The issues that divide us: three recent books

Abstract

ABSTRACT This essay reviews three recent books that address a range of policy issues currently affecting politics in Aotearoa New Zealand. Dominic O’Sullivan’s Sharing the Sovereign illustrates how treaties between states and Indigenous peoples can provide the basis for power-sharing arrangements across various spheres of public policy. Paul Spoonley’s The New New Zealand outlines the profound immigration-driven demographic changes experienced in recent decades and the failures of decision-makers to adjust to this new reality. Max Rashbrooke’s Too Much Money analyses the issue of social class in New Zealand and the dangers of an apparently increasing class divide. The essay outlines some of these arguments in detail and evaluates each contribution to both scholarship and actual public policy debates as New Zealand arguably enters a more contentious political moment.