Populism’s Heartlands: Place, Identity, and Localism in Populist Politics. This project aims to investigate how populism intersects with localism through systematic, comparative, and in-depth empirical study of three populist parties inextricably associated with ‘heartlands’ in Australia, Germany and Spain. This project expects to generate new knowledge about how populists utilise the language of localism and how people’s attachment to place shapes their support for populists. Expected outcomes ....Populism’s Heartlands: Place, Identity, and Localism in Populist Politics. This project aims to investigate how populism intersects with localism through systematic, comparative, and in-depth empirical study of three populist parties inextricably associated with ‘heartlands’ in Australia, Germany and Spain. This project expects to generate new knowledge about how populists utilise the language of localism and how people’s attachment to place shapes their support for populists. Expected outcomes of the project include a new understanding of how populism and localism affect one another; and identification of how right and left populist support are differently affected by community engagement and participation. Benefits include the identification of local interventions to lessen the appeal of exclusionary populisms.Read moreRead less
Political Representation in Indonesia. The project aims to understand political representation in Indonesia, asking how far politicians resemble voters in both their policy views and backgrounds (gender, religion, education etc.) It will generate new knowledge on a major potential source of fragility in the world’s third largest democracy, and pioneer a new multi-method approach for explaining how representation varies. Expected outcomes include a new framework that extends analysis of represent ....Political Representation in Indonesia. The project aims to understand political representation in Indonesia, asking how far politicians resemble voters in both their policy views and backgrounds (gender, religion, education etc.) It will generate new knowledge on a major potential source of fragility in the world’s third largest democracy, and pioneer a new multi-method approach for explaining how representation varies. Expected outcomes include a new framework that extends analysis of representation to illiberal democracies, and a tranche of public data on Indonesia for cross-national comparisons. Benefits will include a new set of analytical tools to help policy makers in Australia and the region assess sources of weakness in representative institutions in illiberal settings.Read moreRead less
Political Conflict, Inefficient Markets, and Food Crises. This project aims to investigate the effect of political conflict on food markets in low- and middle-income countries across Africa and Southeast Asia by utilizing granular data on ethnopolitical conflict, prices, and institutions. This project expects to generate new knowledge in the area of conflict studies using an innovative approach that allows eliciting disruptive effects of conflict by examining price relationships in spatially and ....Political Conflict, Inefficient Markets, and Food Crises. This project aims to investigate the effect of political conflict on food markets in low- and middle-income countries across Africa and Southeast Asia by utilizing granular data on ethnopolitical conflict, prices, and institutions. This project expects to generate new knowledge in the area of conflict studies using an innovative approach that allows eliciting disruptive effects of conflict by examining price relationships in spatially and temporally connected food and agricultural markets. Expected outcomes of this project include improved techniques to examine market inefficiencies in the wake of political conflict. This should provide significant benefits, such as creating an early warning platform for food crises in times of conflict.Read moreRead less
Civilisationist Mobilisation, Digital Technologies and Social Cohesion. Civilisational populist rulers polarise societies mainly along religious lines. They also interfere with their emigrants, mobilising supporters against other expatriates. This project aims to advance knowledge of authoritarian states' transnational influence on social cohesion and inter-group conflict. By studying Islamist and Hindutva civilisationist mobilisations, their reach into their emigrants via digital technologies, ....Civilisationist Mobilisation, Digital Technologies and Social Cohesion. Civilisational populist rulers polarise societies mainly along religious lines. They also interfere with their emigrants, mobilising supporters against other expatriates. This project aims to advance knowledge of authoritarian states' transnational influence on social cohesion and inter-group conflict. By studying Islamist and Hindutva civilisationist mobilisations, their reach into their emigrants via digital technologies, and their impact on Turkish and Indian groups in Australia, the project aims to assist policy makers and community groups by generating conceptual frameworks, benchmarking data, and recommendations for making policies to deal with this phenomenon's negative effects and for developing intervention strategiesRead moreRead less
Mapping & Harnessing Public Mistrust: Constitutional Values Survey 2023-27. Declining public trust is well recognised as a problem of democratic government, including in Australia. However solutions are more elusive, confounded by the reality that mistrust and distrust play not just negative, but positive roles in our existing political and constitutional traditions. This project aims to be the first to comprehensively map the positive values of mistrust in citizen political attitudes and experi ....Mapping & Harnessing Public Mistrust: Constitutional Values Survey 2023-27. Declining public trust is well recognised as a problem of democratic government, including in Australia. However solutions are more elusive, confounded by the reality that mistrust and distrust play not just negative, but positive roles in our existing political and constitutional traditions. This project aims to be the first to comprehensively map the positive values of mistrust in citizen political attitudes and experience, building on previous Constitutional Values Surveys (2008-21) to test new measures of the content of trust including a first-ever longitudinal study of changing trust over time. The results will inform concrete solutions to three key policy reform dilemmas, providing better answers for sustaining public trust overall.
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Government Popularity, Political Responsiveness and Democracy in Australia. This project aims to understand what affects government popularity and how this shapes the health of democracy. What citizens are concerned about and how their concerns are satisfactorily addressed is central to an effective democracy and to responsible government. The project expects to generate new knowledge about the operation of democracy by identifying the factors that shape government popularity and how and in what ....Government Popularity, Political Responsiveness and Democracy in Australia. This project aims to understand what affects government popularity and how this shapes the health of democracy. What citizens are concerned about and how their concerns are satisfactorily addressed is central to an effective democracy and to responsible government. The project expects to generate new knowledge about the operation of democracy by identifying the factors that shape government popularity and how and in what ways governments respond to them. Expected outcomes include a comprehensive understanding of how democracy in Australia functions, which should provide the benefit of insight into how Australian democracy might be reformed to better meet the expectations of the public at a time of declining public trust in politics. Read moreRead less
Hiding in Plain Sight: 'Associated Entities' and Australian Democracy. Associated Entities (AEs) are organisations that are formally linked to political parties. This project aims to examine how AEs interact with Australian democracy by investigating their impact on elections, the law, and party system dynamics. This project expects to generate new knowledge about the impact of these nearly 200 key political actors, with a particular focus on how they are able to elude significant scrutiny of th ....Hiding in Plain Sight: 'Associated Entities' and Australian Democracy. Associated Entities (AEs) are organisations that are formally linked to political parties. This project aims to examine how AEs interact with Australian democracy by investigating their impact on elections, the law, and party system dynamics. This project expects to generate new knowledge about the impact of these nearly 200 key political actors, with a particular focus on how they are able to elude significant scrutiny of their activities. Expected outcomes include a new typology of AEs, a new financial index to measure their impact, and proposals to improve their regulation. The key benefits generated include: a strengthened campaign finance regime, and enhanced transparency and integrity to Australia's democracy.Read moreRead less
Village democracy in Southeast Asia and the Pacific. This project aims to understand variation in village politics in Indonesia, the Philippines and Papua New Guinea, and the effects of that variation on development outcomes, democratic participation, and gender equity. It will generate new knowledge on how micro-level power structures affect citizens’ experience of government. Expected outcomes include a new framework for understanding how community power structures shape and constrain governme ....Village democracy in Southeast Asia and the Pacific. This project aims to understand variation in village politics in Indonesia, the Philippines and Papua New Guinea, and the effects of that variation on development outcomes, democratic participation, and gender equity. It will generate new knowledge on how micro-level power structures affect citizens’ experience of government. Expected outcomes include a new framework for understanding how community power structures shape and constrain government action. Benefits will include strengthening Australia’s position as a world leader in Asian and Pacific studies, generating a new framework for understanding the effects of village political dynamics, and guidance for Australian and other policy makers planning grassroots development interventions.Read moreRead less
Australian Parliamentary Speech: How Deliberative? How Representative? . This project aims to assess the Australian Parliament’s representativeness and quality of debate from 1901-2020. It expects to generate new tools and knowledge about the development and workings of parliament using innovative quantitative text analysis methods. Expected outcomes include analysis of the relationship between representation (class, gender etc) and policy outcomes, an information-based measure of parliamentary ....Australian Parliamentary Speech: How Deliberative? How Representative? . This project aims to assess the Australian Parliament’s representativeness and quality of debate from 1901-2020. It expects to generate new tools and knowledge about the development and workings of parliament using innovative quantitative text analysis methods. Expected outcomes include analysis of the relationship between representation (class, gender etc) and policy outcomes, an information-based measure of parliamentary speech and a standardised dataset of Hansard. This should provide significant benefits to the scholarly community by removing cost and time barriers and build capacity for international collaborations. The objective information generated can contribute to public discussion about the efficacy of parliamentary debate.Read moreRead less
Strengthening political representation in an era of democratic change. This project aims to understand and strengthen how politicians represent their constituents. As trust in politics declines, there is more pressure on politicians to engage with citizens. Understanding how these demands are reshaping the representative work of politicians is crucial to building trust and legitimacy in modern democracies. By interviewing and observing Australian politicians, this research will build important k ....Strengthening political representation in an era of democratic change. This project aims to understand and strengthen how politicians represent their constituents. As trust in politics declines, there is more pressure on politicians to engage with citizens. Understanding how these demands are reshaping the representative work of politicians is crucial to building trust and legitimacy in modern democracies. By interviewing and observing Australian politicians, this research will build important knowledge about the dynamics, demands and practices of contemporary representation. A national and international audit of novel ways to engage constituents will lead to valuable resources that politicians and citizens can use to assess and improve representative relationships, enabling stronger democratic institutions.
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