The Invisible State The Formation of the Australian State [Paperback]

This 1991 book shows how the judiciary became the most powerful arm of government in Australia.State theory suggests that this authority is a right to speak on certain matters in certain ways and to have the audience agree with those statements. This 1991 book shows how in Australia the judiciary became the most powerful arm of government because it has the last say on all issues and in its own language.State theory suggests that this authority is a right to speak on certain matters in certain ways and to have the audience agree with those statements. This 1991 book shows how in Australia the judiciary became the most powerful arm of government because it has the last say on all issues and in its own language.The Invisible State is the first major book applying contemporary state theory to Australia. Professor Davidson takes a historical approach, tracing the development of the Australian citizen in the nineteenth century and examining the relationship of the citizen to the state. The book argues that giving the judiciary the last say about matters of state divests the people of ultimate authority and ends the supremacy of the legislature elected by the people.Acknowledgments; Preface; Prologue; 1. Private vices become public benefits; 2. The under-keepers; 3. Dispossession; 4. The house that Jack built; 5. Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? The sovereignty of the law; 6. The Trojan horse; 7. 'Suffer little children'; 8. A state for a continent; 9. '& the triumph of the people'; Epilogue; Notes; Select bibliography; Index. Alastair Davidson uses conceptual tools forged in the thought of Antonio Gramsci and Michel Foucault...to move beyond a more traditional descriptive approach to political history...In a striking conclusion, Davidson argues that the result was and is an Australian state that lacks popular sovereignty and consequently is not a democracy...The wider significance of Davidson's achievement is the way in which he supplies a new dimension to the discussion lc&