Doctoring in Australia: a view at the bicentenary

Changes in the social position of physicians in Australia can best be explained by a modified concept of professional dominance. Although the traditional dominance of physicians within Australia's mixed system of public and private health care providers has declined since the 1960s, there is insufficient evidence to support claims that the profession is becoming "deprofessionalized" or "proletarianized." Assessment of physicians' changing position in terms of their autonomy, authority, and medical sovereignty indicates that they have not lost their medical dominance; rather, it has become more subtle and indirect. Future changes in the medical profession are likely to resemble those occurring in the United States as the profession responds to external constraints.