Governing vs. opposition parties and the global financial crisis: Comparing the United Kingdom and Australia. The Australian Prime Minister has described the global financial crisis as the 'equivalent of a rolling national security crisis'. Our project, which examines the pressures upon political parties to adopt an adversarial approach to crises as an election approaches, benefits the nation by enhancing our understanding of how political systems cope with crisis. Should governing and oppositio ....Governing vs. opposition parties and the global financial crisis: Comparing the United Kingdom and Australia. The Australian Prime Minister has described the global financial crisis as the 'equivalent of a rolling national security crisis'. Our project, which examines the pressures upon political parties to adopt an adversarial approach to crises as an election approaches, benefits the nation by enhancing our understanding of how political systems cope with crisis. Should governing and opposition parties unite in order to tackle the national crisis and portray consensus to the outside world? Or should they continue to engage in routine adversary criticism, facilitating dialogue and providing a 'check' on a centralised response? Our research will help develop an understanding of Australia's capacity to respond to major economic threats.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE150101692
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$325,000.00
Summary
Getting elections right? Electoral reform in democracies & autocracies. Why do some countries manage to 'get their elections right' while others fail? What explains changes in election integrity over time? And does election integrity matter for democracy? This project aims to address these questions by developing an original theoretical framework explaining changes in election integrity over time and the consequences for democratisation. The project will empirically test the theoretical framewor ....Getting elections right? Electoral reform in democracies & autocracies. Why do some countries manage to 'get their elections right' while others fail? What explains changes in election integrity over time? And does election integrity matter for democracy? This project aims to address these questions by developing an original theoretical framework explaining changes in election integrity over time and the consequences for democratisation. The project will empirically test the theoretical framework with a mixed-method approach that combines quantitative statistical analysis and in-depth country case studies using data on election integrity in over 900 elections from over 100 electoral democracies and autocracies around the world between 1974 and 2012.Read moreRead less
Bridling Autocrats: Limiting Executive Power in Authoritarian Polities. This project will analyse the dynamics of elite politics in authoritarian polities, focusing in particular upon how members of the elite try to constrain would-be dictators. By showing the different patterns of elite politics in different types of authoritarian systems, the project will interrogate one of the most curious aspects of contemporary international politics, why so many authoritarian regimes have been able to stab ....Bridling Autocrats: Limiting Executive Power in Authoritarian Polities. This project will analyse the dynamics of elite politics in authoritarian polities, focusing in particular upon how members of the elite try to constrain would-be dictators. By showing the different patterns of elite politics in different types of authoritarian systems, the project will interrogate one of the most curious aspects of contemporary international politics, why so many authoritarian regimes have been able to stabilise themselves in an era commonly seen as being one of democratic advance. Understanding authoritarian elite politics and their implications for regime survival is of significant policy interest.Read moreRead less
Strategies for the stabilisation of authoritarian rule: Russia in comparative perspective. This project will explore why authoritarian rule has been consolidated in post-Soviet Russia. By analysing this in a comparative context, the project will also explore why so many countries are characterised by non-democratic political systems in this so-called age of democracy.
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
Please Explain! The Media Presence, Electoral Appeal and Political Impact of Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party. The success of Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party is an important development in Australian politics. This project seeks to: examine the ways in which the media have reported the phenomenon; test competing explanations for the party's electoral appeal, including theories derived from the rise of the radical right elsewhere and explore the party's impact on the electoral strategies and p ....Please Explain! The Media Presence, Electoral Appeal and Political Impact of Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party. The success of Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party is an important development in Australian politics. This project seeks to: examine the ways in which the media have reported the phenomenon; test competing explanations for the party's electoral appeal, including theories derived from the rise of the radical right elsewhere and explore the party's impact on the electoral strategies and public policies of the established parties. It will enhance our understanding of media practices and power, of the conditions under which populist parties may emerge, and of conservative politics under challRead moreRead less
Debating Democracy: Political Rhetoric in New South Wales 1856–1890. This project will highlight the innovatory nature of democracy in colonial Australia, by establishing the nature of the relationship between political ideas, political language and political practice in one of the first liberal democracies of the modern world. In so doing it will enable a new and detailed picture to emerge of the type of political society that liberalism and democracy created in colonial Australia. As the first ....Debating Democracy: Political Rhetoric in New South Wales 1856–1890. This project will highlight the innovatory nature of democracy in colonial Australia, by establishing the nature of the relationship between political ideas, political language and political practice in one of the first liberal democracies of the modern world. In so doing it will enable a new and detailed picture to emerge of the type of political society that liberalism and democracy created in colonial Australia. As the first comprehensive study of political rhetoric in Australian history, this project will facilitate a new understanding of the distinctiveness of Australian political language and Australian political culture.Read moreRead less
What Australia Thinks: A History of Australian Public Opinion Polls. Opinion polls are an increasingly prominent and problematic part of politics in modern societies. This project is expected to produce an Australian history that documents and explains the diverse and changing methods, priorities and styles of the pollsters since polling was introduced to Australia in 1941. It aims to examine the growing media coverage of the polls, their impact, and the controversies they have engendered as wel ....What Australia Thinks: A History of Australian Public Opinion Polls. Opinion polls are an increasingly prominent and problematic part of politics in modern societies. This project is expected to produce an Australian history that documents and explains the diverse and changing methods, priorities and styles of the pollsters since polling was introduced to Australia in 1941. It aims to examine the growing media coverage of the polls, their impact, and the controversies they have engendered as well as the performances of polls in predicting voter behaviour. Combining archival research, oral histories and quantitative methods, the project aims to enrich our understanding of the nature, consequences and history of polling nationally and transnationally. It also aims to produce a database containing over 75 years of poll results.Read moreRead less
The Politics of Transition in China, 1972-1982. The project provides a new interpretation of the elite politics behind one of the most remarkable transformations within a continuing political system in the late 20th century?the crucial period of transition between the radical late Mao era and the reform program of the 1980s. It thus examines several of the least researched, in any sustained in-depth sense, and, as a consequence, poorly understood periods of elite politics in the People's Republi ....The Politics of Transition in China, 1972-1982. The project provides a new interpretation of the elite politics behind one of the most remarkable transformations within a continuing political system in the late 20th century?the crucial period of transition between the radical late Mao era and the reform program of the 1980s. It thus examines several of the least researched, in any sustained in-depth sense, and, as a consequence, poorly understood periods of elite politics in the People's Republic of China.Read moreRead less
Parties and Participation: Evolving Australian Party Membership. The project aims to provide new insights into how political party membership is evolving and how citizens and parties engage with each other today. The decline of party memberships is usually equated with the death of parties as participatory organisations and the erosion of their crucial role as vehicles for democratic linkage. Applying a new theoretical framework integrating individual, party and state perspectives, this project ....Parties and Participation: Evolving Australian Party Membership. The project aims to provide new insights into how political party membership is evolving and how citizens and parties engage with each other today. The decline of party memberships is usually equated with the death of parties as participatory organisations and the erosion of their crucial role as vehicles for democratic linkage. Applying a new theoretical framework integrating individual, party and state perspectives, this project plans to examine how membership is structured, how it is practised, what it means today and why membership is declining. Combining organisational analysis with survey and focus group data in an innovative mixed-methods research design, it aims to evaluate what parties can do to secure their future role in Australian democracy and to foster democratic participation through new modes of partisan engagement.Read moreRead less