AsPr Paul Kenny

I joined ANU in July 2013 and am currently Associate Professor and Head of the Department of Political and Social Change. I received my PhD in political science from Yale University in 2013. 

I am interested in several areas of comparative politics and political economy including of populism, corruption, and identity politics. My research has previously been published in the British Journal of Political Science and The Journal of Politics among other journals.

My first book, Populism and Patronage: Why Populists Win Elections in India, Asia, and Beyond (Oxford University Press, 2017) won the American Political Science Association's 2018 Robert A. Dahl Award. My second book, Populism in Southeast Asia (Cambridge University Press, 2019), examines the political economy of populism in the region.

I am currently working on two book projects: Killing Democracy: Rodrigo Duterte and the War on Drugs in the Philippines examines the relationships between populism, public opinion, and illiberalism surrounding the ongoing war on drugs in the Philippines; The Economics of Populism: Charismatic Leadership from Ancient Greece to the Age of Trump uses the tools of microeconomics to explain the occurrence of populism over time. 

Comparative political economy, political order, populism; corruption; immigration; colonialism; India; Southeast Asia

Felix Pal, Saffron Muslims: The Improbable Support of Hindu nationalist Muslims, Primary supervisor (2017–), ANU. 

Killing Democracy: Rodrigo Duterte and the War on Drugs in the Philippines, book manuscript in progress (with Nicole Curato and Ronald Holmes).

The Economics of Populism: Charismatic Leadership from Ancient Greece to the Age of Trump, book manuscript in progress.

"Does Asylum Seeker Immigration Increase Support for the Far Right? Evidence from the United Kingdon, 2000-2015" (with Charles Miller), under review.

“Betraying the Heartland: Estimating the Political Cost of the British Labour Party's Asylum Seeker Immigration Policy”, (with Charles Miller), under review.

"A New Penal Populism: Rodrigo Duterte, the War on Drugs, and Public Opinion in the Philippines." (with Ronald Holmes), Jouirnal of East Asian Studies (Forthcoming) 

"The Origins of Inequality in Sub-Saharan Africa," (with Nicolas Bichay and Christian Houle), under review

“Commodity Booms, Conflict, and Crime: The Oil Palm Mafia in Indonesia” (with Edward Aspinall and Rashesh Shrestha)

Gerard McCarthy, For Whose Benefit? Informal institutions and distributive politics in Myanmar's transition, Associate supervisor (2015–18), ANU.

Ronald Holmes, The centrality of pork amidst weak institutions: Presidents and the persistence of particularism in post-Marcos Philippines (1986-2016), Associate Supervisor (2013-19), ANU.