Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE160100603
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$337,000.00
Summary
Understanding the Causes of Political Trust through Survey Experiments. This project intends to improve our understanding of the drivers of political trust and point to ways that political trust could be improved. Despite the importance of political trust to the functioning of democratic systems, we have no experimental data on what the causes of political trust are, and political trust has been said to have reached crisis levels in many democracies. By integrating existing survey data with expe ....Understanding the Causes of Political Trust through Survey Experiments. This project intends to improve our understanding of the drivers of political trust and point to ways that political trust could be improved. Despite the importance of political trust to the functioning of democratic systems, we have no experimental data on what the causes of political trust are, and political trust has been said to have reached crisis levels in many democracies. By integrating existing survey data with experiments in five established democracies, this project aims to identify the causes of political trust and how these differ by country. Understanding political trust and how it can be improved may provide input to successful policies to deal with challenges such as ageing populations and environmental change.Read moreRead less
Appropriate Development Interventions to Violent and Hateful Extremism. This project investigates how the international development/humanitarian activities of Plan International should best address violent and hateful extremism (VHE). VHE impacts about 70% of Plan’s $1bn global activity, and around USD80bn foreign aid globally. This project thoroughly examines VHE impacts on their work in Bangladesh, Myanmar, Philippines and Indonesia, to develop new situation assessment tools and indicators, in ....Appropriate Development Interventions to Violent and Hateful Extremism. This project investigates how the international development/humanitarian activities of Plan International should best address violent and hateful extremism (VHE). VHE impacts about 70% of Plan’s $1bn global activity, and around USD80bn foreign aid globally. This project thoroughly examines VHE impacts on their work in Bangladesh, Myanmar, Philippines and Indonesia, to develop new situation assessment tools and indicators, in order to facilitate mainstreaming VHE into project planning and design and offer recommendations for primary (population), secondary (at-risk) and tertiary (those involved) interventions. Reduced VHE will benefit not only individuals participating in programs, but societies in those countries plus regional stability.Read moreRead less
Women’s NGOs and gender sensitive policy change in Iran. This project aims to investigate how Iranian women’s non-governmental organisations (NGOs) work to influence gender sensitive policy change in the Islamic Republic of Iran. This project will generate new knowledge on the causal mechanisms behind NGO-driven policy change in Iran, leading to a theory of change on NGOs and gender sensitive policy change in Islamic political systems more broadly. The expected outcomes will enhance scholarly un ....Women’s NGOs and gender sensitive policy change in Iran. This project aims to investigate how Iranian women’s non-governmental organisations (NGOs) work to influence gender sensitive policy change in the Islamic Republic of Iran. This project will generate new knowledge on the causal mechanisms behind NGO-driven policy change in Iran, leading to a theory of change on NGOs and gender sensitive policy change in Islamic political systems more broadly. The expected outcomes will enhance scholarly understanding of Iranian civil society, and build the capacity of the Australian government to foster ties and invest in successful strategies for progress with Iran.Read moreRead less
Understanding and Addressing Informal Voting in Victoria. Victoria's informal vote rate is high and rising. In order to combat the problem of hundreds of thousands of 'lost votes' at Victorian state and local government elections we must first understand it. This collaboration with the Victorian Electoral Commission addresses the problem at both state and local levels over 3 election periods using 4 distinct studies. We combine experimental data, aggregate-level data and individual-level data to ....Understanding and Addressing Informal Voting in Victoria. Victoria's informal vote rate is high and rising. In order to combat the problem of hundreds of thousands of 'lost votes' at Victorian state and local government elections we must first understand it. This collaboration with the Victorian Electoral Commission addresses the problem at both state and local levels over 3 election periods using 4 distinct studies. We combine experimental data, aggregate-level data and individual-level data to provide a thorough and multi-dimensional picture of informal voting. We will then propose remedies to be trialled and assessed. Taken together, our studies will represent the first multi-dimensional analysis of informality to be conducted in any Western democracy.
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Women in Local Government: Understanding their Political Trajectories. This project aims to investigate the chronic under representation of women in Australian politics through a local government lens. It expects to generate new knowledge about barriers to female political representation, their political performance and pathways to higher tiers of elected office. By following men and women councillors across an election cycle, this research seeks to robustly compare and measure women's experienc ....Women in Local Government: Understanding their Political Trajectories. This project aims to investigate the chronic under representation of women in Australian politics through a local government lens. It expects to generate new knowledge about barriers to female political representation, their political performance and pathways to higher tiers of elected office. By following men and women councillors across an election cycle, this research seeks to robustly compare and measure women's experiences of local politics to develop a new framework to map and address obstacles preventing political equity. Expected outcomes include theoretical advances and a 'best practice' guide for achieving parity.This should provide significant public benefits by advancing female participation across all levels of governments.
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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
The Politics of Rights: Australia in Comparative Perspective. Australia tends to be left out of comparative rights studies, and accounts of rights protection tend to be focused upon courts and legal rights. There is no comparative study available that shows how well Australia protects rights, nor does there exist a detailed national study that shows how rights are protected in Australia by parliamentary means and the political mediation of international rights norms. This project will deliver bo ....The Politics of Rights: Australia in Comparative Perspective. Australia tends to be left out of comparative rights studies, and accounts of rights protection tend to be focused upon courts and legal rights. There is no comparative study available that shows how well Australia protects rights, nor does there exist a detailed national study that shows how rights are protected in Australia by parliamentary means and the political mediation of international rights norms. This project will deliver both, enabling a fuller understanding of Australian rights protection. It will also boost comparative knowledge of rights protection via political means. Read moreRead less
Promissory Democratic Representation: Campaign Promises in Australia. This project aims to investigate the extent to which campaign promises made by politicians are kept or broken. It intends to conduct new research on Australian politics while advancing an established international research program. This project expects to generate and disseminate new knowledge that is urgently needed due to declining levels of trust among citizens in politicians. The expected outcomes include new theory and in ....Promissory Democratic Representation: Campaign Promises in Australia. This project aims to investigate the extent to which campaign promises made by politicians are kept or broken. It intends to conduct new research on Australian politics while advancing an established international research program. This project expects to generate and disseminate new knowledge that is urgently needed due to declining levels of trust among citizens in politicians. The expected outcomes include new theory and internationally comparative evidence on which campaign promises are kept and broken. This should provide significant benefits, such as greater public awareness of actual levels of promise keeping. It should also benefit policymakers who use campaign promises to anticipate and prepare government policies.Read moreRead less
Religious Populism, Emotions and Political Mobilisation. This project aims to investigate the main features of religious populism with a focus on emotions in Turkey, Indonesia and Pakistan. Through multiple analytical methods that examine populist statements and interviews with voters, it will advance theoretical and empirical knowledge on religious populism, particularly in relation to emotive political mobilisation and polarisation. The expected outcomes are benchmark data sets and conceptual ....Religious Populism, Emotions and Political Mobilisation. This project aims to investigate the main features of religious populism with a focus on emotions in Turkey, Indonesia and Pakistan. Through multiple analytical methods that examine populist statements and interviews with voters, it will advance theoretical and empirical knowledge on religious populism, particularly in relation to emotive political mobilisation and polarisation. The expected outcomes are benchmark data sets and conceptual frameworks that can be used in other contexts where religious populism poses a danger to democracy. This will help democratic governments better understand religious populism so that they can generate effective policies to deal with any potential negative effects.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