Westminster Transplanted and Westminster Implanted: Explanations for Political Change. Why have Westminster systems,adopted across the world, been so resilient in different environments? By exploring how different nations have adapted the core executive components of Westminster by combining local traditions with inherited practices, the project will identify what conditions provided the stability and security that often emerged. By comparing performance across nations it will explain why Westmi ....Westminster Transplanted and Westminster Implanted: Explanations for Political Change. Why have Westminster systems,adopted across the world, been so resilient in different environments? By exploring how different nations have adapted the core executive components of Westminster by combining local traditions with inherited practices, the project will identify what conditions provided the stability and security that often emerged. By comparing performance across nations it will explain why Westminster practices were so adaptable. This is the first longitudinal study seeking to explain political development in societies that inherited executive practices from the same source. It has the potential to identify how and why future constitutional transplants might succeed.Read moreRead less
Activating states: transforming the delivery of 'welfare to work' services to the long-term unemployed in Australia, Great Britain and the Netherlands. With declining unemployment, the possibility of labour force shortages in future years, and an annual expense of $20 billion on income support in Australia, policy makers are concerned with increasing the economic participation of social security recipients. This project will provide policy makers and service providers with important comparative ....Activating states: transforming the delivery of 'welfare to work' services to the long-term unemployed in Australia, Great Britain and the Netherlands. With declining unemployment, the possibility of labour force shortages in future years, and an annual expense of $20 billion on income support in Australia, policy makers are concerned with increasing the economic participation of social security recipients. This project will provide policy makers and service providers with important comparative assessments of the way policies designed to promote economic participation are executed by frontline staff and will provide essential data for designing policy which is more effective in assisting the unemployed to find sustainable paid employment. It will address the National Research Priority of promoting and maintaining good health through strengthening Australia's social and economic fabric.Read moreRead less
The Accountability of Australian Cabinet Ministers. This project will help shape public expectations about what they should expect in terms of ministerial responsibility through media disseminations of the arguments and analysis of this research. It will help shape media reflection in current ministerial issues by providing readily accessible information on similar issues in the past which will inform public debate as to how far current ministerial actions conform to those of the past, and how ....The Accountability of Australian Cabinet Ministers. This project will help shape public expectations about what they should expect in terms of ministerial responsibility through media disseminations of the arguments and analysis of this research. It will help shape media reflection in current ministerial issues by providing readily accessible information on similar issues in the past which will inform public debate as to how far current ministerial actions conform to those of the past, and how far they depart from them. It will help expectations be shaped by reality showing the degree to which ministerial durability is affected by performance.
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Political Risk, Institutions and Regulatory Regimes: Business, Foreign Investment and Public Administration in Asia. Rating accurately the risk environment of emerging economies has always been problematic. Insufficiently developed methodological tools and the lack of institutional and regulatory data make the process imprecise. This project overcomes this problem, developing a new industry based risk assessment system for understanding political risk to commercial activities and foreign investo ....Political Risk, Institutions and Regulatory Regimes: Business, Foreign Investment and Public Administration in Asia. Rating accurately the risk environment of emerging economies has always been problematic. Insufficiently developed methodological tools and the lack of institutional and regulatory data make the process imprecise. This project overcomes this problem, developing a new industry based risk assessment system for understanding political risk to commercial activities and foreign investors in nine of Asia's most rapidly developing economies. The study, one of the first to correlate institutional and regulatory forms to the incidence, severity and recurrence of risk, will deepen our knowledge of political and regulatory institutions in Asia and provide investors with the ability to navigate those environments successfully. Read moreRead less
Enrolling the People: The Development of Modern Electoral Administration. In Australia, electoral administration became centralised, professionalised and relatively free of partisan interference during the colonial period. That considerable achievement has been little studied.
The aims of this project are to produce a history of the development of colonial electoral administration; and to isolate the factors that enabled the development of modern electoral administration.
To answer these q ....Enrolling the People: The Development of Modern Electoral Administration. In Australia, electoral administration became centralised, professionalised and relatively free of partisan interference during the colonial period. That considerable achievement has been little studied.
The aims of this project are to produce a history of the development of colonial electoral administration; and to isolate the factors that enabled the development of modern electoral administration.
To answer these questions will illuminate a neglected aspect of Australia's record of institutional innovation. It will also feed directly into the concerns of multilateral bodies over how good electoral practice can be institutionalised.
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Transparency International and the Problem of Corruption. The project aims first, to produce a history of the emergence and rise to prominence of Transparency International (TI), a unique international non-governmental organisation devoted exclusively to the fight against corruption. Secondly, it will use this history as a framework (and substantial empirical anchor) for investigating some of the more important recent developments both in the conceptualisation of corruption and in anti-corruptio ....Transparency International and the Problem of Corruption. The project aims first, to produce a history of the emergence and rise to prominence of Transparency International (TI), a unique international non-governmental organisation devoted exclusively to the fight against corruption. Secondly, it will use this history as a framework (and substantial empirical anchor) for investigating some of the more important recent developments both in the conceptualisation of corruption and in anti-corruption practice: the increasing influence of economic perspectives on corruption; changing perceptions of the relationship between corruption and development; and the internationalisation of the problem of corruption.Read moreRead less
The accountability priorities of federal parliamentarians and whether they are reflected in the Commonwealth budgetary and reporting framework. Senate committees provide the main forum in which elected representatives can directly scrutinise the actions of public officials. The project, by providing new detailed evidence about the accountability priorities of Senators, will contribute to ongoing debate about how to improve the quality of information provided by government agencies to Parliament ....The accountability priorities of federal parliamentarians and whether they are reflected in the Commonwealth budgetary and reporting framework. Senate committees provide the main forum in which elected representatives can directly scrutinise the actions of public officials. The project, by providing new detailed evidence about the accountability priorities of Senators, will contribute to ongoing debate about how to improve the quality of information provided by government agencies to Parliament. It will provide a valuable counterbalance to the dominant views of the Department of Finance and Administration which do not necessarily reflect the interests of the wider public. The quality of public information and of democratic governance will therefore be significantly enhanced.Read moreRead less