Neoliberal Indigenous Policy ― Settler Colonialism and the Post-welfare State

This book explores the changing dynamics of Indigenous policy in English-speaking settler states. Such policy is slowly moving away from a self-determination paradigm, conditioned by a post-war social liberal vision of an enfolding state that secures citizen entitlements. New policies, rather, reflect neoliberal logics in their focus on economic mainstreaming, community 'dysfunction' and individual opportunity. Through a case study of Australian policy between 2000 and 2007, this book traces these policy shifts. It examines the federal dismantling of the official self-determination and reconciliation policy framework, and analyses policy experiments with voluntaristic contracts and coercive crisis intervention. It argues that neoliberal policies are creating a newly flexible relationship between inclusion in and exclusion from liberal citizenship regimes, and are altering the terms of Indigenous-settler political interaction. This book therefore challenges mainstream approaches to public policy since it locates domestic Indigenous policy in settler states as a crucial but often neglected site of political encounter and sovereign negotiation.

Elizabeth Strakosch is Lecturer in Public Policy and Politics at the School of Political Science and International Studies at the University of Queensland, Australia. Her research focuses on the intersection of policy and political relationships, and explores the ways that new public policies and administration techniques transform our political identities in liberal and settler colonial contexts.