Australian Economic Booms in Historical Perspective (Essay‪)‬

The current 'economic boom' in Australia is part of a historical pattern. Australian development has occurred in several phases of capital accumulation: an era of primary capitalist accumulation--from 1788 until the economic crash of the early 1840s; the first long boom--from the colonial gold rushes of the 1850s until the Depression of the early 1890s; the era of early national development--from Federation until the Depression decade of the 1930s; the second long boom--from 1945 until the global crisis of the 1970s; and the era of neoliberal globalism--from the early 1990s to the present (1). Each previous 'boom' featured a burst of innovation and growth followed by economic collapse. Each collapse was characterised by intensive capital, labour and state restructuring during which there occurred significant changes in the role of the state, shifts in economic policy, and fundamental realignments of class forces. These phases of restructuring have been periods of 'creative destruction' through which the problems increasingly inherent in the previous boom were at least partly resolved and the conditions for a new phase of accumulation forged. While throughout these historical cycles Australia's semi-dependent relationships with foreign economic powers have been central to the development process, they have also left Australia particularly vulnerable to changes in the global economy and exacerbated the severity of the economic downturns that have followed boom periods. Just as significantly, however, each period of expansion in Australia has been characterised by the development of a set of indigenous economic, political and social institutions and processes that have provided a regulatory framework within which capitalist development has occurred. These Australian institutions and processes were forged in part through local capital, labour and the state's struggles to harness the benefits of foreign links while seeking to protect themselves against vulnerabilities deriving from foreign dependency.