scholarly journals What the Australian Public Knows About the High Court

2019 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-63
Author(s):  
Ingrid Nielsen ◽  
Russell Smyth
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Representative Sample ◽  
Adult Population ◽  
Public Support ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Political ◽  
High Court ◽  
The Public ◽  
Political Role ◽  
High Court Of Australia

Existing studies for the United States examine the extent to which the public is knowledgeable about US courts, arguing that knowledge of the courts is linked to public support for their role. We know little, though, about the Australian public’s awareness of the High Court of Australia. We report the results of a survey of a representative sample of the Australian adult population, administered in November 2017. We find that few Australians know the names of the Justices, the number of Justices on the Court, how the Justices are appointed or for how long they serve. Awareness of recent cases decided by the Court is mixed. We find that age and education are better predictors of awareness levels than is gender. Our findings are important because in the absence of awareness of the High Court, the potential exists for the public to see the Court as having a more overt political role than it has, which may lower esteem for the Court. The potential for this to occur is exacerbated if, and when, politicians attempt to drag the High Court into the political fray, by attributing political motives to it that it does not have.

War without Citizens

2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 18-38
Author(s):  
Stephen J. Rosow
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Consumer Culture ◽  
The United States ◽  
The State ◽  
Political Community ◽  
Democratic Citizenship ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Public ◽  
Liberal Democratic ◽  
Advanced Technologies

Contestation over war memorialization can help democratic theory respond to the current attenuation of citizenship in war in liberal democratic states, especially the United States. As war involves more advanced technologies and fewer soldiers, the relation of citizenship to war changes. In this context war memorialization plays a particular role in refiguring the relation. Current practices of remembering and memorializing war in contemporary neoliberal states respond to a dilemma: the state needs to justify and garner support for continual wars while distancing citizenship from participation. The result is a consumer culture of memorialization that seeks to effect a unity of the political community while it fights wars with few citizens and devalues the public. Neoliberal wars fought with few soldiers and an economic logic reveals the vulnerability to otherness that leads to more active and critical democratic citizenship.

The Political Role of Religion in the United States

1987 ◽  
Vol 48 (1) ◽  
pp. 83
Author(s):  
Ted G. Jelen ◽  
Stephen D. Johnson ◽  
Joseph B. Tamney
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Role ◽  
Role Of Religion

The Pet Banks in Jacksonian Politics and Finance, 1833–1841

1963 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 196-214 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harry N. Scheiber
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Democratic Party ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Political ◽  
Financial Policy ◽  
Andrew Jackson ◽  
Federal Funds ◽  
Political Role ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Government

In September 1833, Andrew Jackson issued an executive order ending deposit of Federal funds in the Bank of the United States, which had been the government depository since 1817. The culmination of Jackson's long struggle with the Bank and its friends in Congress, this measure closed a chapter in the political history of the era. To the conservative Jacksonians, “victory over the Bank of the United States was a consummation” that freed the state banks and business enterprise from the control of a powerful and despised institution. To the radical, hard-money faction of the Democratic party, however, “removal of the deposits” (as the order was popularly termed) was merely a first step toward more fundamental reform—elimination of the monetary disturbances that they attributed to reliance on bank paper for the currency of the country. Because of this divergence of views, partisan and factional disputes over Jacksonian financial policy did not cease with victory over the Bank. Central to the continuing debate was the relationship of die Treasury Department to the group of state-chartered banks, usually called the “pet banks,” in which Federal funds were deposited after September 1833. My purpose here is to review Treasury operations in die period 1833–1841, to suggest the political role of die pet banks and the economic impact of financial policy in die administrations of Jackson and Van Buren.

scholarly journals THE HIGH COURT OF AUSTRALIA AND THE SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES - A CENTENARY REFLECTION

2012 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-78
Author(s):  
Michael J Kirby CMG
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Supreme Court ◽  
The United States ◽  
First Century ◽  
High Court ◽  
The Supreme Court ◽  
High Court Of Australia ◽  
Federal Supreme

In October 2003 in Melbourne, the High Court of Australia celebrated the centenary of its first sitting.  According to the Australian Constitution, it is the “Federal Supreme Court” of the Australian Commonwealth.1  Although the Constitution envisaged the establishment of the High Court, the first sitting of the new court did not take place until a statute had provided for the court and the appointment of its first Justices.  They took their seats in a ceremony held in the Banco Court in the Supreme Court of Victoria on 6 October 1903.  Exactly a century later, the present Justices assembled in the same courtroom for a sitting to mark the first century of the Court.

Fixed or Variable Needs? Public Support and Welfare State Reform

2007 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
pp. 139-157 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carsten Jensen
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Welfare State ◽  
Public Support ◽  
The United States ◽  
State Reform ◽  
The Public ◽  
New Politics ◽  
Welfare Benefits ◽  
Pension Schemes ◽  
Welfare State Reform

AbstractThe study of welfare state reform has in the last decade been strongly influenced by the ‘new politics’ literature. A fundamental assumption of this literature is that the public has fixed attitudes concerning welfare benefits; however, this may be hard to sustain empirically. Instead, this article argues that public support differs depending on whether a welfare programme aims at relieving fixed or variable needs. By analysing reforms of old-age pension schemes and the introduction of workfare strategies in the United States, France and Denmark, the fruitfulness of this approach is indicated.

Creating the New System

2021 ◽  
pp. 146-160
Author(s):  
David Madland
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Political ◽  
Grassroots Activism ◽  
The Public ◽  
System P ◽  
Union Policy ◽  
Labor System ◽  
New System ◽  
Intellectual Climate

This chapter explores whether a new labor system could ever become law and overcome the massive political hurdles standing in the way. The path to victory is quite narrow. There needs to be sufficient grassroots activism to push labor issues to the top of the agenda, a strong majority of politicians willing to vote for pro-union policy, champions to drive the policy forward, and a favorable intellectual climate. As difficult as these are to achieve, they are possible if favorable trends continue and rise in intensity. The public must increasingly and more forcefully demand change, and the political and intellectual climate must continue shifting in favor of labor modernization. The chapter concludes by echoing the theme of the book — that a new labor system with broad-based bargaining and encouragement for union membership would help address the fundamental economic and political challenges that the United States faces. The more people recognize this, the better the chances for creating a new labor system.

scholarly journals Citation as a measure of ‘impact’: Female legal academics at a disadvantage?

2019 ◽  
Vol 44 (4) ◽  
pp. 267-274
Author(s):  
Katy Barnett
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Preliminary Data ◽  
Common Law ◽  
Academic Work ◽  
The United States ◽  
High Court ◽  
Elite Universities ◽  
The Common ◽  
High Court Of Australia

This article discusses whether the demand that law academics show citations by a superior court is disadvantageous to women, using the citations of academic work by the High Court of Australia from 2015, 2016 and 2017. The preliminary data show that male academics were cited much more often than female academics (even for works written after 1999), and academics who were cited were associated primarily with ‘elite’ universities in Australia, England and the United States. The use of citation by superior courts may not really show ‘impact’ but may rather indicate that the common law displays historical and unconscious biases.

scholarly journals Good governance, political experiences, and public support for mandatory sentencing: Evidence from a progressive US state

2017 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 141-161 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jody Sundt ◽  
Kathryn Schwaeble ◽  
Cullen C Merritt
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Good Governance ◽  
Public Support ◽  
The United States ◽  
Judicial Discretion ◽  
The Public ◽  
Political Beliefs ◽  
Theoretical Predictions ◽  
Mandatory Sentencing ◽  
Roll Back

A shift in public mood and declining incarceration rates in the United States signal a potential change in the politics of punishment. This research considers whether the public continues to support mandatory sentencing. The study expands upon existing knowledge by testing theoretical predictions about how instrumentalism, political beliefs, and political participation affect public support for mandatory sentences. Drawing on a state-wide survey of 1569 adults from Oregon, the study found that belief in the effectiveness of prosecutors, judges, and prisons significantly influenced support for mandatory sentencing. Although 67% of those surveyed favored judicial discretion, a firm belief that “prisons work” may limit efforts to reduce incarceration and roll back mandatory sentences.

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