Lobbying and minority government in Australia: The concept of the marginal member

Within Westminster-based majority parliaments, the presence of minority government runs contrary to the conventional wisdom. Over the last 40 years, however, there has been a steady voting trend away from major parties in many of these parliaments. The complex composition of the Australian Senate after July 2014 reinforces that non-ministerial marginal members continue to be a vital part of the political landscape. This article introduces the concept of the marginal member and examines the potential influence of these members for legislative outcomes and lobbying success. In doing so, the article provides a heuristic through which to identify avenues of policy influence and presents a range of strategies for lobbyists working with marginal members within minority-government contexts.

在英式多数制议会内,少数党政府的存不符合传统的智慧。在以往40年里,许多英式议会出现了一种偏离多数党的稳定趋势。澳大利亚参院2014年之后的复杂构成,说明非内阁边缘成员依然是政治格局中有活力的部分。本文提出了边缘成员的概念,考察了他们对立法结果及游说成败的潜在影响力。本文提供了一种关于政策影响渠道的思路,以及在少数党政府的情况下如何游说边缘成员的一系列办法。     

Profiling Politicians in Solomon Islands: Professionalisation of a Political Elite?

This article examines the key attributes of members of parliament from Solomon Islands. Drawing on bio-data on MPs, interviews and election results, the authors’ findings show that politicians are getting older, have atypical education levels and are from an increasingly diverse range of occupational backgrounds. The authors also find that, while Solomon Islands MPs are a political elite of sorts, they remain tightly tied to their communities. They consider the implications of these findings for research on developmental leadership, political professionalisation and elite theory. They argue that none of these three literatures adequately captures the political trajectories of politicians in Solomon Islands but that this case study contributes to research in these areas.

本文探讨了所罗门群岛议会成员的一些重要属性。作者根据对议员们传记、访谈和选举结果等资料的研究,发现政治家年龄越来越大,教育水平不太典型,职业背景愈益多样。作者同时发现,所罗门群岛议员虽属政治精英,但与各自的社群都保持紧密的联系。作者讨论了这些发现对于发展型领导人、政治职业化及精英理论所具有的意义。作者指出,这三方方面的文献都未能捕捉到所罗门群岛政治家的政治轨迹,而本研究却对此有所贡献。     

The visual dehumanisation of refugees

Dealing with refugees is one of the most contested political issues in Australia. We examine how media images of asylum seekers have framed ensuing debates during two crucial periods over the past decade. By conducting a content analysis of newspaper front pages we demonstrate that asylum seekers have primarily been represented as medium or large groups and through a focus on boats. We argue that this visual framing, and in particular the relative absence of images that depict individual asylum seekers with recognisable facial features, associates refugees not with a humanitarian challenge, but with threats to sovereignty and security. These dehumanising visual patterns reinforce a politics of fear that explains why refugees are publicly framed as people whose plight, dire as it is, nevertheless does not generate a compassionate political response.

如何对待难民是澳大利亚一个最具争议的政治话题。我们考察了在过去十年中的两个关键时期中媒体的避难者形象是如何影响接下来辩论的。根据笔者对报纸的头版所做的内容分析,避难者主要被再现为中、大型群体,多集中在船上。我们认为,这样的视觉形象、尤其是缺少描画个体避难者脸部特征的形象,不会将避难者同人道主义问题联系起来,而只会同威胁主权及安全相链接。这类非人性化的视觉模式强化了恐惧的政治,这也解释了为什么公众认为难民境遇凄惨,却不给他们政治上的同情。     

Evolving membership strategies in Australian political parties

Like parties elsewhere, the Australian parties have witnessed a decline in membership activism in recent years and some have suggested that near memberless parties may become the norm. Drawing on elite interviews, party documents and examination of recent organisational reforms, we argue that parties continue to need members and view their involvement as essential to achieving their objectives. In response to declining rates of activism parties have begun to experiment with different forms of membership, such as policy branches, and to expand the traditional notion of membership to include ‘supporters’. We show that membership is a flexible concept that is used by parties to fulfil their institutional functions and electoral objectives, and is defined in unique ways in each sphere of activity. We suggest that accounts of party decline relying on formal membership numbers may be inaccurate.

同其他国家的政党一样,澳大利亚的政党近年来也经历了党员参与的滑坡,以至有人认为无党员政党会成为常态。笔者根据对精英的访谈、政党的文献以及对近年组织改革的考察,指出政党还是要有党员的,党员的参与对于实现政党的目标至关重要。针对参与率走低的情况,一些政党开始尝试不同的参与形式,如政策支部,并延展传统的党员概念,把支持者也包括进来。党员是一个灵活的概念,一些政党用它来实现其体制功能和竞选目的,在每一个活动范围内都有独特的定义。根据正式成员人数统计出来的政党参与走低,是不准确的。     

Research NotePork-Barrelling in Australian Politics: A Reconsideration of Leigh

This research note replicates Leigh's (2008) analysis of pork-barrelling in Australian politics and tests the validity of his findings using geographic techniques. Distributive politics is integral to nearly all theories of legislative politics because it is fundamental to the connection between legislators and constituents, and can be used to facilitate coalition-building. This note addresses an aspect of pork-barrelling that has been overlooked in most previous scholarship. It argues that distributive politics is, at its core, a geographic, constituency-centred process. It is therefore essential to reconsider the conventional models and take geography into account in both substantive and statistical terms. To that end, we replicate several of Leigh's results using a relatively new technique, Geographically Weighted Regression, and reveal substantial spatial heterogeneity in the coefficients. Our findings highlight the importance of political geography and have important implications for studies of legislative politics and elections.

本文重复了李（2008）对澳大利亚政治分肥拨款的分析,用地理学技术检测了其发现有效性。分配政治内在于几乎所有的立法政治理论,因为它是立法者与选民之间联系的基础,有利于联盟的构建。本文探讨了分肥拨款被以往学术研究所忽略的一个方面。作者认为,分配政治其核心是一个地理的、以选区为中心的过程。因此有必要重新检讨固有的模式,切实而且从统计的意义上采纳地理的视角。我们使用了一种相对新近的技术,即地理加权回归分析来重复李的几个成果,发现空间同质系数很高。我们的发现突出了政治地理的重要性,对于立法政治以及选举的研究有参考意义。     

Administrative learning or political blaming? Public servants,parliamentary committees and the drama of public accountability

In theory, within Westminster systems the buck stops with the minister. Ministers are responsible for the actions of their departments and accountable for policy outcomes. In practice, it is often senior public servants rather than their ministerial masters who face the fierce questions of parliamentary committees when things go wrong. This article uses dramaturgy theory and blame theory to assess whether the nature of the parliamentary committee setting encourages or inhibits opportunities for a ‘learning’ type of accountability. Through a comparative study of committee appearances by public servants in the UK and Australia, the article argues that the adversarial nature of committee hearings encourages ‘blame games’ that do little to guarantee better decision-making in the future.

从理论上讲,西敏制下的大臣再不能推脱责任。大臣需要对其部门的行动、对政策结果负责。但在实践中,出了问题,通常是高级官员而非各部大臣面对议会专门委员会的激烈质询。本文借用演剧理论及责备理论评估议会内委员会的设置是有利于还是不利于学习型的问责。通过比较英澳两国议会委员会的样态,作者认为委员会听证的对抗性质只是鼓励“责备”,并不利于未来的正确决策。     

The Borda Count and its real-world alternatives: Comparing scoring rules in Nauru and Slovenia

This article examines strategic elements of voter behaviour in parliamentary elections where the voting method is a scoring rule other than plurality: the Borda Count, which is used for the election of ethnic minorities in Slovenia, and the Dowdall rule, which is used in the Pacific island state of Nauru in multi-seat districts. After first examining the general properties of scoring rules, and generating theoretical differences between the two rules, we look at empirical evidence from Nauru and Slovenia. This casts a doubt on predictions based simply on a voting rule's mathematical properties and on the accuracy of assumptions of sincere rank ordering.

本文研究了议会选举投票者行为的策略因素。议会选举中的投票方法是一个有别于多数法的计分法则：斯洛文尼亚少数族群选举使用的波达计数法;太平洋岛屿国家瑙鲁多席位选区使用的斗多尔法则。作者首先分析了计分法则的一般属性,并对两种法则做了理论区分。然后研究了瑙鲁和斯洛文尼亚的实证资料。作者对仅仅基于投票规则数学属性的预测以及有关纯粹排行假设的精确性表示了质疑。     

Rethinking representation: The challenge of non-humans

This article argues that the standard model of political representation mischaracterises the structure of representation. After surveying the classical types of representation and their application to non-humans, the basic nature of representation is shown to have been unduly centred on interests, responsiveness and unidirectional protocols. It proposes a different structure by drawing inspiration from recent scholarship and developments in political philosophy, as well as the representation of non-human actors. It proposes an ontological grounding of representation in ‘irreducible multiplicity’, and a structural analysis based on the concepts of claim and relation. This abstract form of representation can take into account both human and non-human cases, and works to ground different typologies. The relational structure of representation creates interests and preferences, subjects and actors, power dynamics and seemingly immutable identities.

作者认为,标准的政治代表模式错误地勾画了代表的结构。作者首先考察了代表的经典类型并将其应用于非人类,指出关于代表的本质,以往过多强调利益、反应、单向协议等等。作者根据从近年学术研究、政治哲学以及非人类主体的代表性那里得到的灵感,提出了另一种结构。文章指出代表的本体论根据在于不可简化的多重性。作者还提出了一种基于诉求和关系概念的结构分析。这种抽象代表形式既考虑了人类也考虑非人类的情况,并为不同的类型提供了根据。代表的关系结构造就了利益和偏好、对象和主体、权力的动态以及看似不变的身份。     

Classifying electoral systems by input rules: Building on Blais and Rae through Australian experience

By revisiting the work of Blais and Rae, this article develops a new classification of electoral systems focused on input rules. An Unknown Winning Number family is distinguished from a Quota family with known winning numbers for most of the counting process. Branching family trees are developed and used to help explain some Australian experience with accentuated disproportionality in two electoral systems which have been omitted from otherwise path-breaking recent analysis (Taagepera, R. and Shugart, M.S. 1989. Seats and votes: The effects and determinants of electoral systems. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press). These omitted systems are identified as effectively giving electors as many votes as seats available in a district. The input-rule family trees remind us that number of votes is an important component of electoral systems, although elusive and somewhat forgotten in much recent analysis. More conventional groupings of electoral systems are identified as output peer groups.

本文通过重读布莱斯和雷的著作,提出了一种强调输入规则的选举制度的新分类,即未知获胜票数系,以区别于为大多数计票过程所知的获胜票数配额系。该系及其分支有助于解释澳大利亚所经历的两种选举体制的某种不均衡性。这种不均衡性被本来可能具有开创性的最新分析（塔格佩拉与舒噶特的《席位与投票：选举制度的效果和成因》）所忽略。被忽略的制度有效地给予就一个选区既定席位而言尽可能多的票数。输入规则系告诉我们投票数是选举制度的重要组成部分,只是在最新的分析中没被正视,甚至被忽视了。选举制度更传统的分类被定为输出同类组。     

Discursive Representation and Pearson's Quest for a Radical Centre

Noel Pearson is one of Australia's most prominent and influential Indigenous intellectuals. This article examines a major idea in Pearson's writing, the ‘quest for a radical centre’. It examines this idea from the perspective of both its usefulness in understanding the deficiencies in public conversation about Indigenous affairs, and its persuasiveness in legitimating the role that Pearson has played nationally as a champion of the Indigenous responsibility discourse. The article argues that conceptualising public debate as a quest for a radical centre resonates strongly with the theory of deliberative democracy. Similar to Dryzek and Niemeyer's work on ‘discursive representation’, the idea of the radical centre reveals the legitimacy possessed by unelected champions of discourses.

诺艾尔·皮尔森是澳大利亚最杰出的原住民知识分子。本文考察了皮尔森写作的一个主要思想,“探索激进的中心”。在作者看来,这思想有助于理解有关土著事务的公共对话的缺陷,它还让皮尔森在全国扮演的角色——土著人责任话语的捍卫者——富于说服力。将公共辩论理解为对激进中心的探索,这与商议民主的理论非常合拍。与德雷泽克和尼美耶论“话语代表性”的著作相类,激进中心的思想指出了未被选择的话语卫士的合理性。     

The politics of memory: Commemorating the centenary of the First World War

This symposium examines how the centenary of the First World War has been marked in five countries: Australia, France, Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States. Given their distinctive national historical experiences and political cultures, the metanarratives of the war in these countries differ; as does the relationship between the state and sub-state actors in memory making. However, in each case the commemorations of the war have been shaped by a negotiation between the state and other agents of memory at the sub-state level. National memory has also been consciously projected into international relations, through carefully orchestrated anniversary ceremonies and performative memorial diplomacy. But, despite these transnational commemorative practices, the centenary of the war remains predominantly framed within local and national imaginings.

这次研讨会议论了一战百年在奥地利、法国、德国、英国、美国这五个国家是如何庆祝的。考虑到各国不同的历史经验以及政治文化,这些国家关于一战的元叙事各不相同,国家与次国家主体关系的记忆也是如此。不过,每个国家的战争纪念,都是国家与其他次国家层面主体协商的结果。通过精心策划的纪念仪式日以及表演性纪念外交,国家记忆被有意识地投射到了国际关系之中。除了这些跨国纪念活动,一战的记忆主要是在地方以及国家的想象框架内形成的。     

Conceptualising Australia's tradition of pragmatic federalism

This article reviews existing scholarly debates about Australia's pragmatic federalism and seeks to refine it conceptually. It does so against the background of burgeoning international governance literature informed by insights from philosophical pragmatism, as well as in the context of disjuncture in Australian inter-governmental experiences. Pragmatic federalism is posed not merely as a one-dimensional notion referencing a series of ad hoc inter-governmental arrangements over time. Rather, it is conceptualised as multi-dimensional and encapsulating a confined range of institutional designs and postures that can (potentially) be observed across different policy fields and over time. An initial demonstration of the utility of the heuristic to recent empirical experience and change is presented. The consequence is more serious engagement with both the formal and informal features that characterise inter-governmental arrangements at different levels of government, and attention to the degrees to which dialogue and practices are connected.

本文考察了有关澳大利亚实用联邦制的学术辩论,并试图将其概念精炼。本文写作背景包含了开始出现的国际治理文献、哲学实用主义以及澳大利益政府间关系的裂变。实用主义联邦制并非仅仅是参考了一系列政府间安排的单面观念。它是一个多面的、包括一系列制度方案和姿态,而这些在不同政策领域内,在很长时间内都是可以观察到的。本文对近年的实证经验及变化的阐释功用做了初步的说明。最后是对于不同政府级别上的政府间正式及非正式特征更为严肃的介入,对于对话与实践关联程度的关注。     

Leadership and the media: Gendered framings of Julia Gillard's ‘sexism and misogyny’ speech

This article analyses Australian media portrayals of former Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard's ‘sexism and misogyny’ speech to parliament in October 2012. Our analysis reveals that coverage of the speech comprised three principal gendered framings: strategic attack, uncontrolled emotional outpouring and hypocrisy. We argue that these framings demonstrate the role the media plays as a gendered mediator, perpetuating the gender double bind that constrains female political leaders, as they negotiate the demand to demonstrate masculine leadership attributes without tarnishing the feminine qualities expected of them. In this instance, gendered media framings limited the saliency of Gillard's speech, curtailed calls for wider introspection on Australian political culture and further disassociated women from political leadership.

本文分析了澳大利亚媒体围绕前总理朱丽娅吉拉德2012年在国会的所做“歧视、憎恶女性”的发言对她所做的描画。对那次讲话的报道主要由三个性别镜框构成。一是战略进攻,二是情绪宣泄,三是伪善。我们认为,这些镜框显示了媒体作为性别化的中介,加固了对女性政治领袖性别上的双重束缚：这些领袖既要展示阳刚的领导作风又要不失社会所期待的一些女性气质。在这个案例中,性别化的媒体报道,将吉拉德讲话狭隘化,妨碍了对澳大利亚政治文化的反思,割裂了女性与政治领导的关系。     

The changing nature of the Australian welfare state: A critical analysis of the ACOSS campaign to increase the Newstart Allowance

The Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS) is Australia's leading welfare advocacy group. During 2011–13, ACOSS coordinated a high-profile campaign to lift the rate of the Newstart allowance for the unemployed. The campaign used a number of advocacy strategies such as policy reports, petitions, media releases, support from other key interest groups and consultations with parliamentarians, but was unsuccessful in persuading the Labor government to amend the payment rate. This article argues that the campaign was always going to struggle to succeed given the Australian welfare state's historical preference for labour market engagement over broader social rights. Other barriers included the budget deficit, the increasing influence of social-investment philosophy which prioritises active rather than passive social protection, the general international trend towards payment conditionality and the challenge of advocating policy change against combined opposition from the two major political parties.

澳大利亚社会服务委员会是该国首要的一个福利促进团体。在2011年到2013年间,该团体组织了一场很高调的运动,要求提高失业人员的补贴。该运动采取了一系列促进措施,如政策报告、请愿、媒体发布、争取其他重要利益群体的支持、接触国会议员等等,但未能说服工党政府修改支付率。鉴于澳大利亚福利政府历史上一向重劳动力市场的约定而轻广泛的社会权利,该运动也就总在奋斗不辍。其他障碍包括预算赤字、社会投资哲学（优先积极而非消极的社会保护）日增的影响、薪酬限制的国际大趋势、促进针对两个主要反对党联盟的政策改变的问题,等等。     

The Women,Peace and Security agenda: Australia and the agency of girls

This article argues that young women and girls are significant stakeholders in peace and security efforts. Understanding their roles, views and capacity is essential to an adequate perspective on peace and security. Yet girls remain the most marginalised group when it comes to peace and security efforts globally. Gender- and age-based hierarchies often leave their interests ignored. Excluding girls hinders prospects for sustainable peace by denying their rights, entrenching inequity and affecting future chances for increasing women's participation. Australian government statements on Women, Peace and Security are evaluated on how they relate to young women and girls. The article presents a series of cases to analyse how young women are impacted by security factors, how they are actively working to create peace and security, and how to better include girls in seeking peace. Options for action by Australian policymakers are discussed.

本文指出,青少年女性是和平与安全努力的重要相关方。正确的和平安全观需要理解这些青少年女性的角色、观点和能力。但全世界但凡涉及和平安全,女孩都是一个最边缘化的群体。性别及年龄的等级制忽视了她们的利益。对女孩的排斥拒绝了她们的权利,强化了不平等,妨碍了妇女未来的参与,这都不利于未来的持久和平。作者评估了澳大利亚政府关于妇女、和平及安全的宣示与青少年女性有多大关系。本文分析了安全因素如何影响年轻女性,青年女性右如何积极致力于创建和平及安全,和平事业该如何吸收女孩等等。作者还讨论了澳大利亚政策制定者的行动选择。     

Astroturf and populism in Australia: The Convoy of No Confidence

The ‘Convoy of No Confidence’ was a trucking convoy that converged on Canberra in 2011 in a failed attempt to force the Gillard Labor government to an early election. At the time, there was widespread speculation that it was an ‘astroturf’ or synthetic grassroots movement. This article assesses the extent to which this alleged astroturf event exhibited populist elements, measured against Taggart's definition of populism. Unlike most Australian populist movements, which have been hostile towards all major parties (or all the big banks), the convoy's participants directed their anger almost entirely towards the Gillard government. In this, they were joined by Coalition politicians and right-wing media. The article finds that such one-sidedness is insufficient to characterise the convoy definitively as an Astroturf group, and therefore not genuinely populist. It also suggests that there may be a continuum between populist and astroturf movements.

“不信任游”是2011年坎贝拉的一次失败的卡车游行,意在迫使吉拉德工党政府提前大选。这是一个“人工草皮”或合成的草根运动。本文根据泰格特的民粹主义定义,探讨了这次所谓草根运动到底包含多少民粹因素。与仇视所有主要政党的大多数澳大利亚民粹主义运动不一样,这次游行的参与者把愤怒完全投向吉拉德政府。因此,他们得到了联盟政治家以及右翼媒体的联手。作者发现,由于这种单面性,该运动算不上草根群体,并非真正的民粹主义。作者认为,在民粹与人工草根运动之间存在着一个量变的连续体。     

Rethinking grassroots campaigners in the digital media: The ‘grassroots orchestra’ in Italy

The diffusion of digital media allows the emergence of new types of relations between grassroots campaigners and organisers. This article presents the results of a comparative qualitative study of two Italian cases of grassroots online participation: a local electoral campaign and a single-issue social movement. The first case is ‘Tell your Milano’, a project that took place during the electoral campaign for Mayor of Milan in the spring of 2011. The second case is the ‘Purple People’ (Popolo Viola), an Italian social movement started in 2009 to demand the resignation of the Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi. The article introduces the concept of a ‘grassroots orchestra’: a grassroots campaign aimed at a short-term objective, coordinated by a non-grassroots political actor and performed by a community sharing a uniform and coherent context.

数字媒体的扩散导致了草根运动家与组织者之间新型关系的出现。本文对两个意大利草根在线参与案例——一为地方选举运动,一为独立议题社会运动——做了对比定性研究。前一个案例是所谓“告诉你一个马力诺”,是2011年春米兰市长选举中的一项活动。另一个“紫色人民”始于2009年,是一个要求贝卢斯科尼总理辞职的社会运动。本文引进了“草根乐队”的概念,意即短期目标的草根运动,由非草根政治主体协调,并由处在同一语境中的一个社群来完成。     

Commemoration in the United Kingdom: A multitude of memories

In the United Kingdom (UK) the centenary commemoration of the First World War has been driven by a combination of central government direction (and funding) with a multitude of local and community initiatives, with a particular focus on 4 August 2014; 1 July 2016 (the beginning of the Battle of the Somme) and 11 November 2018. ‘National’ ceremonies on these dates have been and will be supplemented with projects commemorating micro-stories and government-funded opportunities for schoolchildren to visit Great War battlefields, the latter clearly aimed to reinforce a contemporary sense of civic and national obligation and service. This article explores the problematic nature of this approach, together with the issues raised by the multi-national nature of the UK state itself.

英国的一战百年纪念是由中央政府指导（并出资）,地方及社区发动,焦点是2014年8月4日、2016年7月1日（索姆河战役）、2018年11月1日。这些纪念日的国家仪式之外还有微观事迹的纪念项目,以及政府资助在校儿童参观一战战场之类,后者的目的显然在于加强当代公民与国家的责任及服务意识。本文讨论了这种做法的问题所在,以及英国政府本身的多民族性所带来的问题。     

The Australian mining tax and the political power of business

This article provides a detailed analysis of the Australian Labor government's mining tax, building on recent debates that critique Lindblom's Politics and markets. We argued that the case illustrates the power of big business, in particular the importance of the relative flexibility of large companies, especially in the form of ‘investment strikes’, although such a strategy is more constrained in the resource sector. We also explore two other key factors. First, we analyse Lindblom's argument that government has resources which big business needs, and suggest that this argument depends on governments being competent in negotiations with large companies. We find that the claim did not apply to the case of the mining tax. Second, we analyse his view that business power owes a great deal to the manipulation of citizens' ‘volitions’. We find some evidence to support this claim, but again suggest that the failure of the government to effectively make the case for a mining tax helped business.

本文就最近有关林德·布罗姆《政治与市场》一书的辩论,对澳大利亚工党政府的矿业税做了详尽的分析。笔者指出,矿业税说明了大企业的力量,尤其是大公司的相对灵活性,特别是他们的“投资罢工”,尽管在资源部门这种策略受到了扼制。笔者还探讨了另外两个关键因素。第一个是林德·布罗姆观点,即政府有大企业所需的资源。此论的根据是政府有能力与大公司讨价还价。笔者认为,这种说法并不适用于矿业税。第二个是,林德·布罗姆认为企业力量很大程度要受公民“意志”的左右。此说有一定根据,但政府未能搞定矿业税则帮了企业。