Abstract
This study revisits the Southern Highlands community of Bowral (NSW), the subject of Ronald Wild's political examination in the late 1960s. The paper commences with an assessment of changes in the local political economy, comparing contemporary socio-economic indicators and electoral data with Wild's findings. Little change is revealed in the patterns of social stratification or conservative political dominance between the two periods. In Wild's study elite theories were employed to explain the endurance of conservative parties in Bowral's inequitable social environment. The local working classes were accordingly cast as a passive, apathetic and ignorant lot, politically beholden to the local gentry and their class allies. This paper argues that these theories do not adequately explain why a social class seemingly votes against its interests. The lived experiences of Bowral's working classes received minimal attention in Wild's study. For the working classes, particularly the more isolated and resource starved constituents of rural Australia, the politics of survival closely shadows the world of electoral politics. A deeper understanding of the hidden politics of everyday life is crucial to our understanding of Australia's capitalist democracy. This paper highlights the bias in Australian political studies which continues to render much of contemporary working class politics invisible. It argues for studies in the political economy of everyday life to inform class analyses of communities, as an important adjunct to studies of institutionalised power.
Original language | English |
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Journal | Rural Society |
Publication status | Published - 2001 |
Keywords
- Bowral (N.S.W.)
- rural conditions
- demography
- Australia
- elections
- Wild, R. A. (Ronald Arthur)