It is close to a truism to say that democratic institutions and norms are under threat across established, high-income democracies. This is most obvious in the US, with an uptick in political violence, contested elections, and state-directed restrictions on free speech and expression (to name but a few of the challenges). However, all rich democracies face a combination of country-specific and common pressures. Public attitudes, and in particular support for and confidence in democratic institutions, are both an indicator of and potential causal factor explaining democratic decline and pressure. Demographic factors – including age/generation, gender, race/ethnicity, and education – have been used to explain these trends, both in Australia and abroad. However, sitting across many of the explanations for attitudinal trends is the profound way in which perceived economic and social disadvantage shape, and are shaped by, political attitudes and behaviour. The aim of this seminar is to explore what the latest data can tell us about these complex relationships in the present moment. The seminar will be structured in six parts: 1) Introducing the framework of democratic resilience and its relationship to economic and social disadvantage 2) Documenting the most salient trends in disadvantage 3) A short interlude considering the evidence on the role of institutional design in shaping economic and social outcomes 4) A detailed description of who considers themselves disadvantaged and how that relates to other objective indicators 5) The empirical link between these measures of disadvantage and political attitudes and behaviour and 6) A short reflection on the implications.

Professor Nicholas Biddle is Head of the School of Politics and International Relations. Prior to this, he was Deputy Director of the ANU Centre for Social Research and Methods, and head of the methods, survey, and evaluation programs in the centre. He has a Bachelor of Economics (Hons.) from the University of Sydney and a Master of Education from Monash University. He also has a PhD in Public Policy from ANU, where he wrote his thesis on the benefits of and participation in education of Indigenous Australians.