Blog Archives

Best of all possible worlds? Stephen Levine

Promises Promises: 80 Years Of Wooing New Zealand Voters
Claire Robinson
Massey University Press, $60.00,
ISBN 9780995109544

When Jacinda Ardern stated in 2017 that, if elected, Labour would move to “abolish child poverty”, this resonated as an ambitious goal, enlightened, compassionate and long overdue. It is among the many strengths of Claire Robinson’s book that we are able, with perspective (and evidence), to see that the first Labour government had accomplished this task – and more – over 70 years earlier.

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Posted in History, Non-fiction, Politics & Law, Review

Placing the monarchy, Stephen Levine

This Realm of New Zealand: The Sovereign, the Governor-General, the Crown
Alison Quentin-Baxter and Janet McLean
Auckland University Press, $65.00,
ISBN 9781869408756

To say that this book adds considerably to the literature about the monarchy in New Zealand would be an understatement. For those interested in the position of the Queen (and her successors) with respect to New Zealand, as well as in possible alternatives, this is an indispensable work. Produced by two distinguished scholars – Janet McLean is a professor of law at the University of Auckland; Dame Alison Quentin-Baxter has had a long career, contributing her expertise to constitutional developments in New Zealand as well as overseas – the book introduces a wealth of information not only about the role of the monarch but also about her/his representative (from 1841 the Governor; since 1917 the Governor-General), a position of significance in its own right. 

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Posted in Non-fiction, Review

Stodge, serious analysis and spicy bits, Bryan Gould

Moments of Truth: The New Zealand General Election of 2014 Jon Johansson and Stephen Levine (eds) Victoria University Press, $50.00, ISBN 9781776560493 The 2014 general election campaign was, on the face of it, one of the most dramatic of modern

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Posted in Non-fiction, Politics & Law, Review

MMP here to stay, Barry Gustafson

Kicking the Tyres: The New Zealand General Election and Electoral Referendum of 2011 Jon Johansson and Stephen Levine (eds) Victoria University Press, $50.00, ISBN 9780864738349 Since 1987, New Zealand’s political scientists and journalists have recorded and analysed the country’s triennial

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Posted in Non-fiction, Politics & Law, Review

The impudent what-if, Geoff Cush

New Zealand as it Might Have Been Stephen Levine (ed) Victoria University Press, $35.00, ISBN 0864735456 “Counterfactual” is the term preferred by the 15 writers here, who are mostly historians or political scientists, and mostly based at Victoria University of

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Posted in Fiction, History, Literature, Non-fiction, Review

Muldoon and after, Barry Gustafson

From Muldoon to Lange: New Zealand Elections in the 1980s Stephen Levine and Alan McRobie MC Enterprises, $39.95, ISBN 0959771530 For almost thirty years from 1960, Professor Robert Chapman systematically studied New Zealand’s election campaigns and their outcomes. Since 1990,

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Posted in History, Non-fiction, Politics & Law, Review

Electoral debrief, Ruth Laugesen

Left Turn: The New Zealand General Election of 1999 ed Jonathan Boston, Stephen Church, Stephen Levine, Elizabeth McLeay & Nigel S Roberts Victoria University Press, $39.95, ISBN 0864734042 Up the hill from Parliament, a clutch of Victoria University’s political scientists

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Posted in Non-fiction, Politics & Law, Review

Mixed Message Politics, Geoffrey Thompson

From Campaign to Coalition: the 1996 MMP Election Jonathan Boston, Stephen Levine, Elizabeth Hickey and Nigel Roberts (ed) Dunmore Press, $29.95 ISBN 0 86469314 1 Voters’ Victory? New Zealand‘s First Election under Proportional Representation Jack Vowles, Peter Aimer, Susan Banducci,

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Posted in Non-fiction, Politics & Law, Review

Dampening expectations, John Henderson

New Zealand Under MMP: A New Politics?  Jonathan Boston, Stephen Levine, Elizabeth McLeay, Nigel Roberts Auckland University Press/Bridget Williams Books, $34.95 ISBN 1869401387 For the next few years New Zealand will be a fascinating social laboratory for political scientists interested

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Posted in Non-fiction, Politics & Law, Review

Not McCarthy, Stephen Levine

Winston First: The unauthorised account of Winston Peters’ career Martin Hames Random House, $29.95 ISBN 186941 2575 A Whitcoulls shopping guide giving front-page billing to Ruth Richardson’s Making A Difference perhaps inadvertently placed it right alongside a book titled The

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Posted in Biography, Non-fiction, Politics & Law, Review
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