Mount Stirling: The Politics of Process Failure

Abstract

This paper analyses the political decision-making process associated with the attempts to develop the tourism potential of Mt Stirling in the Victorian Alps (Australia). Its concern is with the failure of policy making since 1980 to bring about a strategic economic development programme that meets the needs of the regional community for a sustainable tourism industry. Using Public Choice theory to approach the analysis of collective failure, it is possible to identify the competing interests involved in the development debate and the causes of the impasse in government decision making. The paper examines the capacity of the disparate community interests to work together to generate alternatives to the government's own proposals which had consistently failed to incorporate regional economic interests in their planning procedures. The issues exposed in this example of process failure are not confined to Mt Stirling alone. They serve, perhaps, to illustrate a broader pattern of growing alienation and conflict between regional tourism interests seeking a greater voice in determining the sustainability of their own futures, and the demands of centralised urban decision-making systems.