How government works is the central question of political science, and the focus of this collection of essays about the key aspects of government in Australia.

Professor Glyn Davis is Vice Chancellor of the University of Melbourne and R.A.W. Rhodes is Professor of Government at both the University of Southampton and Griffith University.

A Foreword from Abroad by Peter Hennessy
PART I: INTRODUCTION
1 Remembering and Witnessing - Glyn Davis and R.A.W. Rhodes
2 A Historian Encounters Politics: The Craft of Pat Weller - Glyn Davis and R.A.W. Rhodes
PART 2: THE EXECUTIVE
3 Two Halves of a Whole: Rudd and Gillard and the Politics of Prime Ministerial Vulnerability - Michelle Grattan
4 Core Executives, Prime Ministers, Statecraft and Court Politics: Towards Convergence - R.A.W. Rhodes
PART 3: THE PUBLIC SERVICE
5 Mandarins - Peter Shergold
6 The Machinery of Government: The Evolution of Research on Ministerial Portfolios - Evert Lindquist
PART 4: HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
7 'It is not a biography . . .', it is executive practice - James Walter
8 Administrative History as Biography - John Wanna
PART 5: INTERNATIONAL ORGANISATIONS
9 Agents of Influence: Weller and Xu on International Organisations from a Public Policy Perspective - Jason Sharman
10 Learning a New Trick: International Civil Servants - Xu Yi-chong
PART 6: COMPARATIVE GOVERNMENT
11 Who rules? Democratic Versus Bureaucratic Leadership - John Kane and Haig Patapan
12 Westminster Futures: Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United Kingdom in Comparative Perspective - Robert J. Jackson
13 Politics as Work: A Credo - Patrick Weller
Patrick Weller's Bibliography
Index