Rural Australia: Neo-Liberalism or A "New Feudalism"?

Abstract

In Australia, many regions and communities are becoming socio-economically marginalised and the prospects for their future viability less assumed. Suggestions that Western civilization is heading toward a "New Feudalism" are surprisingly prevalent in contemporary social theory. Focused on small towns in northwest New South Wales, this article examines how changes in government service provision and styles of local governance signify a shift from the welfare to the contract state as the basis for political economy. While such a shift can be criticised in its own terms, it is suggested that the basis for a revitalised debate can be achieved if what is happening to local governance and communities in conceptualized as signifying the emergence of new types of feudal relations, based on a shift from rights to privileges, opportunities to obligations, and inclusion to exclusion.