¹University of Queensland

^*I acknowledge the very useful comments and assistance of David Marsh and of Polity's editor and anonymous reviewers.

Abstract

This article explains cases of business collective action centered on the chief executive officer-based big business organization, the Business Council of Australia (BCA). The paper goes beyond Olsonian accounts of collective action by partly adopting and partly critiquing extant theoretical accounts that deal specifically with business collective action. Following Andrew Polsky and others, it is found that business collective action is likely to be fostered only if a "daunting" set of conditions is in place, including the motivating role of perceived threats and opportunities, the effective discursive framing of issues and options, and the impetus provided by political entrepreneurs. The often critical role assigned to state elites in much of the extant literature in mobilizing business is criticized. In this Australian case the collective action centering on the BCA was primarily driven by business. Only later was such mobilization supported by state actors. In other words, the initial causal arrows run from business, not the state. A number of factors are found to have driven this business-centric dynamic. These include the role played by business political entrepreneurs, the impact of organizational conditions within the BCA, and wider ideological characteristics, especially the entrenched liberal character of business culture in Australia.