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The Policy and Governance Program in the Crawford School of Economics
and Government and the Political Science Program,
Research School of Social Sciences (RSSS), have agreed to establish
a Parliamentary Studies Centre, drawing on strengths in both programs,
with Professor John Uhr as the foundation director. The two ANU
programs have agreed to share the start-up costs, with a Management
Board comprising Professors Andrew MacIntyre and Richard Mulgan
from the Crawford School, and Professors Rod Rhodes and John Wanna
from RSSS. The presence of the Centre for Democratic Institutions
(CDI) in Crawford, under Dr Ben Reilly’s directorship, adds
considerably to the Centre’s capacity to address regional
interests in parliamentary processes.
The Centre operates more as a research broker or facilitator than as a
stand-alone research entity. The Centre welcomes expressions of interest
from those seeking advice or assistance with academic research on
parliamentary studies. The Centre, however, is not set up to accommodate
visiting fellows. The aim is to keep the organizational overheads to a
minimum in order to convert available research funds into research
outputs. The objective is to seek out funding that can be directed to
researchers in Australia and abroad who are best placed to carry through
with appropriate research. The Centre particularly welcomes expressions
of interest from researchers seeking to participate in the project on
'institutional strengthening' described below.
The Centre will give priority to the comparative dimension of
parliamentary studies. The Centre has now an Australian Research Council linkage grant for a three year project co-sponsored by the Department of the Senate and the House of Representatives, Commonwealth Parliament of Australia. This project begins in 2007, investigating 'Strengthening Parliamentary Institutions' through extensive case studies of the Commonwealth Parliament and through associated comparative studies of institutional strengthening in legislatures elsewhere.
 Parliamentary Strengthening Project
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