Democracy & Governance Research Cluster
Email: arts-dg-research-cluster-L@monash.edu
Terry MacDonald
Narelle Miragliotta
James Walter
Nick Economou (Cluster Leader)
Paul Strangio
Paul Muldoon
Anna Eriksson
Michael Janover
Cluster Introduction
Government is a core social function. Without government there is no society. Democracy is an idea whose origins can be traced to Ancient Greece, but whose meaning has been subject to a host of interpretations and applications ever since. Both Governance and Democracy are at the heart of the study of society and nation.
The Democracy and Governance Cluster embraces a broad study of both governance and democracy. Within the cluster is expertise on the government in jurisdictions including Australia, the United States, Russia as well as nation states across Asia and the Middle East. The cluster also contains experts on democracy as both a concept and as a practical method by which governing institutions are arranged. The cluster’s members include experts on governmental institutions, on democratic practices such as elections and electoral behaviour, on the nature of relations between nation states and the impact these have on the democratic aspirations of their citizens, and on the aspirations and democratic status of minorities within nation states.
The cluster has many links with international scholarly institutions. it also has strong links with professional communities including politicians, those involved in governmental administration and those private entities that also impact upon the political debate and public policy formation.
The cluster’s aim is to advance the study of Governance and Democracy through research on issues pertaining to good governance and enhanced democratic life, and through encouraging post-graduate research in to matters of national and international political concern. The cluster also aims to enhance its connections with external governing and democratic communities, including public and private sector actors.
Members
Anna Erikson: Lecturer and Honours Coordinator for Criminology, researching in restorative justice, transitional justice, cultures of violence, post-conflict criminology, peace building, penology, prisons, philosophies of punishment, ownership and constructions of justice, crime prevention.
Nick Economou: Senior Lecturer in Politics, researching on Australian national and sub-national governance (including local government in Australia), Australian party systems and Australian elections.
Michael Janover: Lecturer in Politics, researching in political theory and history of political thought with particular focus on nineteenth and twentieth century political thinkers’ interpretations of ancient Athenian democracy.
Terry MacDonald: Lecturer in globalization and world politics, researching in justice in political institutions, global social and political justice, theories of democracy and political legitimacy, globalization and non-state actors.
Narelle Miragliotta: Lecturer in Politics, researching on Australian political institutions and politics with a particular focus on green political parties, electoral systems and elections.
Paul Muldoon: Lecturer in Political Theory and Global Politics and undergraduate coordinator for politics.
Paul Strangio: Senior Lecturer in Politics, specialising in Australian political history, including party development, leadership studies and biography at national and sub-national level.
James Walter: Professor of Politics, Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences and Professor Emeritus, Griffith University; researching political institutions, political history (including history of ideas), leadership, decision/policy processes and political biography.
Dennis Woodward: Senior Lecturer in Politics, researching on Australian and Chinese national governance, Australian political parties and Australian elections.
Current projects
Anna Eriksson: Dr Eriksson is currently undertaking a major internationally comparative project on prisons and the use of punishment together with Professor John Pratt from Victoria University, New Zealand. The project is titled Penal excess and penal exceptionalism: contrasts in imprisonment between Anglophone (England, New Zealand and New South Wales representing Australia) and Scandinavian (Norway, Sweden and Finland) societies. The project will be finishing in 2011. Dr Eriksson is also undertaking further research around restorative justice, transitional justice, and community – policing partnerships.
Nick Economou: analysing participation rates in the 2008 Victorian local government elections and their implications for further reform of Victorian local government; writing a book on the Australian party system and writing a book on Victorian state governance
Michael Janover: Hannah Arendt’s phenomenological conceptions of worldliness and world-alienation. Pessimism and utopianism in Theodor Adorno’s critical theory. Re-visions of Athens: images of the polis in modern politics and philosophy.
Terry Macdonald: Dr Macdonald’s current research focuses on normative issues of justice and legitimacy that arise in relation to the institutionalised exercise of power at State, transnational and global levels. One major ongoing research project aims to identify new principles and institutions of (democratic) political justice capable of holding State and non-state actors accountable for the power they wield transnationally in the context of globalization. Another newer project aims to articulate a clear normative account of the value of political ‘legitimacy’ in liberal thought, and in doing so develop a better understanding of the conditions under which the use of violence and coercive power within social and political institutions can be morally justified.
Narelle Miragliotta – researching and analysing the nature and form of the constitutions of Australia’s green parties, including their relationship to the national structure; researching the pre-selection practices of the Australian green parties; and investigating the evolution and powers of the Australian media regulator.
Paul Muldoon: Paul is currently working on two research projects. The first seeks to shed light on contemporary debates about Indigenous citizenship by examining the principles and techniques of governance that have been applied to Indigenous people in colonial and postcolonial Australia. The second project looks at the turn to reconciliation in post-conflict and postcolonial societies and seeks to interrogate its status as a form of 'politics'.
Paul Strangio: editing a volume on the centenary of the making of the Australian two-party system in 1909-10; writing a history of the Victorian Labor Party; and collaborating on a comparative study of Australian prime ministers and the evolution of the office of prime minister.
James Walter: currently completing a book on political ideas in Australia (to be published early 2010); undertaking a collective biography of a cohort of federal politicians; and initiating a longitudinal study of the Australian prime-ministership (with Paul Strangio and Paul ‘t Hart).
Dennis Woodward: examining industrial relations changes under the Rudd government and issues of governance related to climate change.