About the program
US domestic issues do not merely shape the United States and US foreign policy, they also shape US allies, partners and the world at large. The dispassionate and objective analysis of US politics, society and culture is, therefore, central to the USSC’s mission of providing analysis of the United States, insights for Australia and solutions for the alliance.
The Politics, Society and Culture Program addresses questions about US democracy, governance and political institutions; the attitudes and values that structure US society and what this means for US allies; shifts in America’s balancing of individual freedom, inequality and state power; America’s cultural presentation of itself to the world; and the differences and similarities between the United States and its allies and partners in key domains of public policy.
Current research priorities include:
- US, Australian and allied attitudes on key issues: Trends in allied sentiment gleaned from original polling on key issues that include US attitudes towards allies, trade and democratic norms as both an enabling and limiting component of US policy in the Indo-Pacific.
- Congress and the courts: The dynamics of the co-equal, though often overlooked, branches of government that shape and frequently curtail executive branch agendas, including in the realm of foreign policy.
- US societal shifts and their implications for Australia: The shifts occurring in US social cohesion, appetite for global leadership, isolationism and nativism, and the pace of addressing climate change.
- Democracy, human rights and governance: The challenge and opportunity of harmonising allied approaches to supporting democracy, human rights, and good governance in the age of strategic competition.
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