Glenn Kefford

The Presidentialisation of Australian Politics? Kevin Rudd's Leadership of the Australian Labor Party

The presidentialisation debate centres on the question of whether contemporary political leaders in parliamentary systems are more powerful than their predecessors. This article applies the presidentialisation thesis of Poguntke and Webb (2005) to the period in which Kevin Rudd led the federal parliamentary Labor Party in Australia. Their model identifies three distinct faces of presidentialisation: the executive face, the party face and the electoral face. This article argues that the evidence of presidentialisation under Rudds leadership is mixed. The most compelling evidence is reflected in how Rudd interacted with the Labor Party, rather than his interaction with the executive or impact on voting behaviour. 关于总统化的辩论集中于当前国会的政治领袖是否比他们的前任更有权力。本文将普刚克和韦博（2005）的总统化理论应用于陆克文领导澳大利亚联邦议会工党的时期。他们二人总结了总统化的三个方面：行政面、党派面、选举面。本文指出，陆克文领导时期总统化的证据含混不清。最有说服力的证据倒是反映在陆克文与工党而不是与政府的互动或对选举行为的影响上。

Ballots and Billions: Clive Palmer's Personal Party

ABSTRACT Founded and led by the billionaire businessman, Clive Palmer, the Palmer United Party (PUP) achieved what was arguably the best debut result of recent decades at the 2013 Australian federal election. This article examines PUPs ideology, organisation and campaigning strategies along with the implications of its experiences to date for Australian party politics. Based on an analysis of original party documents, policies, media communications and semi-structured interviews with PUP candidates and key figures across Australia, we find evidence of a party which is utterly dominated by its leader, which was deliberately never built to last, whose ideology cannot be easily classified and whose campaigning was well-funded but extremely disorganised. We conclude that its experience shows how more professionalised new personal parties in Australia should be able to do even better electorally in the future.

Inside the personal party: leader-owners, light organizations and limited lifespans

Scholars in recent decades have discussed the emergence of a new leader-dominated party type, variously described as ‘personal’, ‘personalistic’ and ‘personalist’. However, there has been no original comparative research examining whether (and how) such parties resemble one another organizationally and whether they constitute a distinct organizational type. This article does so by comparing the parties of Silvio Berlusconi in Italy and Clive Palmer in Australia. Based on interviews with those in the parties and party documents, we find our cases share two distinctive organizational features: (1) the founder-leader’s dominance of the party and perceived centrality to its survival and (2) the relationship between the party and members saw active members discouraged and organization at the local level was extremely limited/non-existent. Building on this analysis, we then propose three criteria for identifying other personal parties and point to the existence of a possible subtype. We conclude that the emergence of personal parties requires us to reconsider our understanding of contemporary party organizations in advanced democracies.

Rethinking small political parties: from micro to peripheral

ABSTRACT It is frequently suggested that ‘micro parties’ are opportunist organisations out to ‘game the system’. These parties are regularly compared with supposed minor parties. There are two problems with this approach. First, attempts to operationalise ‘micro party’ have been ad hoc. Second, comparisons between ‘micro’ and minor parties are erroneous as a party type is being compared with a classification based on the relevance of parties in the party system. In rethinking small parties, the term ‘micro party’ should be discarded as it lacks utility. Parties referred to as ‘micro parties’ should be re-classified, and the classification of parties in the party system needs refinement. In particular, we should include an additional class of party in these classifications, peripheral parties.

Bridging the information gap: A survey of politics and international relations PhD students in Australia

This article analyses the results of the first exclusive survey of politics and international relations PhD students in Australia. The survey was completed by 186 students from 22 universities. Students were asked 54 questions covering five areas: candidate choices, degree structure, research interests, workload pressures and the role of the Australian Political Studies Association (APSA). Our findings indicate that students base their choice of institution on pre-existing personal relationships rather than university reputation or research expertise; want more coursework and methodological training; believe scholarship-application outcomes are not based on merit; feel they cannot meet the fields workload expectations; and are unaware of APSA. This article raises important questions about the opportunities and support that individual academics, departments and university administrations provide to potential and existing students. 本文分析了澳大利亚首次政治学与国际关系学博士生专门调查的结果。调查涉及22所大学的186位学生。这些学生回答了涵盖五个领域的54个问题，包括博士候选人选择、学位结构、研究兴趣、课业负担以及澳大利亚政治学会的作用。我们的研究发现：学生对院校的选择基于既有的个人关系而非学校的研究声誉；他们希望更多的课业、更多的方法训练；他们认为奖学金申请的结果根据的不是能力表现；他们认为自己达不到所学领域的课业期待；他们不了解澳大利亚政治学会。本文就个体院系管理方提供给在读和潜在学生的机会和支持提出了一些重要的问题。

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Agency, institutional stretch and structural adjustment: The Australian Labor Party 2006-2013

This article examines the case study of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) from December 2006 to October 2013. During this period the party fought three federal elections. In 2007 they won government after 11 years in opposition. In 2010 they were required to form a minority government to stay in power and in 2013 they were comprehensively defeated. Beneath the surface though, party leaders were able to exercise agency to stretch their influence beyond their prescribed authority and to contribute directly to unexpected structural reform in the party. Altering the way the party leader was selected had up to this point been resisted by Australia’s major parties. This article will explore the context in which this period of stretch and reform occurred and will compare the ALP case to the pre-existing literature on institutional stretch and expansion of the leadership selectorate.