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John Keane

John Keane is co-founder of the Sydney Democracy Network (SDN) and Professor of Politics at the University of Sydney and the Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin (WZB). His full-scale history of democracy, The Life and Death of Democracy (2009), was short-listed for the 2010 Non-Fiction Prime Minister’s Literary Award, and recently ranked (by one of Japan's leading newspapers, Asahi Shimbun) within the top three non-fiction books published during 2013 in Japan. His new book, Democracy and Media Decadence has just been published.

US Election Series

Hillary Clinton, Julian Assange and the US election

Oct 31, 2016 10:27 am UTC| Insights & Views Politics

The following field note will shortly appear in Germanys Die Zeit. It is a brief commentary on the factual errors and misjudgements of numerous journalists when reporting the role recently played by Julian Assange and...

Global Geopolitics Series

History of Russian populism provides important lessons for today

Oct 24, 2016 05:10 am UTC| Insights & Views Politics

When the people are being beaten with a stick, they are not much happier if it is called the Peoples Stick. Mikhail Bakunin, Statism and Anarchy (1873) Populism is in the air: its the topic of the moment, the...

A New Democratic Enlightenment?

Sep 24, 2016 08:09 am UTC| Insights & Views Politics

This is the slightly rewritten text of my address to the opening plenary session, New Enlightenment Neue Aufklrung, at the European Forum Alpbach, Alpbach, Austria, 28 August 2016. European Forum Alpbach,...

Capitalism and Democracy [part 4]

Aug 13, 2016 11:21 am UTC| Insights & Views Economy Politics

Earlier parts of this series on capitalism and democracy raised questions about the tense and often contradictory relationship between capitalist markets and the egalitarian spirit and power-humbling institutions of...

Capitalism and Democracy [part 3]

Aug 13, 2016 11:18 am UTC| Insights & Views Economy Politics

Part two of this series on capitalism and democracy introduced the unfamiliar idea of democracy failure. Instead of seeing democracy as the hapless victim of capitalist markets, as Marxists and others have typically done...

Capitalism and Democracy [part 2]

Aug 13, 2016 11:16 am UTC| Insights & Views Politics Economy

Part one of this series on capitalism and democracy probed the famous remark of the American economist and sociologist Thorstein Veblen that there are historical moments when democratic sovereignty is converted into a...

Capitalism and Democracy [part one]

Aug 13, 2016 11:15 am UTC| Insights & Views Politics Economy

Lets begin with a discomforting fact often forgotten in recent years: capitalism is not naturally the best friend of democracy. Since the early years of the nineteenth century, especially during periods of economic...

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Economy

The US is one of the least trade-oriented countries in the world – despite laying the groundwork for today’s globalized system

Given the spate of news about international trade lately, Americans might be surprised to learn that the U.S. isnt very dependent on it. Indeed, looking at trade as a percentage of gross domestic product a metric...

Beyond the spin, beyond the handouts, here’s how to get a handle on what’s really happening on budget night

Three weeks from now, some of us will be presented with a mountain of budget papers, and just about all of us will get to hear about them on radio, TV or news websites on budget night. The quickest way to find out what...

Johannesburg in a time of darkness: Ivan Vladislavić’s new memoir reminds us of the city’s fragility

Ivan Vladislavić is Johannesburgs literary linkman. He tells us, in the first pages of his new book, The Near North, that before cities were lit, first by gaslight and later electricity, people of means paid torchbearers...

Economist Chris Richardson on an ‘ugly’ inflation result and the coming budget

With Jim Chalmerss third budget on May 14, Australians will be looking for some more cost-of-living relief beyond the tax cuts although they have been warned extra measures will be modest. As this weeks consumer price...

Inflation is slowly falling, while student debt is climbing: 6 graphs that explain today’s CPI

Australias inflation rate has fallen for the fifth successive quarter, and its now less than half of what it was back in late 2022. The annual rate peaked at 7.8% in the December quarter of 2022 and is now just 3.6%, in...

Politics

US Urges China, Russia to Reject AI Control in Nuclear Arms, Align with Global Norms

Paul Dean, a senior U.S. arms control official, emphasized the critical need for China and Russia to join the U.S. in declaring that humans will always decide on the deployment of nuclear weapons, not artificial...

South Africa’s youth are a generation lost under democracy – study

South African president Cyril Ramaphosa recently painted a rosy picture in which the countrys youth democracys children had enormous opportunities for advancement, all thanks to successive post-apartheid governments led...

Sadiq Khan on track for third term as London mayor – but nearly half of Londoners dissatisfied with performance

Polls have consistently shown that the incumbent mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, appears to be on track to win a third term in office at the upcoming mayoral elections on May 2. One poll we commissioned as part of our...

Biden administration tells employers to stop shackling workers with ‘noncompete agreements’

Most American workers are hired at will: Employers owe their employees nothing in the relationship except earned wages, and employees are at liberty to quit at their option. As the rule is generally stated, either party...

Labour can afford to be far more ambitious with its economic policies – voters are on board

To say that the Labour party is flying high in the polls is something of an understatement. But despite its consistent lead against the Tories, the opposition finds itself in a rather odd position: on the cusp of power but...

Science

IceCube researchers detect a rare type of energetic neutrino sent from powerful astronomical objects

About a trillion tiny particles called neutrinos pass through you every second. Created during the Big Bang, these relic neutrinos exist throughout the entire universe, but they cant harm you. In fact, only one of them is...

The Mars Sample Return mission has a shaky future, and NASA is calling on private companies for backup

A critical NASA mission in the search for life beyond Earth, Mars Sample Return, is in trouble. Its budget has ballooned from US$5 billion to over $11 billion, and the sample return date may slip from the end of this...

A Nasa rover has reached a promising place to search for fossilised life on Mars

While we go about our daily lives on Earth, a nuclear-powered robot the size of a small car is trundling around Mars looking for fossils. Unlike its predecessor Curiosity, Nasas Perseverance rover is explicitly intended to...

The rising flood of space junk is a risk to us on Earth – and governments are on the hook

A piece of space junk recently crashed through the roof and floor of a mans home in Florida. Nasa later confirmed that the object had come from unwanted hardware released from the international space station. The 700g,...

Peter Higgs was one of the greats of particle physics. He transformed what we know about the building blocks of the universe

Peter Higgs, who gave his name to the subatomic particle known as the Higgs boson, has died aged 94. He was always a modest man, especially when considering that he was one of the greats of particle physics the area of...

Technology

Samsung Chief Lee Jae-yong Wraps Up Europe Visit, Includes Vatican and Zeiss

Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong returned to Seoul this Friday after a crucial ten-day European trip, where he met with Pope Francis and explored potential business collaborations. The Korea Herald reported...

Bitcoin Thrives: Whales Accumulate Over 47K BTC Amidst Price Rally

Bitcoin experiences a transformative moment as large-scale investors, known as whales, acquire over 47,000 BTC, valued at $2.9 billion, amidst a price retreat. This strategic move marks a pivotal shift in sentiment,...

Kraken Pro Boosts Shiba Inu with New Margin Trading Option

Kraken Pros announcement of Shiba Inus (SHIB) inclusion in its margin trading pairs signifies a significant milestone for the meme-inspired cryptocurrency. This move underscores SHIBs growing prominence within the crypto...

Hong Kong Firm Dominates BlackRock's Bitcoin ETF, Surges to Top Holder

In a significant development for the cryptocurrency market, Hong Kong-based Yong Rong HK Asset Management Ltd has secured its position as the largest holder in the BlackRock iShares Bitcoin ETF (IBIT), according to recent...

Nintendo's Next-Gen: Switch 2 Could Hit 240FPS, Leaks Suggest

Leaked by data miner OatmealDome, Nintendos updated NintendoWare Bezel Engine reportedly supports frame rates potentially as high as 240FPS, a massive leap from the current 60FPS limit on the Nintendo Switch. The...