Contemporary N.Z.

The contributions on the contemporary NZ situation are the highest standard in the collection. Particularly impressive are Stanton's work "Class Structure in New Zealand", Bruce Jesson's 'The Family Affair: Wealth and Power in New Zealand" and David Bedggood's "Notes on the Political Economy of the Welfare State".

Cherished myths of egalitarianism and general social progress are exploded. Bedggood finds the welfare state has neither equalised income between groups, nor attacked the problems of inequality of opportunity or poverty. Ken Stanton produces some basic statistics on concentration and monopoly, and suggests implications for Communist Party practice. Jesson, in true style, shows the existence of a "limited circle" of company directors or major companies tying the companies together.

The card houses of bourgeois 'social science' are tumbling. Yet ther e is little suggestion as to how or why they were built. Or why so many people believe in them. Analysis of this aspect of ideology is surely necessary to achieve the 'demystification' or 'role of the Marxist party as a scientific institution of learning" authors urge.