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Quarterly Essay #28
Exit Right: The Unravelling of John Howard
In Exit Right, Judith Brett explains why the tide turned on John Howard. This is an essay about leadership, in particular Howard's style of strong leadership which led him to dominate his party with such ultimately catastrophic results.
In this definitive account, Brett discusses how age became Howard's Achilles heel, how he lost the youth vote, how he lost Bennelong, and how he waited too long to call the election. She looks at the government's core failings - the policy vacuum, the blindness to climate change, the disastrous misjudgment of WorkChoices - and shows how Howard and his team came more and more to insulate themselves from reality.
With drama and insight, Judith Brett traces the key moments when John Howard stared defeat in the face, and explains why, after the Keating-Howard years, the ascendancy of Kevin Rudd marks a new phase in the nation's political life.
"It is when a leader's grip on political power starts to slip, when his threats and bribes miss their mark, when he starts to make uncharacteristic mistakes and when what had once been strengths reveal their limitations, that we can see most clearly the inner workings of that leadership. This essay is about John Howard's leadership, seen through the prism of its failings." —Judith Brett, Exit Right
In this definitive account, Brett discusses how age became Howard's Achilles heel, how he lost the youth vote, how he lost Bennelong, and how he waited too long to call the election. She looks at the government's core failings - the policy vacuum, the blindness to climate change, the disastrous misjudgment of WorkChoices - and shows how Howard and his team came more and more to insulate themselves from reality.
With drama and insight, Judith Brett traces the key moments when John Howard stared defeat in the face, and explains why, after the Keating-Howard years, the ascendancy of Kevin Rudd marks a new phase in the nation's political life.
"It is when a leader's grip on political power starts to slip, when his threats and bribes miss their mark, when he starts to make uncharacteristic mistakes and when what had once been strengths reveal their limitations, that we can see most clearly the inner workings of that leadership. This essay is about John Howard's leadership, seen through the prism of its failings." —Judith Brett, Exit Right
- GenresPoliticsEssaysNonfiction
124 pages, Paperback
First published December 14, 2007
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33 people want to read
About the author
Judith Brett
22 books23 followersJudith Brett is the author of Quarterly Essay 19, Relaxed and Comfortable: The Liberal Party’s Australia, Robert Menzies’ Forgotten People and Australian Liberals and the Moral Middle Class: From Alfred Deakin to John Howard and a regular commentator for The Monthly. She is professor of politics at La Trobe University.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
October 25, 2013
Judith Brett examines the reasons why John Howard led the Coalition to government 1996 and the reasons for its downfall in 2007. Interestingly, Brett suggests that Howard used scare tactics, such as the threat of national security and asylum seekers to both win and subsequently loose power - sound familiar? Brett also suggests that the electorate eventually got tired of this rhetoric and were then inspired by Kevin Rudd's mantra to "fix" things.
April 26, 2015
Excellent coverage of John Howard's last year as Prime Minister and the issues which ultimately resulted in his downfall. However, it's also a terrific essay on 'leadership' and the human condition: One doesn't fight tooth and nail for the chance to "serve".
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews