ABL, Vol. 26, No. 4, December, 2000 301 Contributed Article Leadership Representativeness in the Australian Union Movement* Tom Bramble Department of Management, University of Queensland This paper explores the dimensions of political and personal representativeness in the context of Australian unionism in the period since World War Two. The first part of the article is dedicated to an operationalisation of these two concepts within trade unions, paying particular attention to the social origin of union leaders and their democratic accountability. The two dimensions of representativeness generate a two–by–two matrix which allows us to identify four types of union. The bulk of the article is taken up by an assessment of representativeness in Australian unions in relation to this matrix. The article concludes with some consideration of the relationship between the two different dimensions of representativeness, and the implications of this relationship for prospects for union revival. Introduction The issue of representation has a long history in the literature of political science. 1 While there are many aspects of representation that have been canvassed in this literature, two themes recur. The first is personal representativeness: the degree to which the personal characteristics (socio– economic, demographic) of the politician or leader reflect those of the his or her constituency. Personal representativeness, or what Birch (1971) refers to as ‘microcosmic representativeness’, occurs where the representative is ‘in * The ideas in this article have been formed during discussions with a range of friends and colleagues since 1998. The single most important contribution was by Jeff Sparrow who conducted the interviews which are referred to in this article and who also gave extremely useful feedback on earlier drafts. Other critical input has come from Mick Armstrong, Diane Fieldes, Rick Kuhn, Tess Lee-Ack, Georgina Murray, Tom O’Lincoln and Liz Ross. I would also like to thank the Australian Bulletin of Labour referees for their comments which helped to sharpen the argument considerably. None of these, however, bears any responsibility for the final content. Finally, the article would not have been possible without the financial assistance of The University of Queensland, in the form of an ARC Small Grant.