Critiquing the heteronormativity of the banal citizen in New Zealand's mediated civil union debate

This article extends Billig's (1995) landmark thesis on banal nationalism by considering how processes of national deixis circumscribe the boundaries of citizenship and forms of belonging within nation-states. Drawing on critical analyses of sexual citizenship, the article provides a discursive analysis of the debate over civil union in the New Zealand mainstream press during 2004–2005. It argues that this mediated debate represented an historical moment where the routine deictic flagging of the nation, and the correlated flagging of the ‘banal citizen’, fundamentally broke down, thereby allowing this unmarked and ‘ordinary’ process to be systematically examined. Four major discourses are identified in press coverage: ‘Homosexual’ subjects as abnormal and disordered, tolerance, equality and human rights, the sanctity of marriage and the preservation of the family (and the social order). Although the passing of the Civil Union Act does mark a (faltering) step forward in sexual equality, we argue that the presence of these discourses suggests that forms of both ontological and cultural heterosexism persist in New Zealand society. Despite the Act conferring new legal rights, ultimately we conclude that the four discourses act to restrict the extent to which ‘homosexual’ subjects are considered ‘valid’ and ‘legitimate’ citizens. In continuing to structure the public politics of sexual citizenship in New Zealand, these discourses have influenced recent debates over legislative moves towards ‘marriage equality’ in ways that raise concerns over the continuation of heterosexist norms, as well as exclusionary forms of homo-nationalism. More generally, this research demonstrates the effectiveness of Billig's work as a valuable and productive analytic lens to explicate concerns over the exclusionary nature of citizenship itself.     

The politics of lowering the voting age in Australia: Evaluating the evidence

There is a vigorous international debate about lowering the voting age to 16, with some jurisdictions already moving in this direction. The issue of the voting age also intersects with broader normative and empirical approaches to youth political engagement. Using evidence from Australia, this article evaluates empirically the arguments put forward for lowering the voting age. The findings suggest only partial support for lowering the voting age to bring it into line with other government-regulated activities. There is no evidence that lowering the voting age would increase political participation or that young people are more politically mature today than they were in the past. The absence of empirical support for the arguments in favour of lowering of the voting age has implications for how to transform democracy in order to attract greater youth engagement.

是否把选举年龄降到16岁,国际上有着激烈的辩论。有些法律体系已在朝这个方向运动。选举年龄的话题与更广泛的、有关青年政治参与的规范性及经验性研究有所交集。本文根据澳大利亚的资料,从实证的角度评论了主张降低投票年龄的观点。本文的发见仅部分支持降低选举年龄与有关政府法规的接轨。现在无法证明降低选举年龄会提高政治参与,也无法证明今天的年轻人比过去的年轻人政治上更成熟。降低选举年龄的主张缺少实证的支持,那么该如何改变民主制度以吸引年轻人更多的参与呢？     

Corruption and confidence in Australian political institutions

Corruption is inimical to public support for democratic government. This article uses Australian public opinion surveys to clarify the link between corruption and views of political institutions. The results show that citizens' personal experiences of corruption among public officials are negligible, but that three in four believe that there is some corruption among politicians and almost half believe that corruption in Australia is increasing. Perceptions of corruption matter much more than personal experiences of corrupt public officials in shaping confidence in political institutions. For policy-makers, the findings have implications for how corruption is handled, and in the measures that should be put in place to allay the public's fears about the increase in corruption.

腐败妨碍了公众对民主政府的支持。本文使用澳大利亚舆论调查,澄清了腐败与政治体制观的联系。研究显示公民个人对于公职人员腐败的经验可以忽略不计。倒是四分之三的人相信政客中存在某种腐败,几乎近一半人相信腐败在澳大利亚与日俱增。对腐败的认识,比个人对公职人员中腐败的耳闻目见,对于形成对政治体制的信赖要重要得多。对于政策制定者,这些发现有助于他们处理腐败,采取措施缓和公众对于日增的腐败的恐惧。     

Schooling on the Missionary Frontier: The Hohi Mission Station,New Zealand

Schooling was integral to the process of missionization in many of the places where it occurred throughout the world, yet it has scarcely been explored through the archaeological record. Excavations at Hohi, New Zealand, located a school founded by CMS missionaries in 1816, providing a material record that, in conjunction with documentary sources, enables reconstruction of schooling during the earliest stages of cultural engagement in this part of the Pacific. The motivations of both missionaries and indigenous Maori in the establishment and erratic progress of this school are examined, highlighting the role of indigenous agency in the cultural engagements that played out there.     

Election Campaigns and Television News Coverage: The Case of the 2001 Australian Election

This paper examines the patterns of television news coverage of the political parties, their leaders and the issues they raised during the 2001 Australian federal election campaign. By focusing on some issues, parties and leaders, television has long been argued to constrain voters' evaluations. We find that television news coverage in the 2001 Australian election campaign focused primarily on international issues, especially terrorism and asylum seekers, and on the two major parties—virtually to the exclusion of coverage of the minor parties and their leaders. Within the major party ‘two-horse race’, television gave substantially more coverage to the leaders than to the parties themselves, thereby sustaining what some have called a ‘presidential’-style political contest. John Howard emerged as the winner in the leaders' stakes, garnering more coverage than Labor's Kim Beazley.     

Reflections on Ethics at Stanford

Mindful of the need to be productive, Ian was caught a bit off-guard by some basic differences of opinion that emerged, specifically concerning WAC’s responsibility to intervene in situations of human rights issues that concern cultural heritage. His own assumptions about the similarity of perspectives on this issue that he expected to find among WAC colleagues were discomforted and challenged by this. Upon reflection, he better understands the historical and contemporary reasons for these differences and took this to be a good lesson in unsettling our assumptions, which is probably what WAC is all about.

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Résumé Conscient de la nécessité d'être productif, Ian s’est senti un peu pris au dépourvu par l’expression de points de vue largement différents, notamment au sujet de la responsabilité du CMA d'intervenir dans des situations touchant à l’héritage culturel et impliquant la question des Droits de l'Homme. L’idée qu’il se faisait d’une probable convergence d’opinion sur ce sujet parmi les collègues du CMA s’est ainsi trouvée largement mise en doute et fragilisée par ces désaccords. A la réflexion, il comprend mieux les fondements historiques et contemporains à l’origine de ces différences et considère qu’il s’agit d’une bonne expérience incitant à déconstruire nos hypothèses, en accord sans doute avec un certain esprit du CMA.

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Resumen Preocupadp por la necesidad de ser productivo, Ian fue tomado por sorpresa por algunas diferencias de opiniones que surgieron, especificamente en relación a la responsabilidad del WAC de intervenir en situaciones de los derechos humanos en el tema del patrimonio cultural. Sus propias suposiciones acerca de la similitud de perspectivas que esperaba encontrar en colegas del CAM en este tema ,fueron incomodadas y cuestionadas por esto. Despues de reflexionar sobre el asunto, él comprende mejor las razones históricas y contemporáneas de esas diferencias y considera que es ésta una buena lección para desestabilizar nuestras suposiciones, algo que probablemente sea de lo que se trata el WAC.

     

Democratic Civility and the Dangers of Niceness

Contemporary debates about the virtue of civility oscillate between anxious calls for more of it in contemporary politics, as a panacea for all manner of religious-political conflict, and wholesale debunkings of civility talk, as an ideological fog intended to induce conformity to the terms of unjust social arrangements. I argue that this oscillation should come as no surprise, given the term's fraught theological and political associations in the history of modern ethical thought. This history left civility with an ambivalent legacy, one associated with democratic respect on the one hand, and hypocrisy and deception, on the other. Through a reading of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” I try to rescue civility from this oscillation, by explicating it as an ancillary virtue: the part of justice that disposes citizens to confront unjust relationships in ways that leave open the possibility of relational repair. When explicated with due care and set in an interactive context of other virtues – including courage, prudence and toleration – civility can be distinguished from its semblance, niceness. This distinction helps us understand civility, properly understood, as neither a cure-all for democratic conflict nor an ideological device of conflict suppression, but rather as an ancillary, but important, excellence of character helping to sustain democratic relationships of mutual recognition.