Every joke resembles a tiny revolution, George Orwell once wrote. He had a point. Even when they’re instantly forgotten, of little or no consequence or just plain silly, jokes momentarily disrupt the settled routines of our daily lives. The joker...
Read MoreDoes keeping politics honest with social media matter to you? Professor John Keane investigates how citizens outflank governments and expose corruption through social media....
Read MorePirate Party campaign ‘ship’, Cologne, March 2008 Tobias Walter/flickr Is there life after conventional parliamentary politics? That’s the intriguing question on the lips of many German citizens this weekend as supporters of the Pirate Party assemble in the north German city of...
Read More[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="237"] Keith Rupert Murdoch, 2011 DonkeyHotey/Flickr[/caption] When Rupert Murdoch gives further evidence to the Leveson Inquiry this week it will mark another turning point in his public disgrace. The legal noose around the neck of News International, on...
Read More[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="237"] Bob Brown at the University of Newcastle, 1986 University of Newcastle Cultural Collections/Flickr[/caption] Archaeologists tell us that Sumerian kings had their face slapped once a year by a priest to remind them of the importance of humility....
Read MoreWednesday 4th April 2012: a funny old day, though my field notes record that it began well. An early morning message arrives from Athens, from Periklis Douvitsas. He’s the editor of the publishing house looking after Why Democracy. It’s shortly to...
Read MorePublished 13 February 2012 | St. James Ethics Centre - IQ2 Oz, ABC Big IDEAS Why should we assume that democracy is the best of all political systems? Hundreds of thousands of people have taken to the streets in the Arab world...
Read MoreVoting in Wukan by Jordan Pouille James Madison famously remarked that a popular government without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a prologue to a farce or a tragedy. The present government of the People’s Republic of...
Read MoreBericht 2011 Forschungsprofessur Theorie, Geschichte und Zukunft der Demokratie Prof. John Keane Ph.D. Die Forschungsprofessur konzentriert sich auf die Geschichte und Zukunft demokratischer Ideen, Institutionen und Akteure. Leitend ist dabei die Einsicht, dass Demokratie eine zeit- und geschichtsgebundene Staatsform darstellt. Dies ist auch für...
Read MoreBBC World interviews talks to John Keane about Václav Havel, 23 December 2011. ...
Read More