• Democracy in decline?

    Damien Kingsbury     |      June 7, 2023

    The ascendancy of democracy seemed assured after the collapse of Soviet domination in Europe but after reaching a zenith in 2012, there are now fewer democracies, fewer people live in democracies, and most established democracies have veered towards more authoritarian responses.

  • Challenges to Pacific democracy

    Kerryn Baker     |      January 4, 2023

    Democratic norms and practices have a solid foundation in the Pacific, but the events of 2022 prove that this cannot be taken for granted.

  • Tackling Australian corruption

    Charis Palmer     |      December 28, 2022

    Australia will roll out a new national anti-corruption body after the country recorded its worst ever score on an index that ranks anti-corruption measures worldwide.

  • A bad year for the bad guys

    Graeme Dobell     |      December 24, 2022

    The death-knell for democracy is always being tolled, but the weakness and folly of authoritarian rule has proved itself this year, epitomised by the Russian dictator’s disastrous invasion of its democratic neighbour, Ukraine.

  • Democracy v the dictators

    David Wroe     |      December 23, 2022

    Just as autocracies ally with each other to stay in power, so the world’s democracies must unite against the current tide of tyranny.

  • The end of democracy?

    Alan Stevenson     |      December 12, 2022

    A number of social, international and technological trends are converging to threaten the democracy and social cohesion we have taken for granted for decades.

  • #Democracy

    Stephan Lewandowsky     |      November 9, 2022

    There are two common ways of thinking about democracy in the online era. First, the internet is a liberation technology and will usher in an era of global democracy. Second, you can have social media or democracy, but not both.

  • Celebrating Australian democracy

    Carolyn Holbrook     |      August 31, 2022

    In seeking to safeguard our democracy, we must consider the extent to which Australians’ long-standing apathy about our democratic system allowed Morrison to treat it with such contempt.

  • Standing up the the strong men

    Nicholas Farrelly     |      June 14, 2022

    The threat posed by authoritarian states demands a robust response from the world’s democracies and we must not allow their victims to fight on alone.

  • Don’t believe the hype

    Chris Zappone     |      March 11, 2022

    From authoritarian propaganda to virtual reality and non-fungible tokens, reality must increasingly compete with the unreal for attention and credibility.

  • Confronting state fragility and democratic decline

    Anastasia Kapetas     |      October 19, 2021

    The return of strategic competition between states is an established geopolitical trend, but states themselves are getting more fragile, according to the 2021 Fund for Peace Fragile States Index.

  • The gen-Y democracy gap

    Johanna Wyn     |      September 27, 2021

    New research finds there’s democracy gap for young Australian adults, with a distrust of traditional politics but a focus on civic mindedness.