The landscape of international politics in a few decades will be dominated by a company of giants: societies that will range demographically down from India and China at over a billion each, through those at four or five hundred millions, like the US and the EU, to those at the hundred million plus level Living with giants: Finding Australia’s place in a more complex world
Eye on Politics & Law Lords: Colliding worlds of people unlike us
Do Australians surround themselves with like-minded people and what unites and divides them?
This article explores the questions of real and imagined social and political divisions in its latest edition. In this introduction, Julianne Schultz explains that ‘in recent years the language of politics has focused on dividing and in this edition of the journal we investigate whether these wedges are real, the damage they cause, and what it is actually like to move out of our comfort zones
• Griffith Review (Pdf File) Dragon slayer [The Australia Institute (PDF file) Over nine million Australians travel to work each week, commuting by car, bus, train, tram, bicycle, ferry or foot. These days, more than ever before, employees are commuting for longer Off to work: commuting in Australia ; Rick Snell discusses the ACT government’s fees for Freedom of Information requests Open government: missing the target by a country mile ]
• · While opportunistic crime in Australia’s fishing industry has existed for a long time, there is increasing concern about illegal activity Crime in the Australian fishing industry: key issues ; Peter Mares reviews a new book that reveals the complex and diverse reasons why people leave their home country Stories of flight ; Vienna of Flights
• · · Should taxes be cut? ; Optimal design of earned income tax credits: evidence from a British natural experiment ; John Quiggin looks at the longer term trend in average tax rates The budget changes: who benefits?
• · · · Dr David Clune’s protege, Talina Drabsch, is not just a pretty face. Talina explores the possibilities of no fault compensation, where the entitlement to compensation is not linked to the ability to prove that a person’s injuries were due to the fault of another No fault compensation ; Australia’s year-old energy policy is already out of date, argue Allan Fels and Fred Brenchley It’s no time to be over a barrel
• · · · · Andrew Leigh explores the impact that individual, local and national factors have on voters’ decisions Economic voting and electoral behaviour: how do individual, local and national factors affect the partisan choice? ; The quest for democracy shouldn’t obscure the real lessons of Iraq Intervention and the left ; Over half a century ago Douglas Copland described Australia as a milk bar economy. How much has changed, asks Alex Millmow The Milky Bars are on him
• · · · · · Simon Evans and Carolyn Evans look at the issues facing a new committee A bill of rights for Victoria? ; David Peetz suggests the government industrial relations cure could be worse than the disease Still waiting for a plumber ; At a time when dissatisfaction with politicians is glaringly evident, the solution is not less democracy, of course; it is deeper democracy. And in deliberative experiments around the world, governments and NGOs are attempting to extend citizen participation beyond voting, lobbying, and protesting Citizens and governments: Stroppy adversaries or partners in deliberation?
