Crossroads—For the Common Good? New Zealanders Comply with Quality Standards

The heralding of improved economic indicators has generated worldwide interest in New Zealand's economic experiment despite the growing concern about the social repercussions of such rapid economic liberalisation. This paper argues that the compliance of New Zealanders to this economic experiment was achieved through the simultaneous development of a discourse of economic liberalism and a discourse of “the management of quality” and the subsequent cooption of the latter by the former. As an experiment for potential global emulation, this paper cautions those who pin their hopes for social justice on a common commitment to increasing productivity in the context of neoconservative economic policy preferences.