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In this innovative study Michael Bassett, historian and former politician,
explores how and why the state became such an active and interventionist
player in New Zealand life, developing, subsidising and regulating the
economy and protecting citizens from the cradle to the grave. He looks in
detail at the many schemes in which a paternalistic government became
involved, especially the extensive social programmes. These were taken for
granted by the people but from the 1960s were increasingly difficult to
sustain economically. By 1984, he concludes, this process of intervention
had to be slowed.
Drawing on departmental archives, many not previously consulted by
historians, The State in New Zealand covers in a new way, and with clarity
and style, a subject of great contemporary interest.
This book is out of print, however it is sometimes available at www.amazon.com or at quality rare book shops.
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