Talking about Australian Pressure Groups: Adding Value to the Insider/Outsider Distinction in Combating Homelessness in Western Australia

Abstract

The insider/outsider model, first developed in the 1970s by Wyn Grant in the United Kingdom, is perhaps the most common analytical device deployed by Australian scholars in making sense of pressure or interest group behaviour. The British literature has since witnessed a high level of debate, critique and refinement of the original model, and we argue this also adds value to the discussion of group life in Australia. This article operationalises and compares two insider/outsider models commonly used to make sense of the public policy advocacy of pressure groups: (i) the conventional or orthodox models of insider/outsider and (ii) the so‐called ‘Aberdeen’ insider/outsider model. It is argued that the latter model is more analytically powerful than the current understanding of insider and outsider pressure groups; that ideology is less of a determining factor in the ascription of status than the existing understanding implies; and that the Aberdeen model is applicable in the Australian context. These arguments are sustained via the examination of a case study of the policy advocacy of two social service groups in Western Australia during the State Homelessness Taskforce in 2001: the Western Australian Council of Social Service and the Tenants Advice Service of Western Australia.

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