Zareh Ghazarian

Teaching Australian politics

Units that introduce students to the study of politics and government are among the most popular in the social sciences at the tertiary level (see Crozier 2001; Cushman 1993). As these units are often the starting point to a major in political science, they must equip students with foundational knowledge. Moreover, students need to find these units engaging and stimulating in order maintain interest in the field and

The voting strategies of young people: a conceptual framework

ABSTRACT This study offers a new framework for understanding the decision-making strategies of first-time voters. Using data from in-depth interviews with young people prior to the 2013 Australian federal election, the paper explores the extent to which our participants were knowledgeable about the upcoming election and the degree to which they invested cognitive effort into making their voting choice. The analysis reveals five distinct voting strategy typologies, which we use to construct a conceptual model that identifies and describes different voting approaches employed by young people. The findings show that young people are not a homogenous group of disinterested and disengaged voters. Instead, within a population of young citizens there are varying levels of interest and effort being invested into electoral participation.

A party reborn? The new Democratic Labor Party in Australian politics

This article analyses the new Democratic Labor Party (DLP) in Australian politics. Created in the 1950s, following a split in the Labor Party, the original DLP primarily aimed to stop Labor from regaining government while opposing communism. It won a number of Senate seats from 1955 to 1970 but failed to win further parliamentary representation once Labor regained government in 1972. In recent years, however, the DLP has won representation in Australian parliaments. It won a seat in the Victorian Parliament in 2006, and in 2010 the party returned to federal politics when it won a seat in the Senate. This article argues that the modern party is significantly different to its earlier incarnation. Rather than seeking to oppose Labor or communism, the new DLP is primarily concerned with advancing a conservative moral agenda linked to broad social movements. In analysing the new DLP, it is argued that the party resembles a modern “issue-competitive” type of minor party rather than the spoiler type of party it was from the 1950s to 1970s.

Marian Simms and John Wanna (eds), Julia 2010: The Caretaker Election

appointment (direct election versus parliamentary appointment) and methods of removal from office. She concludes forthrightly that these latter issues are mere ‘incidents, though significant ones’ (p. 80). In ‘The Incremental Republic’ Fenna begins from the premise that, following Brian Galligan, the task is to ‘regularize the republic’ because ‘in many respects, Australia, like the United Kingdom, is already a republic’ (p. 127). If this is the case, Fenna argues, then ‘nothing radical is being proposed’ (p. 127). The discussion that follows is wide-ranging and typically creative. He demolishes a number of the myths propounded by defenders of the status quo, such as the idea that the present constitution has underpinned Australian stability: ‘Constitutions are not that powerful’ (p. 133). Fenna’s second assumption is that direct election is the only way forward. He sees this as taking reform in a welcome direction because ‘it would require us to give serious consideration to reforming those existing arrangements’ (p. 136). He proposes incremental steps, beginning by bringing the written State and Commonwealth constitutions into line with the actual Westminster situation, which ‘would help circumscribe the legal powers of the head of state in a way that could substantially assuage concerns about direct election’ (p. 138). He describes this strategy as leading from below, and proposes moving forward on two fronts: ‘bringing the Commonwealth Constitution into line with established constitutional practices and seeking innovation at the State level’ (p. 143). Where does this leave republican activists? In a typically sharp, but generally pessimistic summary of the proceedings Craven notes sagely that there can be no substitute for individual and organisational effort by republicans as there will be ‘no such thing as the Lucky Republic’ (p. 178).