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Articles on Comparative politics

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Wayne Swan has drawn a parallel between the the ALP’s ‘Laborism’ and New Labour’s ‘Third Way’ in the UK. Number 10/flickr

Was embracing the market a necessary evil for Labour and Labor?

While both parties may have set out to modernise and renew their ideologies, the ALP’s and Labour’s attempts to marry the old and new instead precipitated two separate identity crises.
Section 18C goes further than the laws of many other democracies by applying to ‘offensive’ and ‘insulting’ speech. AAP/Lukas Coch

We should follow other countries’ lead on hate speech by changing 18C

A minor change, substituting ‘vilify’ for ‘offend’ and ‘insult’, would bring Section 18C more in line with similar laws in other democracies without undermining its effectiveness.
Both Malcolm Turnbull and Bill Shorten are complex, enigmatic figures. AAP/Tracey Nearmy

Malcolm or Bill: who would you invite to your barbecue?

A party can have the most brilliantly informed and farsighted policies. But if the protagonists cannot communicate these effectively to the electorate, they will be overlooked.
Expenses scandals like Bronwyn Bishop’s can have a devastating effect on parliament and on trust in the political system. AAP/Lukas Coch

Can Bronwyn Bishop learn anything from the UK expenses scandal?

During the UK’s parliamentary expenses scandal, many questioned the system as – just like Bronwyn Bishop in Australia now – they felt that they had acted within the rules that existed at the time.
The speakership has become so politicised in Australia that we’ve been blinded to the possibilities that having a truly independent Speaker might open up. AAP/Mick Tsikas

A truly independent Speaker could renew Australia’s parliamentary democracy

By making the speakership a political gift of the party in power, Australia is missing a major opportunity for democratic renewal of its parliament.
Australia’s proposals to recognise Indigenous people in its Constitution will likely be much less substantive than those of many other countries. AAP/David Moir

What can Australia learn from indigenous recognition in other countries?

Constitutional recognition may have very limited impact if the groups benefiting from the change lack the political weight to leverage it into greater social change.
The success of Nicola Sturgeon’s Scottish National Party has profoundly disrupted the tedious pendulum movement between Left and Right. EPA/Robert Perry

European movements could mark the end of ‘representative’ politics

With a steady hollowing out of membership, the cosying up to vested interests with pockets deep enough to maintain party, today’s political parties barely “represent”.
Syriza leader Alexis Tsipras and Pablo Iglesias of Podemos have taken their populist parties to victory in Greece and a lead in the polls in Spain. Flickr/Fanis Xouryas

Populism and democracy: friend or foe? Rising stars deepen dilemma

The rise of left-wing populism challenges those who flatly denounced right-wing populism as undemocratic. Populism can appear as a democratic force in some contexts and anti-democratic in others.
Census collectors go door to door in Sydney in 2011, the 100th year of census taking in Australia. Now the next census, due in 2016, is in doubt. AAP/Dean Lewins

Australians should learn from Canadians’ big census mistake

Before Australia proceeds with plans to devote fewer resources to a less frequent national census, we should consider the Canadian experience of what losing such rich data means.

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