ready for the challenges ahead?

In Dog Days, Garnaut explains how we got here, what we can expect next and the tough choices we need to make to survive the new economic conditions. Are we clever enough – and our leaders courageous enough – to change what needs to be changed and preserve a fair and prosperous Australia?

This is a book about the future by a leading adviser to government and business, someone with a proven record of seeing where the nation is going. Both forecast and analysis, it heralds a new era for Australia after the boom.

A journey through Australia's underclass

 

Excellent condition. PB. 246pp. $18 including postage anywhere in Australia.

For three decades award-winning journalist Elisabeth Wynhausen has written compelling accounts of the lives of the working poor and the downside of Australia's 'miracle economy'. In late 2001, she decided to join them. Over a period of ten months Elisabeth went undercover and worked as a factory hand, an office cleaner, a retail worker and a kitchen hand, moving from state to state and attempting to live on her meagre earnings. Caustic, courageous and often funny, this is a unique view of class, power and middle management seen from the other side of the serving counter, and a very personal experience of what it is like to be under-paid, under-appreciated and part of Australia's emerging underclass.

Personal stories behind China's economic miracle

 

Rare book. Mint condition. PB. 384pp. $25 including postage anywhere in Australia.

When Jane Hutcheon's became the ABC's China correspondent in 1995, she began a journey through an ancient and intriguing culture that is undergoing rapid change. Though China has transformed itself into a heady capitalistic republic, the country's new facade covers up a multitude of the same old problems.

India's unruly politics

 

Mint condition. PB. 448pp. $20 including postage anywhere in Australia.

10 years ago, India was an emerging world power being courted by the world's most powerful political and business leaders, an upbeat story of unparalleled economic growth. Since then, it has failed to account for the human capital at the heart of its effort to modernize: more than one billion people clamoring for what has become known as the “Indian Dream”-an education, a career, and an opportunity to pull one's family out of poverty and into prosperity. Today, India is suffering an immense crisis of confidence-crippling political corruption, politicians mired in the status quo, economic inequality, brutal violence against women, and rampant social injustice.

PJ O'Rourke takes on Adam Smith

 

Mint condition. HB. 256pp. $18 including postage anywhere in Australia.

Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations, the book that created the field of economics, is transformed into a page-turner of global significance by America's sharpest political commentator.

'The Wealth of Nations is, without doubt a 'book that changed the world.' But it has been taking its time. Two hundred and thirty one years after publication, Adam Smith's practical truths are only beginning to be absorbed in full. 

Although its contents didn't make people gasp, something about The Wealth of Nations was grit in the gears of Enlightenment thinking. And that something is still there, grinding on our minds. I could feel it myself when the subject of self-interest came up. Gosh, I'm not selfish. I think about the environment and those less fortunate than me. Especially those unfortunates who don't give a hoot about pollution, global warming, and species extinction. I think about them a lot, and I hope they lose the next election. Then maybe we can get some caring and compassionate people in public office, people who aren't selfish. And let's face it, the 'lower ranks of the people' do have too much money. Look at Britney Spears . . .'

P. J. O'Rourke brings An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations zinging to life. Packed with wit and insight this extraordinary 'enquiry' demonstrates that the Wealth of Nations underpins economic debates still raging today.

Memoir of one of Australia's most loved economists

 

Excellent condition. PB. 352pp. $20 including postage anywhere in Australia

For forty years Ross Gittins has had a ringside seat as the Australian economy has gone through radical change. He's covered forty budgets and sixteen elections, he's watched thirteen treasurers and eight prime ministers wrestle with boom and recession, debts and deficits. Few economic journalists have earned such respect for their views from participants and readers alike. His even-handedness and his clarity of vision have left countless readers better informed about how the complexities and contradictions of the modern economy affect our daily lives.

Thrown into the deep end as a cadet journalist, Ross covered his first mini-budget lockup in 1974, and was soon covering the financial roller coaster ridden by the Whitlam government. From then on, no government and no treasurer has escaped analysis - he anoints Keating, Costello, and Swan as his three best - and throughout the book he critiques without fear or favour the ministers and bureaucrats who have shaped our economic wellbeing.

This son of a Salvation Army major and one-time accountant is an old school journo through and through. With four decades of printers' ink in his veins, he dissects the newspaper game, remembers the great editors and journalists who have sharpened our minds and his, and lays down some hard facts about a hard future.

Honest, robust and intelligent, Gittins is as insightful and entertaining as the man himself.

About the author

Ross Gittins is the Economics Editor of The Sydney Morning Herald and an economic columnist for The Age. He is a winner of the Citibank Pan Asia award for excellence in financial journalism and has been a Nuffield Press fellow at Wolfson College, Cambridge, and a journalist-in-residence at the Department of Economics at the University of Melbourne. Ross is frequently called upon to comment on the economic issues of the day and has written and contributed to many books and periodicals. His most recent books are Gittins' Gospel, Gittinomics and The Happy Economist.