How Papua New Guinea Works

Papua New Guinea is Australia’s closest neighbour and shares with it a long and sometimes turbulent history. Engagement with Papua New Guinea’s political system and civil institutions is challenging: there is a great deal of political instability, there are deep difficulties with the machinery of government, very significant cultural differences, logistical complications and heterogeneity across the social and geographic landscape. This course will provide an overview of the political economy of Papua New Guinea, aiming to equip participants with a capacity to understand, navigate and act in this complex terrain. This course is designed for current and prospective policy makers and aid professionals seeking to better understand PNG’s political and administrative arrangements, and the contemporary social, political and economic transformations underway in PNG. It examines and unpacks PNG’s political economy, and provides the tools to understand the politics of development and the development of politics in PNG. It explores the factors driving social, political and economic reform and examines the relationship between PNG’s formal and informal institutions and state performance, particularly in relation to service delivery. Topics covered under the course: - Turbulence and continuity: the paradox of Papua New Guinean political economy. - Subsistence, services and extraction: the Papua New Guinean economy - Churches, culture and civil society - Disorderly democracy – elections, politics and political culture. - Service delivery – District Development Authorities and Constituency Development Funds - Future reforms - What works in Papua New Guinea, and for whom?