How can political actors shape voter turnout? This project aims to investigate what explains variations on individual's turnout rates by analysing the strategies employed by candidates and parties to mobilise their supporters and demobilise their detractors. The project will compare the mobilisation and demobilisation strategies of the parties and candidates in Spain, Mexico and India. Expected outcomes include an improved understanding of the demobilised, the re-affirmed abstainers and the acti ....How can political actors shape voter turnout? This project aims to investigate what explains variations on individual's turnout rates by analysing the strategies employed by candidates and parties to mobilise their supporters and demobilise their detractors. The project will compare the mobilisation and demobilisation strategies of the parties and candidates in Spain, Mexico and India. Expected outcomes include an improved understanding of the demobilised, the re-affirmed abstainers and the activated voters, which are under-studied. The findings will enhance understanding of motivations of those citizens, a topic of growing scholarly interest, and also inform Australian policy makers seeking to enhance the design of their governance interventions.Read moreRead less
Civilisationist Mobilisation, Digital Technologies and Social Cohesion. Civilisational populist rulers polarise societies mainly along religious lines. They also interfere with their emigrants, mobilising supporters against other expatriates. This project aims to advance knowledge of authoritarian states' transnational influence on social cohesion and inter-group conflict. By studying Islamist and Hindutva civilisationist mobilisations, their reach into their emigrants via digital technologies, ....Civilisationist Mobilisation, Digital Technologies and Social Cohesion. Civilisational populist rulers polarise societies mainly along religious lines. They also interfere with their emigrants, mobilising supporters against other expatriates. This project aims to advance knowledge of authoritarian states' transnational influence on social cohesion and inter-group conflict. By studying Islamist and Hindutva civilisationist mobilisations, their reach into their emigrants via digital technologies, and their impact on Turkish and Indian groups in Australia, the project aims to assist policy makers and community groups by generating conceptual frameworks, benchmarking data, and recommendations for making policies to deal with this phenomenon's negative effects and for developing intervention strategiesRead moreRead less
A Meta-study of democratic deliberation: advancing theory and practice. This project aims to reconcile conflicting findings and develop the first comprehensive account of defensible claims about political deliberation. The project will analyse and synthesise results from available studies of deliberation. Source material and findings will be compiled in a publicly-available database to facilitate standardisation and enhancement of future research in the field. This will provide significant bene ....A Meta-study of democratic deliberation: advancing theory and practice. This project aims to reconcile conflicting findings and develop the first comprehensive account of defensible claims about political deliberation. The project will analyse and synthesise results from available studies of deliberation. Source material and findings will be compiled in a publicly-available database to facilitate standardisation and enhancement of future research in the field. This will provide significant benefits, such as settling important questions that remain among deliberative democrats and, more practically, facilitate potential avenues for democratic reform.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
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
Public Interest Advocacy in Australian Policymaking. The project aims to evaluate the impact and effectiveness of public interest advocacy, via the media, in elevating the responsiveness of elected political elites. The project expects to generate new knowledge about how the advocacy and media agendas are set, examine the way elected elites access and ingest news media, and conditions under which advocacy groups access to news changes political priorities. It is expected that the project will pr ....Public Interest Advocacy in Australian Policymaking. The project aims to evaluate the impact and effectiveness of public interest advocacy, via the media, in elevating the responsiveness of elected political elites. The project expects to generate new knowledge about how the advocacy and media agendas are set, examine the way elected elites access and ingest news media, and conditions under which advocacy groups access to news changes political priorities. It is expected that the project will provide an evidence base for citizens and policy makers to assess the effectiveness of public interest advocacy, and deliver benefits such as strengthening the quality of Australia’s representative democracy, and offer scholars new theories on the role of public interest advocacy on policy priorities.Read moreRead less
Populism’s Heartlands: Place, Identity, and Localism in Populist Politics. This project aims to investigate how populism intersects with localism through systematic, comparative, and in-depth empirical study of three populist parties inextricably associated with ‘heartlands’ in Australia, Germany and Spain. This project expects to generate new knowledge about how populists utilise the language of localism and how people’s attachment to place shapes their support for populists. Expected outcomes ....Populism’s Heartlands: Place, Identity, and Localism in Populist Politics. This project aims to investigate how populism intersects with localism through systematic, comparative, and in-depth empirical study of three populist parties inextricably associated with ‘heartlands’ in Australia, Germany and Spain. This project expects to generate new knowledge about how populists utilise the language of localism and how people’s attachment to place shapes their support for populists. Expected outcomes of the project include a new understanding of how populism and localism affect one another; and identification of how right and left populist support are differently affected by community engagement and participation. Benefits include the identification of local interventions to lessen the appeal of exclusionary populisms.Read moreRead less
Australian political rhetoric: the role of public speech by elected representatives in contemporary Australian politics. What is the public benefit of the endless rituals of rhetorical claim and counter-claim performed by members of parliament? This project demonstrates that rhetoric is central to politics, through detailed case analysis of the performative side of Australian parliamentary politics. Good rhetoric, when we have it, makes for good politics.
Political participation and electoral representation among first and second generation migrants to Australia. How far migrants integrate politically is a concern for governments around the world. This project identifies the factors that affect the representation of migrants in Australian politics and their levels of political participation. The results will have major implications for the settlement policies that governments develop for new migrants.
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