Political Trust and Satisfaction with Democracy in Australia. Declining public support is one of the greatest challenges to democracy. In 2019, Australia recorded the lowest level of trust in politics on record. This project aims to understand the reasons for declining political trust and satisfaction with democracy in Australia. The project hopes to field the 2022-25 Australian Election Study to address these issues by surveying a representative sample of voters following the 2022 and 2025 Aust ....Political Trust and Satisfaction with Democracy in Australia. Declining public support is one of the greatest challenges to democracy. In 2019, Australia recorded the lowest level of trust in politics on record. This project aims to understand the reasons for declining political trust and satisfaction with democracy in Australia. The project hopes to field the 2022-25 Australian Election Study to address these issues by surveying a representative sample of voters following the 2022 and 2025 Australian federal elections, in addition to continuing a longitudinal survey started in 2016. The project wants to add to an unbroken series of publicly available data on Australian political behaviour since 1987, while also producing new insights into how individual opinions change over time.Read moreRead less
In for the count: Maximising trust and reliability in Australian elections. This project aims to develop innovative approaches to identifying, measuring, and evaluating errors and purposeful intervention in the uniquely complex elections at the basis of Australian democracy. Such methods can underpin a world-class election auditing system, which contends with the risks that are emerging at the intersection of election digitisation, cybersecurity and foreign interference. The project’s expected o ....In for the count: Maximising trust and reliability in Australian elections. This project aims to develop innovative approaches to identifying, measuring, and evaluating errors and purposeful intervention in the uniquely complex elections at the basis of Australian democracy. Such methods can underpin a world-class election auditing system, which contends with the risks that are emerging at the intersection of election digitisation, cybersecurity and foreign interference. The project’s expected outcomes are new auditing methods, tested on real Australian election data, with their benefits quantified against global best practice. The research outputs should help reinforce the community’s trust in Australian elections, which are a foundation for our security, social cohesion, and political resilience.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
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
Presidential Power and its Limits in Post-Authoritarian Indonesia. This project will study the development of the Indonesian presidency after the fall of long-time autocrat Suharto in 1998. While much of the recent research on this subject has focused on the personalities of the four post-1998 presidents, this project intends to highlight institutional and structural aspects of the presidency. In particular, the proposed research aims to explore to what extent democratisation, decentralisation a ....Presidential Power and its Limits in Post-Authoritarian Indonesia. This project will study the development of the Indonesian presidency after the fall of long-time autocrat Suharto in 1998. While much of the recent research on this subject has focused on the personalities of the four post-1998 presidents, this project intends to highlight institutional and structural aspects of the presidency. In particular, the proposed research aims to explore to what extent democratisation, decentralisation and power diffusion have constrained Indonesian presidents in exercising executive authority. When completed, the project aims to deliver a comprehensive picture of Indonesia's post-authoritarian presidency, describing in detail its constitutional powers, institutional set-up and structural limitations.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE220100595
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$416,400.00
Summary
Efficient privacy-preserving proofs for secure e-government and e-voting. Electronic systems are becoming increasingly widespread and crucial to social and economic wellbeing. This project aims to ensure that e-government, e-health, e-commerce and e-voting are secure and trustworthy by inventing new ways to verify these systems without infringing privacy. This project expects to use innovative techniques from cryptography to support development of trustworthy systems. Expected outcomes of this p ....Efficient privacy-preserving proofs for secure e-government and e-voting. Electronic systems are becoming increasingly widespread and crucial to social and economic wellbeing. This project aims to ensure that e-government, e-health, e-commerce and e-voting are secure and trustworthy by inventing new ways to verify these systems without infringing privacy. This project expects to use innovative techniques from cryptography to support development of trustworthy systems. Expected outcomes of this project include better support for organisations to build trustworthy systems that will maximise benefit to Australian business and society. This should provide significant commercial, reputational, and societal benefits by avoiding disruptions to the organisations and their clients if and when they are attacked. Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE240100410
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$392,161.00
Summary
Child Citizens: Young People and Australian Democracy since 1945. This project provides a new account of Australian democracy from the perspective of children and young people. It tracks changes in children’s conceptions and practices of citizenship since 1945 to explain their contested status in contemporary politics. Far from simply being ‘citizens in waiting’, the project shows that young people have long been active participants in political and civic life and reveals how their citizenship c ....Child Citizens: Young People and Australian Democracy since 1945. This project provides a new account of Australian democracy from the perspective of children and young people. It tracks changes in children’s conceptions and practices of citizenship since 1945 to explain their contested status in contemporary politics. Far from simply being ‘citizens in waiting’, the project shows that young people have long been active participants in political and civic life and reveals how their citizenship claims have expanded across this period, alongside those of other marginalised groups. Its findings will add nuance to current debates about children’s political exclusion, with its social impact enhanced through the development of an online research portal and collaboration with the Museum of Australian Democracy.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE220101526
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$364,560.00
Summary
How Republics Die: Rome's democratic breakdown in the first century BCE. This project aims to use recent political science scholarship on democratic breakdown and the threat of a competitive authoritarian regime in Trump’s US to analyse the breakdown of the Roman Republic in the 50s BCE under Caesar and Pompey. Expected outcomes include a better understanding of how and why constitutional government collapsed in Rome, using language and concepts directly transferable to our own fragile democracy ....How Republics Die: Rome's democratic breakdown in the first century BCE. This project aims to use recent political science scholarship on democratic breakdown and the threat of a competitive authoritarian regime in Trump’s US to analyse the breakdown of the Roman Republic in the 50s BCE under Caesar and Pompey. Expected outcomes include a better understanding of how and why constitutional government collapsed in Rome, using language and concepts directly transferable to our own fragile democracy. This should benefit the study of Roman history at all levels and provide historians and political scientists with a unique dataset for analysing how a centuries-old democracy fell into authoritarian rule.Read moreRead less
Submerged cultural landscapes and the underwater heritage of Sea Country. This project aims to substantially extend our knowledge of the vast but poorly characterised submerged cultural landscapes on the Australian continental shelf, which remains one of the critical gaps in Australian archaeology. Original fieldwork will target locations in Western Australia and the Northern Territory to enrich and contextualise the submerged archaeological record within the broader discourse. The project will ....Submerged cultural landscapes and the underwater heritage of Sea Country. This project aims to substantially extend our knowledge of the vast but poorly characterised submerged cultural landscapes on the Australian continental shelf, which remains one of the critical gaps in Australian archaeology. Original fieldwork will target locations in Western Australia and the Northern Territory to enrich and contextualise the submerged archaeological record within the broader discourse. The project will combine archaeology, marine science and Indigenous knowledge to enhance our understanding of Pleistocene and early Holocene human-environment dynamics. Research will be undertaken in partnership with Traditional Owners and will support a national policy for the protection of Indigenous underwater cultural heritage.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE190100677
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$343,000.00
Summary
Australians and federation: commemoration, identity and engagement. This project aims to advance understanding of the history of Australians' attitudes towards federation since 1901. It will use a series of commemoration case studies drawn from the 1950s and 2000s to analyse changing attitudes towards the federal compact. The project is significant in its application of historical methodology to the conception of the federation as a living, breathing structure. Expected outcomes are a greater un ....Australians and federation: commemoration, identity and engagement. This project aims to advance understanding of the history of Australians' attitudes towards federation since 1901. It will use a series of commemoration case studies drawn from the 1950s and 2000s to analyse changing attitudes towards the federal compact. The project is significant in its application of historical methodology to the conception of the federation as a living, breathing structure. Expected outcomes are a greater understanding of how Australians have attached to their federation over time, contextualisation of debates about national commemorations, and insights into historical attitudes towards civic institutions and democratic governance. Benefits include a more informed debate about federation reform.Read moreRead less