Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Should Australia's relationship with the United States sensibly be called the other "special relationship", implying that Australia, along with Great Britain, is one of America?s two most favored allies? Or into the future will "the mission define the coalition", making Australia favored as long as it commits troops to American-led operations? Do most Australians see their nation's alliance relationship and broader bilateral relations with the United States as special? To address these questions two competing narratives regarding the history of Australian involvement in US-led wars will be examined. The first narrative asserts that the shared wartime experiences of the two nations have cemented the bond between them. The second narrative views this history as one of Australia continually undermining its own independence. Finally to measure the strength and depth of pro- and anti-American sentiment in Australia, these narratives will be discussed in the context of contemporary public opinion on US-Australia relations.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: This paper examines levels of commitment to democracy among first and second generation of immigrants from authoritarian regimes in Australia and Canada both at the attitudinal and behavioral levels. Findings indicate that commitment to democracy among first and second generations of immigrants from authoritarian regimes lags behind that of the locally-born populations and other immigrants socialized in democratic regimes as they exhibit greater support for forms of regimes that are non-democratic. The analyses also reveal, however, that immigrants from authoritarian regimes participate to the democratic political process. They participate less in protest activities but participate as much as the local population in communal forms of activities and more than the local population in campaign activities. These findings suggest that pre-migration political experiences influence immigrants’ political outlook and even to some extent that of the second generation of immigrants.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Although health care spending represents one of the largest expenditure categories in all Western societies, most research on the welfare state has neglected issues related to health and health care. In this paper, we use the ISSP to evaluate the public attitudes towards health care in the United States, Australia, Germany, Great Britain, and Italy at three points in time. We find that public attitude do not cluster according to the most widely used schemes to classify welfare states which is not surprising given that these nations have often been clustered together without paying attention to health care. The results also indicate that the cleavages that are most influential in dividing individual health outcomes are an important predictor of people’s attitudes towards government involvement in health care. In general, groups who have been shown to experience worse health in modern society are more supportive of government involvement in health care whereas groups experiencing better health are generally less supportive.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: No abstract available at this time.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: The paper compares the socio-economic attainment of contemporary Chinese immigrants from Australia and the United States. These two nations, along with Canada, house the largest number of foreign born Chinese. The paper uses data from the 1996 Australian census (1 percent CURFs) and from the 2000 US census (5 percent and 1 percent PUMs) to examine four economic outcomes: labor force participation, unemployment, occupational status and income. Results suggest considerable intra-national differentials, differentials that are similar in both the US and Australia. Persons from the PRC incur large economic penalties that are rarely explained by their characteristics. Those from Vietnam incur large gross penalties but more often than not these are due to their characteristics. On the other hand, persons from Hong Kong, Taiwan and Southeast Asia reap both gross and net advantages. Finally, looking across the dependent variables, irrespective of birthplace, most Chinese immigrants do relatively better in the US than in Australia.