Projects
My research examines how interests are organised and represented in the policy process: who mobilises, how advocacy organisations set their agendas, and how organised interests engage with legislatures, bureaucracies, the courts and the media.
Current projects
Organising Present Generations to Advocate for Future Generations
Australian Research Council Discovery Project DP260100901, 2026–2028 (Chief Investigator). Many of the key policy choices facing Australia will affect future generations, yet our representative democracy struggles to identify, voice and act on their interests. This project investigates when advocacy organisations (interest groups and think tanks) claim to represent future generations, when political elites recognise those claims, and the conditions under which advocacy for future generations can shift political priorities. It aims to inform current efforts to design institutions that better reflect the interests of future citizens.
Transition Dynamics in Australia’s Renewable Energy Superpower Partners
Australian Research Council Linkage Project LP250200664, 2026–2028. Led by Christian Downie (ANU), with Max Grömping (Griffith University) and partner investigator Michael Bartlett, in partnership with the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water. The first comparative analysis of the organisations driving the energy transition in Southeast Asia (Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam), developing new data, frameworks and strategies to strengthen Australia’s international energy engagement.
Public Interest Advocacy
With Max Grömping (Griffith University). An Australian Research Council Discovery project (DP220100050) on how organised interests use public interest frames, and whether the media and political elites reproduce them. The project combines computational text-as-data methods with experiments on how elites interpret public interest framing. Postdoctoral fellow: Anne Sofie Cornelius Nielsen.
Previous projects
- Donations, interests and influence in Australian politics. With Shaun Ratcliff (University of Sydney). Collated and coded all Australian Electoral Commission donations data since 1998, including donations via associated entities, to study relationships between organised interests and parties, and corporate donations.
- Corporate Elites and US Politics. With Anthony J. Nownes (University of Tennessee). The political role of the founders and CEOs of Silicon Valley firms. The main output is The New Entrepreneurial Advocacy (Oxford University Press, 2021).
- Crowdsourcing Political Engagement (ARC Discovery). With Ariadne Vromen (ANU). Digital, citizen-led campaigning in Australia: petitioning, boycotting, buycotting and micro-donations. The major output is Crowdsourced Politics (Palgrave, 2022).
- The organised interest system in Australian public policy (ARC Discovery DP140104097, 2014–2017). The first data-driven assessment of the size, scope and operation of the Australian interest group system. See the Australian Interest Groups Project website.
- Interarena: Interest Groups Across Arenas (Danish Research Council, 2011–2014). Mobilisation of interest groups across legislative, administrative and media arenas in the UK, Denmark and the Netherlands, with colleagues at Aarhus and Copenhagen.
- The Mobilization of Organized Interests in Policy Making (UK ESRC, 2006–2009). Mapped interest group responses to Scottish public policy consultations, 1982–2007.
- Interest Group Organization in Nascent Policy Environments (SCANCOR Alumni Grant, Stanford University). With Anthony Nownes and Kurt Sandholtz.
Project websites
Policy Advocacy Lab
Research, education and public conversation about policy advocacy, with Bert Fraussen and Herschel F. Thomas.
policyadvocacylab.com →
Australian Interest Groups Project
Publications and data from the ARC-funded study of the Australian interest group system (2014–2017).
interestgroupsaustralia.com →