Profile John Keane

In July, when John Keane returned to live in Australia after 30 years in London, he was eager to escape Britain's post-GFC melancholia. Instead, what the highly regarded politics professor and author saw was Australian politics at one of its lowest ebbs.

"I witnessed a pretty dreadful election campaign dominated by the cartel parties appealing to the lowest common denominators and driven by focus groups and a fear of political debate," says Keane, 60, who holds a chair in democratic theory at the University of Sydney.

Since then, however, he has been buoyed by developments. "The unintended consequence was three weeks of reasonable, intelligent, prudent discussion about the rules of the game. I have to say I was impressed by the way various parties and individuals behaved."

Keane has been studying the workings of democracy for 40 years. The Times named him one of Britain's leading political thinkers and his recent book, The Life and Death of Democracy, has been shortlisted for the (Australian) Prime Minister's Literary Award.

Keane's career course was set by the Vietnam War. Instead of signing up for a science degree at Adelaide University, as he had planned, his interest in the social and political upheavals surrounding the Vietnam War led him to study politics.

Keane was called up for the war, and refused to go, but was rescued by the election in 1972 of Gough Whitlam, who promptly ended conscription and recognised China.

"That was a real watershed moment, a coming of age," he says.

Keane won a string of fellowships to study PPE (philosophy, politics and economics) around the world and ultimately chose Toronto over Oxford to do a PhD on how Germany had revived democratic interest in citizenship and public life amid the ruins of Nazism.

His post-doctoral research at Cambridge University marked the beginning of his 30-year stay in Britain - but he didn't particularly like the university itself.

"There were far too many second-rate people whose arrogance was unwarranted," he says.

Ten years later, Keane founded the Centre for the Study of Democracy in London and split his time between "the Republic of London", as he calls it, and Berlin, where he has a chair in politics at its Social Science Research Centre.

Keane's return to Australia was prompted by several factors - including his two children having finished school, the rise of the Asia-Pacific region as the geopolitical centre of the world and his belief that Australia is now more welcoming of public intellectuals.

Keane was also horrified by the prospect of Britain's compulsory retirement for academics at 65. "My ideal is to be clinging to the lectern saying 'just one more' as they try to drag me off stage," he says.

Another factor was Britain's economic malaise and continuing ructions from the Iraq War. On the day Keane left in early July, The Times published an opinion poll showing 60 per cent of Britons would emigrate if they had the chance.

Keane sees a big difference between Australia's minority government and the situation in Britain, with what he calls its Con-Dem coalition.

"The combination here of well-regulated banks and China has ensured politics, the economy and society is more optimistic," he says.

"Instead of the deep cuts facing Britain, there's a vision of wealth to build long term infrastructure such as the NBN [National Broadband Network] and a high-speed rail network."

THE BIG QUESTIONS

Biggest break Managing, at a young age, to leave Adelaide, where otherwise I was at risk of becoming a dead fish wrapped in a Murdoch newspaper.

Biggest achievement Reciprocal love for my two children [aged 20 and 19].

Biggest regret Figuring out too slowly that forgiveness is among the loveliest of virtues. Regrets are usually built on a foundation of resentment or anger ... forgiveness does dissolve that.

Best investment Learning languages [he's fluent in German] and the arts of scepticism. Scepticism, about power for example, is very central to my work.

Worst investment Half believing the promise of a recent British prime minister that things would only get better [Tony Blair's slogan during the 1997 election campaign]. There's a terrible atmosphere in Britain now.

Attitude to money Though money is better financially than poverty, never worship the golden calf.

Personal philosophy Pretty simple: respect the ungraspable complexity of the world.