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https://theconversation.com/is-australia-still-a-lucky-country-or-has-the-australian-way-lost-its-way-267095>
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Review: We Should Be So Lucky: Why the Australian Way Works – Andrew Low
(Prospect)
Suddenly everyone is talking about the “Australian way”. This is partly a
nervous response by the prime minister to the reelection of Donald Trump, and
partly (relatedly) a desire more generally to talk about “Australian values”.
In
We Should Be So Lucky – subtitled “Why the Australian Way Works” – Andrew
Low claims to uncover the secrets behind Australia’s success and what it can
teach the world.
Published by Prospect Editions in London, and distributed in Australia by Black
Inc., Low’s book is written primarily for British and American audiences. It
sets out to inform them about a people who enjoy the second-highest median
wealth in the world (the highest is Luxembourg) and a life expectancy higher
than the residents of both the United States and the United Kingdom.
Australia has one of the world’s top-ranked healthcare systems, with its mix of
public and private, effectiveness and equity. And it is a country with strong
political institutions, which include a federal government determined by
compulsory voting, preferential ballots, and a rigorously independent electoral
system.
Inspired by Donald Horne’s
The Lucky Country (1964), Low’s new account of
Australia is much more upbeat than Horne’s jaundiced work. Low is an ardent
advocate of Australia as a liberal democracy that works.
Framed by a multitude of global comparisons,
We Should Be So Lucky laments
that Australians – as well as foreigners – know too little about their nation’s
distinctive history and political culture.
Low presents himself as an amiable guide, who eschews polemics. But his failure
to engage with political ideas leaves him unable in the end to explain the
specificities of Australian democracy – “the institutional and cultural
foundations of the country” – as promised."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
