This research shows how the Chinese Communist Party uses tailored, reactive messaging in response to regional events, and analyses the effectiveness of that messaging in shifting public discourse online.

This paper draws on evidence from several OECD publications and beyond to explore and highlight select examples of successful, child-centred civic learning practices which strengthen the democratic skills, values and knowledge of students.

Corporations play a major role in Australian democracy. They lobby governments for favourable policy outcomes. They make substantial donations to political parties and sometimes run overtly political advertising campaigns. This paper reviews the federal policies of political parties to identify which policies – if any...

Drawing on insights from Australia, India, Indonesia, Japan and Kyrgyzstan, this report connects the global decline of democracies to digital disruption and calls for strengthened regulatory frameworks along with its enforcement to prevent monied interests and hidden actors from influencing the outcome of democratic elections.

The VEC's role is to ensure all Victorians actively participate in their democracy and to deliver high quality, accessible electoral services with innovation, integrity and independence. This statement aims to provide transparency and predictability in the Commission's compliance responses.

This report sets out the need for democratic innovations and digital participation tools to move beyond one-off pilots toward more embedded and inclusive systems of decision-making.

With the new Federal Government’s commitment to the Statement from the Heart, there is a need for new narratives that support the healing of the Indigenous-State relationship in Australia to support better ways of governing that are grounded in mutual respect.

This study finds that despite drawbacks, the Chinese messaging app, WeChat, plays a vital role in the democratic participation of Chinese-Australians. It argues that the greatest challenge with WeChat remains a lack of regulatory oversight from the Australian government and the platform’s niche role within...

This annual poll reveals that in 2022, Australians report feeling unsafe, and as the potential for conflict in our region feels more possible. Support for Australia’s alliance with the United States has returned to a record high, with the majority of Australians now supporting increased...

This summary report represents a sample of the rich insights and views of Canada’s senior public servants on their work and their institutions. Readers and researchers are well advised to take the time and review the detailed reports more closely, to draw additional lessons and...

In this paper, the authors argue democratic reforms to enhance the influence of ordinary and underpowered citizens over public policy are a necessary component of any strategy to recapture lost electorates and reinforce the foundations of democracy.

This paper outlines reforms for consideration by parliamentarians and the Australian government. Some are well developed and long promised, and require only the political will to implement. Others still require careful consideration and development. Many would have accumulative effects, with reforms in one area making...

This research highlights how the powers of detention in the Victorian government’s pandemic management legislation could be struck down for being incompatible with the Australian Constitution.

Using case studies from experts in fields such as computer science, law and public policy, this special report offers recommendations to guide policy-makers and stakeholders on how to protect elections from next-generation technologies and the threats they pose to democracy.

A year after what many considered one of the darkest periods in American history sees the United States experiencing the worst inflation in 40 years, more deaths from COVID-19 occurring during the Biden Administration than the Trump Administration, and its closest allies experiencing 'American-style' protests...

Three decades after Sir Tim Berners-Lee created the first web server, the technologies that once promised to usher in a new era of democracy are now also being used to spread disinformation and sow distrust. Amid a global pandemic and the contentious political events surrounding...

Disinformation has fundamentally altered the functioning of our public square and our democracy. Increasingly, fair and factual debate is a rarity. The experiment outlined in this report sought to test Facebook’s ad review system by attempting to approve advertisements that explicitly promoted election disinformation narratives...

This report evaluates the state of freedom in 195 countries and 15 territories during calendar year 2021. The report assesses the real-world rights and freedoms enjoyed by individuals, rather than governments or government performance per se. Political rights and civil liberties can be affected by...

This is the first paper to be published as part of the Institute for Government/Bennett Institute review of the UK constitution. It looks at the purpose of constitutions, how the UK constitution fulfils that purpose and some of the key problems that have been revealed...

Policy-making is a complex and nuanced process, where policy actors must make sense of constantly evolving information in order to deliver policies that best serve the needs of the people. In this study, the authors apply a framework to assess the transparency of evidence use...

This report explores how the powerful fossil fuel, gambling and tobacco industries are attempting to take advantage of Australia’s weak integrity laws, thereby distorting the nation's democratic processes, to put profits ahead of society's wellbeing.

This report shows how support for populist politics ‘collapsed’ during the COVID-19 pandemic, but satisfaction with democracy also continued to falter.

Trust between citizens and their governments is crucial for the legitimacy and functioning of democracies. This paper discusses the main determinants of people’s trust in public institutions and their measurement, in times of crisis as well as for a long-term, strong, inclusive and green recovery.

While there is such a thing as society, it doesn’t happen by accident. Increasingly, the state needs to take a leading role in building and shaping it – we need a 'gravitational state' that pulls people together into a society. This paper is the last...