Changes to New Zealand's election laws favour incumbents over challengers and critics.

New laws requiring disclosure of political expenditure discourage debate and political participation.

Policy experts often think alike, even when the evidence contradicts them. This is how billions of dollars get spent on government programs that don't work, argue CIS researchers Jennifer Buckingham, Andrew Norton, Phil Rennie, Jeremy Sammut and Peter Saunders.

There is something morally unattractive about selling body parts, but the alternatives are worse.

For federalism to work, the states need clear roles and their own revenue.

While multilateral trade liberalisation is stalled, Clarissa Keil argues that Australia may need to stay in the race for free trade deals and gamble on a bad deal being less damaging than no deal at all.

An explanation of why predictions by intellectuals so often turn out to be wrong.

Julian Le Grand makes a social democratic case for choice and competition in The Other Invisiible Hand: Delivering Public Services through Choice and Competition. However Gary Sturgess argues that public service markets aren't driven by an invisible hand.

Data crunching may soon be more important than intuitive decision-making.

The Liberals: The NSW Division 1945-2000 by Ian Hancock (Federation Press, 2007).

School Choice: The Findings by Herbert J. Wahlberg (Cato Institute, 2007).

Australian Social Attitudes 2: Citizenship, Work and Aspiration edited by David Denemark, Gabrielle Meagher, Shaun Wilson, Mark Western and Timothy Phillips (UNSW PRess, 2007).

The Age of Turbulence: Adventures in a New World by Alan Greenspan (Allen Lane, 2007).

Full Disclosure: The Promise and Perils of Transparency by Archon Fung, Mary Graham and David Weil (Cambridge University Press, 2007).

Confucian Political Ethics edited by Daniel A. Bell (Princeton University Press, 2008).