Adele Webb – The Conversation

Bishop Marshall/Mirrorpix/Getty Images/Elements5Digital/Unsplash

December 17, 2025

Is democracy the worst form of government – apart from all the others? We asked 5 experts

James Ley, The Conversation

Recent studies have shown declining levels of trust in democratic systems. We asked experts to consider democracy’s strengths and weaknesses.

The Citizens' Assembly/X

December 11, 2025

Politicians bank on people not caring about democracy – but research shows we do

Adele Webb, University of Canberra; Emily Foley, Flinders University; University of Canberra, and Max Grömping, Griffith University

A new report shows Australians don’t want to be reduced to merely voters. They want a democracy that listens, including between elections.

Voters might be quite rational in refusing to give the green light to those who wield power and benefit from the status quo. Mats Edenius/flickr

August 11, 2017

We frown on voters’ ambivalence about democracy, but they might just save it

Adele Webb, University of Sydney

Ambivalence among voters is reason to think about how democracy is working for us as a community. To keep democracy alive we need to be sceptical about the exercise of power and keep it in check.

Donald Trump is often described as a populist leader. Reuters/Carlo Allegri

November 2, 2016

We the People: the charms and contradictions of populism

John Keane, University of Sydney; Adele Webb, University of Sydney; Christine Milne, University of Sydney; Henrik Bang, University of Canberra; James Loxton, University of Sydney; Jan-Werner Muller, Princeton University; Laurence Whitehead, University of Oxford; Mark Chou, Australian Catholic University; Nick Rowley, University of Sydney, and Stephen Coleman, University of Leeds

In this special The Conversation project, scholars and commentators from around the world examine the rise of populism, and its implications, now and into the future.

Insulting Barack Obama made the headlines, but Rodrigo Duterte’s remarks referred to a long and dark history of US interference in the Philippines. Narendra Shresthma, Mast Irham/EPA

September 9, 2016

He may have insulted Obama, but Duterte held up a long‑hidden looking glass to the US

Adele Webb, University of Sydney

The people of the Philippines and their president know all too well the hypocrisy of being lectured by the United States about violence, human rights and democracy.

Too little, too late: the Philippines President hands out water to survivors in Tacloban City. EPA/RYAN LIM/ MALACANANG PHOTO BUREAU HANDOUT

November 12, 2013

Climate change and government inaction conspired against Philippines

Adele Webb, University of Sydney

Filipinos are no strangers to big storms. Their country sits next to the world’s most intense typhoon generator, a huge expanse of deep, warm ocean in the North West Pacific. More than 20 tropical storms…

Campaign posters for husband and wife team, Jack and Sally Enrile, in the recent Filipino elections. What does the experience of Asia’s longes serving democracy teach us about modern elections? Adele Webb

June 11, 2013

Philippine election antics in context: stories from the field

Adele Webb, University of Sydney

For the average person schooled the the Western sense of an election, democracy in action in other parts of the world can be challenging, if not confronting. Driving into the town, past the carabaos cooling…

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