This paper summarizes the major findings of a three-year research project to investigate the Internet’s impact on Russian politics, media and society. We employed multiple methods to study online activity: the mapping and study of the structure, communities and content of the blogosphere; an analogous mapping and study of Twitter; content analysis of different media...

The Federation is the cornerstone of the Australian nation and at the very heart of our constitutional democracy, both historically and culturally. However, it is increasingly not working well and needs updating and modernising. The balance of power within the Federation has shifted increasingly to the centre, with an accompanying degree of resentment and distrust...

Since the end of the Cold War, much international attention has been devoted to building democracies to replace authoritarian regimes. East Timor, Afghanistan, Iraq and last year’s Arab Spring are examples of this movement. But women seem to be the consistent losers in the new democracies: why is this so and what can we do...

To most people, the idea that Mahatma Gandhi was more violent than Adolf Hitler would seem preposterous. When you’re speaking to Slavoj Žižek, however, such a suggestion is par for the course. Žižek has argued that Gandhi led a movement that challenged imperial hegemony and articulated an alternative to it, whereas Hitler’s violence was oriented...

Two major narratives have emerged to explain the so-called ‘Arab Spring’. The first and most popular narrative sees the removal of Ben Ali and Hosni Mabarak as part of the continuing long march of democracy. According to this view, the Arab Spring is a result of westernised youth wired up via social networking media, fired...