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
In the National Interest? Large Firms and Public Policy in Australia. Institutional and other theories suggest large firms necessarily engage in public policy to mainly serve narrow firm-centric interests. Yet large firms sometimes also engage in national level policy, such as big business support for policy reforms in Australia in the 1980s. Our central question is: how do large Australian firms articulate their public policy interests and goals, what factors drive this, and with what outcomes? ....In the National Interest? Large Firms and Public Policy in Australia. Institutional and other theories suggest large firms necessarily engage in public policy to mainly serve narrow firm-centric interests. Yet large firms sometimes also engage in national level policy, such as big business support for policy reforms in Australia in the 1980s. Our central question is: how do large Australian firms articulate their public policy interests and goals, what factors drive this, and with what outcomes? Do they pursue narrow or broader national agendas and how might the two overlap from the perspective of large firms? In this greenfield research we link questions of big business policy engagement with questions of business power and legitimacy and also to questions of national governance capacity. Read moreRead less
Political Engagement Among the Young: The 2016-19 Australian Election Study. This project seeks to understand the declining level of political engagement among the young, with a view to developing measures that will help to re-invigorate their political participation. One of the greatest challenges to democracy in Australia and internationally is to understand the lack of political engagement among the young. Young people today are less likely to vote, to join a political party, or to engage in ....Political Engagement Among the Young: The 2016-19 Australian Election Study. This project seeks to understand the declining level of political engagement among the young, with a view to developing measures that will help to re-invigorate their political participation. One of the greatest challenges to democracy in Australia and internationally is to understand the lack of political engagement among the young. Young people today are less likely to vote, to join a political party, or to engage in interest groups than at any time since democratisation. The 2016–19 Australian Election Study is designed to address this question by surveying a representative sample of voters in the 2016 and 2019 elections. The project is also designed to add to an unbroken series of post-election national opinion surveys which have monitored trends in Australian political behaviour since 1987.Read moreRead less
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
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE130100309
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$372,065.00
Summary
The politics of party reform: who benefits from the democratisation of political parties? Political parties are currently implementing internal reforms to address public disaffection and membership decline, but with relatively little success. To find out why, this research analyses who or what drives these reforms, who benefits from them and whether they are responsive to citizens' demands and how people want to engage with parties today.
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE190100210
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$374,000.00
Summary
Data, digital and field: political parties and 21st century campaigning. This project aims to investigate how political parties in parliamentary democracies are responding to the digital and field revolutions in campaigning. Political parties using these campaigning modes poses challenges for electoral regulators as well as for scholars of political parties trying to understand party organisation. Using six case studies from three parliamentary democracies, the expected outcome of this project i ....Data, digital and field: political parties and 21st century campaigning. This project aims to investigate how political parties in parliamentary democracies are responding to the digital and field revolutions in campaigning. Political parties using these campaigning modes poses challenges for electoral regulators as well as for scholars of political parties trying to understand party organisation. Using six case studies from three parliamentary democracies, the expected outcome of this project is an innovative account of the implications of these changes for political parties and liberal democracy. This project will increase scholarly understanding of political parties, and inform the work of electoral regulators to ensure the integrity of election campaigns are maintained.Read moreRead less
New possibilities for Indigenous representation: the opportunities and constraints of conflict among leaders. A voice in national policy debates is important for Indigenous communities around Australia. Understanding the tensions that provide opportunities and constraints for national representation will contribute to strengthening the social and economic fabric of Indigenous communities, creating new possibilities for improving health and well being outcomes. In providing evidence on dynamics o ....New possibilities for Indigenous representation: the opportunities and constraints of conflict among leaders. A voice in national policy debates is important for Indigenous communities around Australia. Understanding the tensions that provide opportunities and constraints for national representation will contribute to strengthening the social and economic fabric of Indigenous communities, creating new possibilities for improving health and well being outcomes. In providing evidence on dynamics of contemporary Indigenous activism and illustrating the complex challenges facing Indigenous leaders, this study will both facilitate further dialogue among Indigenous leaders and activists themselves and generate deeper, empirically-focused, understanding of this work among non-Indigenous Australians.Read moreRead less
Pathways to Power: Australian Political Careers. The project aims to uncover the determinants of successful careers of elected and non-elected political elites. The project expects to generate new knowledge about elite career paths (politicians, political staff, media, interest group personnel and bureaucrats), examine the impact of political elites on the quality of government, and whether this has changed over time. The project should provide significant benefits to academics via theoretical d ....Pathways to Power: Australian Political Careers. The project aims to uncover the determinants of successful careers of elected and non-elected political elites. The project expects to generate new knowledge about elite career paths (politicians, political staff, media, interest group personnel and bureaucrats), examine the impact of political elites on the quality of government, and whether this has changed over time. The project should provide significant benefits to academics via theoretical development of processes driving careers progression and establishing Australia as a benchmark case facilitating future international collaboration. It hopes to enhance the capacity of citizens and policy makers to assess the overall effectiveness of governance and the regulation of political life.Read moreRead less
Crowdsourcing political engagement. This project aims to examine the transformation of political activism and citizen-led campaigning in the digital age in Australia. Many arguments have been made concerning the way 21st century ‘digital disruption’ is transforming our everyday lives. The project plans to focus on how crowd-sourced forms of political engagement are facilitated by digital tools that let citizens share political information and calls to action. In particular, it aims to identify t ....Crowdsourcing political engagement. This project aims to examine the transformation of political activism and citizen-led campaigning in the digital age in Australia. Many arguments have been made concerning the way 21st century ‘digital disruption’ is transforming our everyday lives. The project plans to focus on how crowd-sourced forms of political engagement are facilitated by digital tools that let citizens share political information and calls to action. In particular, it aims to identify the extent and character of crowd-sourcing e-tactics: petitioning, boycotting, buycotting and micro-donations. The project intends to adjudicate on the proposition that crowd-sourced means of political engagement offer a qualitatively different type of political engagement.Read moreRead less
Creating Public Opinion: Polls, the Press and Australian Politics since the 1940s. Opinion polls, commissioned regularly by the press since the 1940s and by political parties since the 1960s, have altered our understandings of public opinion, affected the way politics is reported, and transformed the ways in which political leaders act and the parties campaign. Until now, none of this has been properly documented or effectively analysed. This project will help those involved in public opinion re ....Creating Public Opinion: Polls, the Press and Australian Politics since the 1940s. Opinion polls, commissioned regularly by the press since the 1940s and by political parties since the 1960s, have altered our understandings of public opinion, affected the way politics is reported, and transformed the ways in which political leaders act and the parties campaign. Until now, none of this has been properly documented or effectively analysed. This project will help those involved in public opinion research, political journalism, and parliamentary politics to reflect on the strength and weaknesses of their practices. It will allow others in the community to understand what has changed, how it has changed, and why.Read moreRead less