Executive Branch in Theory and Practice

The executive is the branch of the constitutional order we associate with ‘the government’, as well as the branch whose conduct we primarily have in mind when we speak of the demands of ‘the rule of law’. The executive is also the most fluid and elusive branch of the constitutional order, in the sense that determining who or what is ‘the executive’ presents conceptual as well as practical puzzles. Executive branch actors and activities in Australia today, for example, feature a complex mix of logics and institutions inherited from the twentieth century ‘welfare state’ and ‘neoliberal’ and ‘managerial’ tools and commitments that have gained dominance since.