Dr Nick Economou
Tel: +61 3 990 55096Fax: +61 3 990 52410
Email: Nick.Economou@monash.edu
Room W11.16
Building 11 (Menzies) Clayton Campus
Dr Nick Economou, a PhD graduate from the University of Melbourne, is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Political and Social Inquiry. Nick has been teaching Australian politics and governance at Monash since 1992, and, prior to this, taught at the then Swinburne Institute and the former Gippsland Institute of Advanced Education (now Monash Gippsland). In amongst all of this he was also the Sir Robert Menzies lecturer in Australian Studies at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies (London University) between 1995 and 1996 – an experience that saw him nearly freeze to death, and develop an unhealthy liking for pie and mash and the Millwall football club.
Nick is an habitual commentator on Australian politics and a pundit on behalf of a number of media outlets that have included the ABC, the BBC and various newspapers. Nick has a great interest in national and state politics, including the electoral contest and sometimes he even gets it right.
This interest in all matters Australian has also been reflected in his scholarly publications. These have included books such as The Kennett Revolution (co-edited with Brian Costar), Media, Politics and Power in Australia (co-authored with Stephen Tanner) and Australian Politics for Dummies (co-authored with Zareh Gazarian). There have also been numerous academic journal articles on subjects ranging from Australian state and federal and even local government elections through to analyses of environmental policy-making. He has also published on Australian political parties, with particular emphasis of the ALP and the Greens.
Nick’s research interests include Australian national and state governance, federal, state and local elections and electoral systems, and the role and behaviour of Australia’s political parties.Nick's recent publications include:
Nick Economou and Zareh Ghazarian Australian Politics for Dummies John Wiley, Melbourne, 2010
Nick Economou and Stephen Tanner Media, Power and Politics in Australia Pearson, Melbourne 2008
Nick Economou ‘Of reform and Race: Assessing the Howard Decade’ in Deborah Gare and David Ritter (eds) Making Australian History: Perspectives on the Past Since 1788 Thomson Publishing, Melbourne 2007
Nick Economou ‘Measuring social cohesion in diverse communities’ in James Jupp and John Nieuwenhuysen (eds) Social Cohesion in Australia Cambridge University Press, Melbourne 2007
Nicholas Economou ‘Victoria’s Electoral System’ in Greg Taylor (ed) The Constitution of Victoria Federation Press, Melbourne 2006 381-401
Nicholas Economou ‘Jeff Kennett: the larrikin metropolitan’ in Paul Strangio and Brian Costar (eds) The Victorian Premiers 1856-2006 Federation Press, Melbourne 2006 363-381
Nicholas Economou ‘The Labor Party’ in Andrew Parkin, John Summers and Dennis Woodward (eds) Government, Politics, Power and Policy in Australia Pearson, Melbourne 2006 226-244
Nicholas Economou ‘Victoria’ in Marian Simms and John Warhurst (eds) Mortgage Nation: The 2004 Australian Election API Network, Perth 2005 pp.183-194
Nick Economou (2008) ‘Changing the rules to change the house: electoral reform and the 2006 election contest for the Victorian Legislative Council’ Australian Journal of Political Science 43 (4) 635-648
Nick Economou (2008) ‘Leading or Following? Editorials, Alignments, Elections and the 2007 Federal Election’ Communications, Politics and Culture 41 (2) 31-46
Nick Economou ‘A right-of-centre triumph? The 2004 Australian half-Senate election’ Australian Journal of Political Science 41 (4) December 2006 501-516
Nick Economou and Margaret Reynolds ‘Who voted Green? A review of the Green vote in the 2002 Victorian state election’ People and Place 11 (3) 2003 57-68
Post-graduate Supervision
Zareh Ghazarian (PhD)
Thesis Title: Minor details? A comparative study of minor parties in the Australian SenateSarah Barr (MA)
Thesis Title: Party Professionalisation: the changing nature of Australia’s major political parties
Undergraduate teaching
Nick runs the first year unit Australian Politics and Government (ATS1353) at the Clayton campus.
He also teaches Parties and Power in Australia (ATS2699/ATS3699).
In 2011 he will be co-teaching ATS4333 – Australian National Government in the Honours program with his colleague, Dr Dennis Woodward.
Some of Nick’s latest writings:
Nick publishes a column in the English edition of Neos Kosmos every fortnight:
http://neoskosmos.com/news/enEvery month he appears in the English language Indian community newspaper The Bharat Times
http://www.bharattimes.com/Nick’s latest musings on Julia Gillard’s first few weeks as prime minister can be found here (courtesy of The Sunday Age):
http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/politics/gillard-must-take-the-rudd-approach-out-of-government-20100710-104u9.htmlNick gives his reasons for why he thinks Labor will win the federal seat of Melbourne here (courtesy of Opinion On Line):
http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=10637