Darren Halpin

Professor of Political Science
The Australian National University

I research and write about organised interests in politics (interest groups, thinks tanks, corporations and lobbyists) and political representation, and the connections between the two.

Bio

Darren Halpin is Professor of Political Science at the Australian National University. He researches and writes about the organisation of interests and interest representation in the policy process, in Australia, the U.S., the United Kingdom, and comparatively. His work has attracted competitive funding from bodies including the Australian Research Council, UK Economic and Social Research Council, the Leverhulme Trust and the British Academy. Halpin is Founding Editor of the book series Interest Groups, Advocacy and Democracy published with Palgrave, UK.

Read the full biography.

Publications

Books

Book chapters

'Policy Agendas': What are They? And How Might We Study Them?

Halpin, D. (2015) ‘Interest Group ‘Policy Agendas’: What are They? And How Might We Study Them?’

in B. Loomis & A. Nownes (eds) Interest Group Politics (9th ed.), Congressional Quarterly Press/SAGE, Washington.

‘Farm Protest and Militancy in Australia: Supporting or Undermining Interest Group Politics’

Halpin D. (2015) ‘Farm Protest and Militancy in Australia: Supporting or Undermining Interest Group Politics’

in Strijker, Terluin & Voerman (eds) Rural Protest Groups and Populist Political Parties, Wageningen Academic Publishers, Wageningnen.

Latest journal articles

Do think tanks generate media attention on issues they care about?

Grömping, M. and Halpin, D.R. (2021) ‘Do think tanks generate media attention on issues they care about? Mediating internal expertise and prevailing governmental agendas. Policy Sciences, 54(4): 849-66.

Dark money and opaque politics: making sense of contributions to Australian political parties

Ratcliff, S. and Halpin, D.R. (2021) ‘Dark money and opaque politics: making sense of contributions to Australian political parties’, Australian Journal of Political Science, 56(4): 335-57.

Current research projects

Corporate Elites and US Politics

For the past four years, Anthony J. Nownes (University of Tennessee) and I have been working on a project to examine the role of the founders and CEOs of Silicon Valley firms in US politics. The New Entrepreneurial Advocacy: Silicon Valley Elites in American Politics, is out with Oxford University Press. It provides a deep dive into the political engagement of this important slice of corporate America.

Transnational corporations, global governance and credible commitments to sustainable development

Lisa Dellmuth (Stockholm University) and I are investigating the commitments of transnational corporations to sustainable development outcomes globally. It is increasingly accepted that forms of private governance, driven by the direct actions of firms, are crucial to achieving positive sustainability outcomes. Indeed, some corporations have, independently of states, already engaged rhetorically and substantively in private governance activities supporting sustainability policies. But why then do some transnational companies engage in sustainable leadership, pursuing public goods such as sustainable development, while others do not?

In this project we are building a corporation-level data set that documents commitments to sustainability made by firms. Empirically, we seek to extrapolate a pattern of sustainable leadership across companies, issue areas, world regions, and over time. Theoretically, we seek to push forward the debate about the role of private actors in global environmental governance by conceptualising the notion of ‘credible commitments’ to corporate sustainable leadership.

Donations, interests and influence in Australian politics

Shaun Ratcliff (University of Sydney) and I are engaged in a project to document political donations to Australian political parties. Unprecedented attention is being paid to the size of donations – directly or via associated entities – to political parties, and their influence on the decisions made by elected officials. There is ever present discussion of ‘dark money’, ‘pay for play’ politics and donations for access and influence. The media consistently run stories outlining single instances where donations one day seem to run into advantageous government decisions the next. These ‘gotcha’ moments are undoubtedly important for the public record, but they also have an eroding effect on public trust in government.

We are completing an onerous process of (consistently) collating and coding all Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) political donations data since records were first kept (in 1998), including direct donations, and those via associated entities. We are currently working on two journal manuscripts using these data: one focuses on the relationships between organised interests and parties, while the other examines corporate donations.

Crowdsourcing Political Engagement

Ariadne Vromen (Australian National University) and I recently completed our ARC funded project examining the transformation of political activism and citizen-led campaigning in the digital age in Australia. The project focused on how crowdsourced forms of political engagement are facilitated by digital tools that let citizens share political information and calls to action. In particular it identified the extent and character of crowdsourcing e-tactics: petitioning, boycotting, buycotting, and micro-donations. A book – Crowdsourced Politics – the major output from this project, was recently published with Palgrave.

Data

Replication data and other datasets are available via my dataverse page

Teaching and supervision

At the Australian National University I teach the following classes:

I encourage applications for PhD and Honours supervision in areas related to my research interests.

Please contact me directly to discuss your proposed project: darren.halpin@anu.edu.au.

Engagement

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Policy Advocacy Lab

I am Founder and Director of the Policy Advocacy Lab, which brings research, teaching and engagement together on themes related to political advocacy.

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Book series: Interest Groups, Advocacy and Democracy

I am Founding Series Editor for the book series Interest Groups, Advocacy and Democracy published by Palgrave.

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ECPR and APSA

I am an active participant in the European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR) Standing Group on Interest Groups and the Political Organizations and Parties section of the American Political Science Association (APSA).