John Keane is Professor of Politics in the School of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Sydney. His academic background includes a First Class Honours degree with Highest Distinction in Politics, Government, and History from the University of Adelaide (1971), a doctorate in philosophy and political economy from the University of Toronto supervised by C.B. Macpherson, and a post-doctoral fellowship at King’s College, University of Cambridge, where he collaborated with Anthony Giddens, Quentin Skinner, and other prominent scholars. Keane's distinguished career spans multiple institutions: he serves as Distinguished Research Professor at the Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin (WZB) for more than two decades, is Emeritus Professor at the University of Westminster—where he founded the Centre for the Study of Democracy (CSD) in 1989—and established and directed the Sydney Democracy Network. Additionally, he designed and launched the global Democracy Lighthouse platform.

Keane's research specializations, as listed in university records, include political science, political theory and political philosophy, comparative government and politics, journalism studies, and government. His scholarly interests cover civil society, the history of democracy, media and politics, violence, power dynamics in the digital age, China's political trajectory, emerging despotisms, global governance, and the philosophies of religion, language, and Islam. Among his prolific publications are the prize-winning Tom Paine: A Political Life (1995); Václav Havel: A Political Tragedy in Six Acts (1999); the widely acclaimed and Prime Minister’s Literary Award-shortlisted The Life and Death of Democracy (2009); Democracy and Media Decadence (2013); Power and Humility (2018); The New Despotism (2020); The Shortest History of Democracy (2022); and China’s Galaxy Empire: Wealth, Power, War, and Peace in the New Chinese Century (2024). He has also authored Civil Society: Old Images, New Visions (1998), Global Civil Society? (2003), and Violence and Democracy (2004). Keane has received nominations for the Balzan Prize and Holberg Prize for his contributions to the human sciences and has delivered public lectures on topics such as the rise of authoritarianism.

Professional Email: john.keane@sydney.edu.au