US politics shapes the US economy and its foreign policy, with implications for Australia and the region. The strong cultural connections between Australia and the United States — running through media, film, literature, music and sport — mean that trends in American public opinion are often mirrored in Australia. Australians’ understanding of the United States — of its politics and its appetite for international engagement — powerfully shape the way Australian policymakers engage with the United States.

The Politics, Society and Culture Program addresses questions about US political institutions and public opinion; the values that structure US politics both today and historically; America’s ongoing balancing of individual freedom, inequality and state power; America’s presentation of itself to the world through film, television and literature; how technology is transforming American workplaces, households and social relations; and the differences and similarities between the United States and Australia in key domains of public policy.