The Policy Post

  Democracy in trouble? Blame the economy. Democracy and prosperity go together. When economies go backwards, authoritarians flourish.

For China, is this as good as it gets? The ‘middle-income trap’ that ended the rise of so many former tiger economies now ensnares China. The prognosis isn’t good.

  How the west mishandles terrorism (and makes it worse) In the rich world, terrorism is one of the least significant of all threats to life and security. But our panicked over-reaction and rushed, repressive laws do what the terrorists could not achieve by themselves.

  Does Trump really matter? He thought the world was simple and that he had the formula for changing everything. But the world is more complicated than he ever imagined. His impact will vanish with him.

  How bed-blocked is your hospital? Almost all of Australia’s 278 public hospitals with emergency departments are afflicted by bed block, but the pain is not spread evenly. This post shows the results for all of them – and why it’s suddenly got much worse.

  We’re desperate for a new, better world. Who can deliver it? Parties of the progressive Left are the last, best hope to rebuild democratic societies and avoid domination by the populist far right. But are they up to the job?

  Who’s to blame? It didn’t take long for the nation's leading political opportunists to hijack the Bondi massacre for their own purposes.

  Too many guns. For three decades, Australia’s much-praised gun laws almost eliminated mass shootings. But we now have more guns than ever; and this post from almost three years ago has suddenly, and appallingly, become relevant again.

  Anatomy of a blame game. As public hospitals sink further into disarray, federal and state governments go to war over money. And nobody wants to take responsibility for fixing the system.

  The resistible rise of the modern fascist. Western liberal democracy is under more stress than at any time in eight decades. But today’s wannabe fascists are more mortal than most of us realise.