professor diana dwyre

<< Back to 2009 American Scholars

2009/10 Fulbright Australian National University Distinguished Chair in American Political Science

 

Media profile

“Australia and the United States face some of the same social, economic, ecological and political challenges in the early 21st Century, including the issue of how campaigns for elective office are financed.”

Diana Dwyre, Professor of Political Science at California State University, Chico is the 2009/10 Fulbright Australian National University Distinguished Chair in American Political Science. The Scholarship, established by the Fulbright Commission and the Australian National University (ANU) in 2005, aims to promote collaborative and comparative research in political science between Australia and the U.S.

Professor Dwyre will join the ANU in Canberra for five months, from February to July 2010 to undertake collaborative comparative research around the issues of political finance and governance, with particular attention to the private funding of campaigns in Australia and the U.S.

Professor Dwyre’s project will initially take the form of a comparative analysis of the theoretical foundations of the Australian and U.S. political finance systems. This will be followed by a comprehensive study of the private funding of Australian and U.S. campaigns using both quantitative and qualitative research methods to collect data and information.

“Both nations have energetic policy debates around the issue of political finance that focus on similar areas of concern, such as freedom of speech, the place of political parties and independent groups, the effectiveness of public financing, the growing influence of private funding and big money, and the ability of ordinary citizens to participate in the political system in a way that allows for representation of their interests,” Dwyre said.

“While Australia has a parliamentary system and the U.S. a presidential system, the two countries share many similar political characteristics. Moreover, Australian elections are increasingly costly and professionalised, as in the U.S.”

Professor Dwyre said that the project will also promote long-term collaboration between U.S. and Australian scholars on issues of importance in all democracies. “Australia and the ANU in the nation’s capital offer the best possible place to conduct this comparative research and to build a collaborative network of scholars, particularly because of the proximity to the Australian Electoral Commission and to political leaders and operatives for interviews.”

Professor Dwyre has a BA in political science from Hunter College of the City University of New York, and a M.A. and PhD in political science and public administration from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University.  She was an American Political Science Association Congressional Fellow in 1998 and winner of the California State University, Chico Professional Achievement Award. She has also published widely in both refereed journals and in books, and has written two books on U.S. campaign finance.

Professor Dwyre is the fourth Fulbright ANU Distinguished Chair, and one of 19 U.S. Scholars travelling to Australia in 2009/10.