Understanding a changing Australia: Ordinary people's politics. This project will use a body of interview material collected in the late 1980s supplemented with new material (to be collected) to investigate how Australians have made sense of the social and political changes of the past two decades. In particular it will focus on: how individual Australians construct their sense of moral community, their expectations of the role of government, and how they have negotiated the shift from an expli ....Understanding a changing Australia: Ordinary people's politics. This project will use a body of interview material collected in the late 1980s supplemented with new material (to be collected) to investigate how Australians have made sense of the social and political changes of the past two decades. In particular it will focus on: how individual Australians construct their sense of moral community, their expectations of the role of government, and how they have negotiated the shift from an explicitly white, British national identity to a multicultural one, their understandings of settler-indigenous relations. It will integrate these responses with analysis of their life histories and characteristic political ideologies.Read moreRead less
Retrieving the Record: the White Australia policy, citizenship education and new applications for archival research. This project will develop models for making more effective use of the resources of the National Archives of Australia within civics and citizenship education. Using the resources of the Archives, the team will produce a new history of the White Australia policy, which will be developed into a public display and forum, showing how archival materials can illuminate the complexities ....Retrieving the Record: the White Australia policy, citizenship education and new applications for archival research. This project will develop models for making more effective use of the resources of the National Archives of Australia within civics and citizenship education. Using the resources of the Archives, the team will produce a new history of the White Australia policy, which will be developed into a public display and forum, showing how archival materials can illuminate the complexities of the democratic process. Supplementary research will investigate prospects for making stronger institutional connections between the Archives, citizenship education and teachers' professional formation. Benefits include increased understanding of immigration, Australian political history, educational strategies and the Archives' role and resources. Read moreRead less
The pivot of government? Understanding the Australian prime minister: The office and its holders. This study offers the most comprehensive study of Australia's prime ministership to date and will greatly augment our understanding of the conduct of the office over time. Ideally, it will promote a more informed understanding of the exercise of leadership, feeding directly into public education about this key aspect of our political system (through the Prime Ministers' Centre/proposed Museum of Dem ....The pivot of government? Understanding the Australian prime minister: The office and its holders. This study offers the most comprehensive study of Australia's prime ministership to date and will greatly augment our understanding of the conduct of the office over time. Ideally, it will promote a more informed understanding of the exercise of leadership, feeding directly into public education about this key aspect of our political system (through the Prime Ministers' Centre/proposed Museum of Democracy in Canberra), leading to better citizen appreciation of the role, possibly to better leadership practices and, if our research shows it to be necessary, providing an evidence base for consideration as to whether there is a need for institutional reform.Read moreRead less
An Empirical Study of Agenda Setting in the High Court of Australia. This project aims to undertake the first comprehensive study of institutional and individual factors that facilitate and constrain access to judicial power via the High Court’s agenda setting process, special leave. Using quantitative methods, the project expects to generate new and advanced knowledge about the High Court’s role as the gatekeeper of judicial power. Expected outcomes include foundational knowledge on the nature ....An Empirical Study of Agenda Setting in the High Court of Australia. This project aims to undertake the first comprehensive study of institutional and individual factors that facilitate and constrain access to judicial power via the High Court’s agenda setting process, special leave. Using quantitative methods, the project expects to generate new and advanced knowledge about the High Court’s role as the gatekeeper of judicial power. Expected outcomes include foundational knowledge on the nature and scope of access to judicial power in Australia via policy reports, scholarly articles and datasets. This should provide significant benefits such as important insights on the impact and influence of justices, litigants, lawyers, and governments on High Court’s decisions to grant or deny special leave to appeal.Read moreRead less
'Political' public servants: challenges, risks and rewards. The current ministerial and parliamentary staff system in Australia, established by the Member of Parliament Staff Act 1984, created a mechanism by which public servants can disengage from the public service while working as ministerial and parliamentary staffers, and later re-engage with the public service. This project will explore the phenomenon of the so-called 'political public servant' and the nature of impartiality and partisansh ....'Political' public servants: challenges, risks and rewards. The current ministerial and parliamentary staff system in Australia, established by the Member of Parliament Staff Act 1984, created a mechanism by which public servants can disengage from the public service while working as ministerial and parliamentary staffers, and later re-engage with the public service. This project will explore the phenomenon of the so-called 'political public servant' and the nature of impartiality and partisanship, asking whether these attributes are easily adopted and discarded or whether in fact they coexist within a subset of 'hybrid' public servants.Read moreRead less
Special Research Initiatives - Grant ID: SR200200385
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$262,359.00
Summary
Transforming Democracy in the Bush: A Study of Politics in Rural Australia. This project aims to examine changing patterns of political participation and representation in rural Australia. Almost one third of our population lives outside major cities yet little is known about the democratic dynamics unfolding in rural Australia as it faces major demographic, economic and environmental change. Through in-depth case research this project will analyse how rural Australians participate in politics, ....Transforming Democracy in the Bush: A Study of Politics in Rural Australia. This project aims to examine changing patterns of political participation and representation in rural Australia. Almost one third of our population lives outside major cities yet little is known about the democratic dynamics unfolding in rural Australia as it faces major demographic, economic and environmental change. Through in-depth case research this project will analyse how rural Australians participate in politics, the interests they seek to advance and the efficacy of their political and civic activities. Expected outcomes include strengthened research capacity in rural politics, new frameworks for assessing how democracy is transforming, and reform pathways to enhance the engagement of diverse constituencies in our political system.Read moreRead less
Democratic Audit of Australia. The Democratic Audit of Australia is an assessment of Australia's strengths and weaknesses as a democratic society. It will examine five key areas: (i) citizenship, law and rights; (2) representative and accountable government; (3) participation and government responsiveness; (4) democracy beyond the state; and (5) democracy and federalism. The audit process was pioneered in Britain and has now been applied in ten countries including New Zealand.
The Audit aim ....Democratic Audit of Australia. The Democratic Audit of Australia is an assessment of Australia's strengths and weaknesses as a democratic society. It will examine five key areas: (i) citizenship, law and rights; (2) representative and accountable government; (3) participation and government responsiveness; (4) democracy beyond the state; and (5) democracy and federalism. The audit process was pioneered in Britain and has now been applied in ten countries including New Zealand.
The Audit aims to make a major methodological contribution to democracy assessment, as well as providing benchmark data for purposes of monitoring and international comparison. It will also promote public debate over democracy issues.Read moreRead less
Democratic Audit of Australia: The Second Wave. The Democratic Audit asks "How democratic is our country and its government?" This project will give the community a comprehensive survey of the strengths and weaknesses of Australian democracy, tracking changes since the 2004 report. It will also provide more detailed findings on major questions that confront Australian governments now like the regulation of political financing and the impact on politics of new technologies like the internet. Usin ....Democratic Audit of Australia: The Second Wave. The Democratic Audit asks "How democratic is our country and its government?" This project will give the community a comprehensive survey of the strengths and weaknesses of Australian democracy, tracking changes since the 2004 report. It will also provide more detailed findings on major questions that confront Australian governments now like the regulation of political financing and the impact on politics of new technologies like the internet. Using audit data, the project will produce a major scholarly analysis of the relationship between democratic values and the institutional choices made in Australia. Because a central objective of the Audit is to promote public debate, all Audit findings are published and placed on the Audit website.Read moreRead less
Democratic Choices: Ideas and Outcomes. Democratic Choices will provide important evidence for policy actors and policy makers on Australian democratic beliefs and on current performance of institutions relative to those beliefs. It will stimulate debate and inform strategies for democratic renewal, particularly in relation to youth disengagement and the crisis of confidence in representative institutions. It will sustain Australia's capacity for democracy assessment and contribute to internatio ....Democratic Choices: Ideas and Outcomes. Democratic Choices will provide important evidence for policy actors and policy makers on Australian democratic beliefs and on current performance of institutions relative to those beliefs. It will stimulate debate and inform strategies for democratic renewal, particularly in relation to youth disengagement and the crisis of confidence in representative institutions. It will sustain Australia's capacity for democracy assessment and contribute to international best practice in this field. In improving capacity for critical self-assessment it will enhance the credibility of our democracy assistance programs and promote regional and international understanding of our democratic institutions.Read moreRead less
A scholarly and comprehensive account of Australian politics: The Oxford Companion to Australian Politics. The project aims to deepen the understanding of Australian politics by producing the first scholarly and comprehensive account in a form that makes it readily accessible to experts and general readers. The collaborative process will engage leading scholars working in all sub-fields of Australian politics and include all approaches. It will entail critical reflection upon, and synthesis of , ....A scholarly and comprehensive account of Australian politics: The Oxford Companion to Australian Politics. The project aims to deepen the understanding of Australian politics by producing the first scholarly and comprehensive account in a form that makes it readily accessible to experts and general readers. The collaborative process will engage leading scholars working in all sub-fields of Australian politics and include all approaches. It will entail critical reflection upon, and synthesis of , past and present scholarship as well as new research on neglected areas and the application of new approaches to established bodies of work.Read moreRead less