The Academy's 2019 Peter Karmel Forum will discuss the insights that can be gained from thinking about politics and policy through a values lens and how a political values perspective can enhance our understanding of political conflict and the policy process.
Our lives are guided by sets of values that underpin our evaluations of good and bad, right and wrong, and what should or should not be. These values have their origins in an individual’s upbringing, their religion, societal norms, and their lived experience. Values are deeply held and hard to shift and they guide not only individual behaviour but also inform judgments about the appropriate functioning of society. Recognising the role of values has important implications for politics and policy, highlighting the limitations of rational, value-free models of the policy process.
ARC Laureate Fellow and Centenary Professor John Dryzek has kindly agreed to launch Professor Linda Botterill’s new book Interrogating Public Policy: a political values perspective on Friday 24 May 2019 at the National Museum of Australia. The book launch hosted by the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia will take place after the 2019 Peter Karmel Forum on Public Policy. The forum will discuss issues raised in Professor Botterill’s new book.