Australia’s human rights record isn’t perfect, but it still good. if Australians aren’t able to take some pride in that and be inspired to do even better, over-the-top criticism could backfire.
Corporate interests and wealthy individuals reckon they can turn a profit by cajoling politicians round to their way of thinking. So how can the humble electorate hope to respond?
The sun never sets on the British electorate.
JasonParis/Flickr
The millions of Britons living abroad have a lot to gain or lose from this election. But will they bother to vote?
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
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.
More than 20 years ago, two American academics, Max Singer and Aaron Wildavsky, wrote about what they described as The Real World Order: Zones of Peace/Zones of Turmoil. As is the way with such things…
The news today that Ed Milband has ruled out forming a coalition with the SNP may come too late to limit the impact of the latest Tory attempt to illustrate that the Labour leader is a political lightweight…
Under former president Hamid Karzai, Afghanistan was little more than a ‘vertically integrated criminal organisation’, according to a new book.
EPA/Parwiz Sabawoon
Liberal values are under siege around the world. Their most dogged defender must not be left out in the cold.
A number of supporters of Joko Widodo are becoming disillusioned by his lack of power to prevent the anti-corruption agenda in Indonesia from being undermined.
EPA/Mast Irham
Many recent elections have ended with bitter disputes about electoral integrity. The issue is perhaps best exemplified by partisan divisions in the United States over Republican allegations of voter fraud…
Even by recent standards, the last few weeks have seen new levels of dysfunction, volatility and even chaos within federal and state governments. As the voters of Queensland demonstrated, there is little…
Future technology won’t just be a gadget we use, it will re-structure our societies.
Sergey Nivens/Shutterstock
Throughout history, whenever new technologies have emerged that change our means of production and ability to communicate they have tended to transform society. The rapid technological development of the…
This house has seen some corkers over the years.
davidesimonetti/Flickr
General elections are the great democratic leveller. Every citizen – however wealthy, educated or interested – gets an opportunity to pass judgement on the performance of the government and the direction…