The referral of power by the states to the Commonwealth was effective in "fixing" the Corporations Law by replacing it with the Corporations Act. But it has proved to be no more than a stop-gap measure, doing nothing to remedy the fact that the constitution, as interpreted by the High Court, no longer provides an...

Robert Putnam's influential book about 'social capital', Bowling Alone, uses volunteering as an index of civic participation and argues that the imminent decline of volunteering signals a potential crisis for democracy. Volunteering: The Human Face of Democracy by Jennifer Wilkinson and Michael Bittman challenges the assumptions underpinning Putnam's ideas.