This unit introduces students to debates about the nature and limits of Australian democracy, to the major institutions of Australian politics, and to the distribution of power in Australian society. Major institutions and forces such as parliament, executive government, the federal system, political parties and the media are examined as arenas of power, conflict and consensus. Who rules? How? Which groups are excluded?

This unit provides an introduction to the study of politics through a focus on the key organising principle of power. Different ways in which power is theorised and structured are considered. This includes power between individuals, groups, classes and genders as well as different power-sharing arrangements within and across political institutions. In critically assessing these different approaches, students will be exposed to a range of political science theories and methods, which will equip them for future study in Government and International Relations. The empirical focus of this unit is on Australia, with reference to other developed countries.

This unit will examine how the contemporary international political order has emerged by focusing upon the interplay of diplomatic and strategic issues in the post-war world. It will begin with an analysis of the Cold War and its origins, tracing the development of Soviet-American rivalry, its manifestations in Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin America, and the different ways in which that rivalry was played out. The collapse of the Soviet Union as both a superpower and a state and the disappearance of the communist bloc will be analysed, before surveying the post-Cold War international scene. Among the issues reviewed in the post-Cold War era will be the question of US hegemony and unilateralism vs. multilateralism, nuclear proliferation, the continuing tension between the first and the third worlds, questions of civilisational conflict, non-state actors and terrorism, democratisation, and regional conflict.

This unit introduces the core content of the field of international relations. The first part of the unit presents the realist, liberal, Marxist and constructivist paradigms of international relations. The second part of the unit discusses the key actors and processes political scientists define in the field, including the state, decision makers, bureaucratic organisations, and classes. The final part of the unit focuses on international security, international political economy, and global problems.

This unit introduces students to the notion of human rights, outlines international human rights enforcement mechanisms and the application of human rights standards in Australia. Throughout the unit we consider the evolution of human rights in Australia and raise questions about the adequacy of Australia's existing human rights machinery, and examine the reasons for Australia's reluctance to adopt a Bill of Rights. We examine government policies toward the indigenous Australians, women and refugees. We also consider current legislative changes to combat terrorism and consider the implications of these changes on Australian's civil rights.

This unit considers key themes in modern and contemporary political thought. It uses primary texts to address topics such as sovereignty, democracy, fascism, liberalism, human rights, politics and religion, violence, and political identity. Authors may include Hobbes, Spinoza, Locke, Kant, Nietzsche, Marx, J.S. Mill, Tocqueville, Rawls, Arendt, Schmitt, and Foucault.

The unit examines the Australian party system, including colonial-era pre-party politics, the development of major parties (Labor, Liberal and National) and minor parties (Democrats, Greens, One Nation etc), parties and ideology, parties and social movements, internal party politics, parties and the law, parties and elections, parties and parliamentary politics, and parties and public policy. Emphasis is placed on how theoretical and comparative models of political parties help to explain Australian party politics.

This unit examines Australia's foreign and defence policies since Federation with a focus on contemporary issues, such as: defence planning and operations; engagement with the global economy; and, Canberra's stance on terrorism, nuclear affairs, asylum seekers, and global environmental management.

Until the 1997 East Asian economic/financial crisis, Southeast Asia was acclaimed as one of the most dynamic and rapidly growing regional economies in the Asia-Pacific sphere. Not surprisingly, the region has attracted enormous interest from social scientists and the wider business community in Australia. However, there is limited consensus about the causes for the region's economic performance and socio-political trajectory during the 'boom' and 'post-boom' years. This unit aims to place the region's economic experiences and socio-political changes within a broader historical and comparative context. Such an approach allows us to better appreciate the economic continuities, understand the major socio-political dilemmas and changing patterns of development.

This unit provides an overview of four major theoretical approaches to international political economy and how these apply to understanding the practice of international economic relations. These theories are: economic nationalism, liberalism, neo-Marxism and poststructuralism. The unit analyses the theory and practice of economic relations by and between states, by focussing in particular on relations between the developed and developing world. It applies each of the four main theories to developing country regions. In this way students also become acquainted with the theory and practice of economic development.

This unit introduces the theoretical foundations, essential concepts and central issues in the field of international security. It provides students with analytical tools to understand and participate in current debates concerning security and threats. The first part of the unit provides an introduction to the theoretical interpretations of international security. The second part discusses security phenomena, problems and strategies, including the coercive use of force, deterrence, guerrilla and counterinsurgency, nuclear stability, proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, crisis management, arms races and disarmament, security cooperation and security regimes. The discussion in this part includes a critical review of the dilemmas, strategies, and solutions in each of the issue areas.

International Organisations is a survey of both the range of institutions created in response to various economic, security and environmental challenges faced by states and other actors in the global system, and some of the most prominent theories aimed at explaining them. The unit will be arranged around a series of case studies of particular issue areas, from international peacekeeping, to the regulation of multinational corporations, and the struggle to slow global warming. More broadly, the unit will question whether international organisations are instruments of or rivals to sovereign states, and whether they reflect the hegemony of the West, solutions to international collective problems, or agents of new transnational communities.

Environmental issues pose increasingly difficult challenges to our societies. What is the nature of these challenges? Where have they come from? How have political institutions adapted to them, at the national and international levels? What further changes might be necessary to better meet them? How might these changes come about? What effects might they have on the future of politics? This unit of study will engage these kinds of questions as an introduction to some theoretical and practical dimensions of environmental politics.

This unit examines how processes of social change are shaped by a variety of non-institutionalised political actors, including individuals, interest groups and social movements. It will answer questions such as: What is political participation? How and why do people act politically in Australia? How does participation both shape policy agendas and lead to societal change? The main conceptual topics include: political participation, political socialisation, civil society, interest groups and social movements. This conceptual framework will be used to examine the strategic repertoires adopted by movements and groups in society, including: young people, environmental movements, identity movements, the labour movement, anti-corporate globalisation action and community-based politics.

Introduction to government and politics of modern China. Brief examination of traditional background and modern revolution from 19th century to 1949. Primary focus on ideology, leadership, institutions and political processes of the People's Republic. Covers politics of social groups, major issue areas, the Cultural Revolution and the politics of reform.

This unit will be an overview of the American political system and the formulation of foreign policy. It will cover the major Federal political institutions: the Presidency, the Congress, and the Supreme Court. The unit will consider how foreign policy is made through the interaction of these institutions and with other elements of civil society. Finally, it will examine the outcome of this process - US foreign policy itself - with special emphasis on the post-Cold War period. We will seek to answer two key questions: (a) what is the influence of domestic politics on US foreign policy; and (b) how does the US system cope with the apparent contradictions between its ideals and the imperatives of global power?

This unit examines the nature of public policy and the processes which shape its content. Most of these processes apply across nation states, although they typically manifest themselves in nation-specific ways. First, the unit outlines the nature of public policy - dealing with such matters as definitions of policy and approaches to analysing public policy. These include the traditional 'policy cycle' approach, as well as alternative models based on rational choice, the roles of groups and networks, the nature of institutions and the power of socio-economic interests. Second, it examines the main building blocks of the policy process: actors, institutions, and policy instruments. Third, it examines key stages of the public policy process: notably problem definition, agenda setting, policy formation, decision making, implementation and evaluation. Examples are drawn from Australia and a range of countries throughout the world. Fourth, it examines policy-making in extreme, 'crisis' situations. Fifth, it turns its attention to Australian policy processes, focusing specifically on the areas of economic policy and indigenous affairs. Finally, it takes an overview of public policy processes in a global world, focusing on national policy-making autonomy in the context of globalisation, as well as challenges for the future. The unit is sufficiently flexible in terms of assessment, allowing students to concentrate on areas of interest.

What enables us as political animals to live together in political communities? This unit examines key concepts undergirding our contemporary political life handed down to us through centuries of political thought; from the Athenian city-state to contemporary reflections on identity. Some of the concepts and problématiques explored may include: the state; sovereignty; the political; liberty; property; the citizen vs. the subject, reasons vs. the passions.

This unit introduces a variety of non-traditional security (NTS) challenges, along with different perspectives and policies regarding threats other than war. How does NTS relate to war and peace, and what dangers are most threatening? When does conflict over scarce resources - food, water, energy - affect survival? And what can be done about emerging threats like climate change and cyber attack? Considering these and other questions, students will tackle some of the greatest security challenges in the world.

This unit assists students enrolled in the honours program to develop the conceptual and practical skills they need to excel in any area of substantial political inquiry. An overview of political inquiry is presented through an examination of the diversity in theoretical and methodological approaches used by those who carry out political research. This includes looking at, for example, institutional, behavioural, discourse and feminist approaches in political inquiry, and the usage of quantitative and qualitative methods. The assessment is based around constructing research projects that can be utilised to answer current political questions.

This unit offers a gender perspective on human rights, with a focus on gender and insecure international contexts. The unit covers themes related to the challenges of pursuing human rights, violations of human rights, and the role of civil society groups in advocating human rights. Attention will be given to the gendered nature of human rights and to specific issues that impact men and women differently when it comes to human rights protection and promotion.

This unit explores how the public sector sets policy and delivers public services. It begins by using the main concepts and theories of public management and governance to assess the various trade offs that are involved in designing and implementing different types of public sector reform. These theories are then applied to evaluate specific reform initiatives and compare reform patterns between different countries and across different policy sectors. Topics include: public administration, privatisation, performance management, partnership working and community engagement.

Globalisation is posited as a process of deep change to the international order, one that restructures the role of the state (internally and externally), and has implications for a wide range of actors (international institutions, corporations, interest groups and individuals). One argument is that this erodes the capacity of national, and sub-national governments to manage economic and social change. In response to these concerns, this unit will appraise the debates about the impact of globalisation and state power erosion.

This unit critically examines the role that ethnic conflict plays in national and international politics. Students will have advanced knowledge of nationalism, and close familiarity with current thinking around the role of the ethnic nationalism in particular. This unit will analyse the most influential theories, historical and contemporary, about the role of ethnic nationalism (as opposed to civic nationalism), regionally and internationally. We will consider a range of competing theoretical approaches, concentrating on the theory of a "divided society".

This unit examines why there is no clear consensus on the status of Islam and sharia (Islamic law) within the state, constitution and political system. It will also consider whether the secular democratic state is consistent with Islamic principles such as adil (justice) and maslaha (common good). The unit highlights the linkages between historical, political and cultural Islam and the emergence of discourses which provide a contextual understanding of the faith.

Power is the essential concept of political science, which is the systematic study of politics. Bertrand Russell, perhaps the greatest mind of the 20th Century, said power is the central concept of all the social sciences. Students explore this concept in different parts of political science and survey some debates on power, assessing the advantages and disadvantages of concepts of power. There are three themes in this unit. The first is the distribution of power in society. The second is power in comparative politics and the third is power in international relations. The emphasis is on the nature, sources and use of power.

This unit assists students to build towards a better fourth year honours dissertation. It considers the construction of a dissertation topic, planning the research, bibliographic searches, and writing the dissertation. The unit devotes a considerable amount of time to exercises designed to help students envisage their honours dissertation and plan fruitful lines of inquiry.

The Honours program in Government and International Relations consists of: 1. a bibliographic essay and a thesis written under the supervision of one member of academic staff; 2. two seminars that meet weekly for two hours each in Semester 1. For more information, consult the Department of Government and International Relations website or contact the Honours Coordinator.

refer to GOVT4101

refer to GOVT4101

refer to GOVT4101