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Tinkering can achieve a lot. Politics isn’t broken
Emily Millane | November 7, 2018Today’s politicians are often criticised for failing to deliver the bold, sweeping reforms of their predecessors, but in reality much of the progress in our political and social systems comes through gradual and incremental change.
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Penny Wong on courage and political change
Shaun Carney | November 4, 2018The McKinnon Prize in Political Leadership aims to recognise political leaders who’ve driven positive change and Labor senator Penny Wong hopes it will help politics reconnect with a disgruntled electorate.
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Mapping out policy priorities for states and territories
Open Forum | October 29, 2018State and territory governments can always do more to improve the lives of Australians but a new Grattan Institute State Scorecard shows how outcomes vary between states across a broad range of areas.
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Fascism has not returned to Europe
Mike Scrafton | October 14, 2018Were fascism to ascend again in Europe, international security would be menaced and the liberal international order be even more imperilled. However, Europe’s current far-right parties fail to meet the minimum fascist criteria.
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On the side of the angels?
Graeme Dobell | October 9, 2018Nations are never angelic, but in these fraught and disruptive times, the smart national interest should be to stand on the side of the angels.
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Modernising the governance of Australian cities
Richard Tomlinson | September 28, 2018Australia needs innovative metropolitan governance for our cities in order to effectively tackle increasingly complex global issues – lessons that have already been learnt overseas.
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What to expect from the U.N. General Assembly
Richard Gowan | September 25, 2018Donald Trump’s words on Iran and North Korea stole the show during last year’s UNGA. In this year’s agenda, is constructive diplomacy possible?
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Who’s in the room? Access and influence in Australian politics
Open Forum | September 24, 2018Powerful and well-resourced business groups, unions and not-for-profits are influencing policy in Australia to serve their interests, sometimes at the expense of the public interest, a new Grattan Institute report has found.
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A visit to Pyongyang: the Kim dynasty’s homage to Stalinism
Colin Alexander | September 9, 2018The ruling dynasty in North Korea have not only learned from Stalin’s grim example, but have taken it to a gold-plated extreme. However, like the Soviet dictator and the regime he led, every despot is destined to fall in the end.
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Turmoil in Trumpland
Barbara Keys | September 8, 2018Tumult is the Trump administration’s middle name – and never more so than in the last few days. However the latest revelations about President Trump’s erratic behaviour and chaotic White House may only further endear him to his supporter base.
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Political leadership cannot be disentangled from collective psychology
Andrew Frain | September 4, 2018Much has been made of individual motives for revenge in recent political turmoil, but collective psychology underlines that people behave as members of a collective as well as individuals.
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The strength of soft power
Graeme Dobell | September 3, 2018Soft power is a slow-growing asset, as much the product of a society as the possession of a government. But, as a twittering US president shows, destroying trust and burning a nation’s soft power can be done with awful speed.