GOVT1101 Study Guide - Final Guide: Australian Senate, Federation Of Australia, Federalism In Australia
23 May 2018
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Australian Politics - Lecture Notes
Elections and Voting
Australia's electoral laws are fundamental to the nation's democratic legitimacy.
From the electoral laws flow the form and style of representation, the relative
strength of political parties, the formation of government and the development of
policy positions.
A long dominated party system of competition between the Labor Party and Liberal -
National Coalition has resulted in firm control over the design and detail of our
electoral system.
• Most Australian jurisdictions use majoritarian, single - member electoral
systems for the lower houses in which governments are formed.
• In the two Australian jurisdictions that use proportional representation for
their governing houses - Tasmania and the ACT - there is increasing evidence
of a three party system evolving, with the Greens now holding at least 20 % of
the seats.
• Government of the day is formed in the lower house - the house of
representatives - that is, the majority of members that maintain support for a
prime minister to continue their commission.
• The House is elected through majority-preferential voting, this is also known
as the alternative vote. A preference must be given for each candidate.
• Senators are popularly elected under the single transferable vote system of
proportional representation. (Group ticket voting was abolished in 2016 due
to preference harvesting)
• Right to vote as early as 1894 for all
• Postal voting is available. Pros and cons - of concern to the AEC bc parties can
now actively solicit for electors to lodge postal votes
• Prisoner disenfranchisement
• Arguments for and against compulsory voting mostly revolve around civic
rights and responsibilities
• Problem for electorates with a high Indig. population is that they are
frequently neglected by major parties - turnout in NT is 10% lower than
everywhere else
• The Australian Electoral Commission is the federal independent agency
that organises, conducts and supervises federal elections and referendums.
They monitor the activities of registered political parties incl receiving
returns from parties/ donations/ expenditures
• Theories of Vote choice:
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• The Sociopsychological model - driven by voter demographics and social
psychological theories that rest on the notion of partisan loyalty - but fails to
explain shifts between elections
• The Rational Choice model - driven by voters ideological proximity to party
ideological positions - this explains short term voting shifts well but performs
poorly when explaining long term stability of voting behaviour
• The Unified theory of party competition - combines the best of both
paradigms
Summary
• Elections are central to modern democracies. Elections have consequences
for the distribution of power.
• Australian compulsory voting and preferential voting is a unique institutional
set up. The electoral system advantages the Coalition by more efficiently
distributing its voters.
• Australian elections are conducted in conditions with clear advantages over
comparable democracies.
• The Australian party system is based around two parties; a product of
electoral laws & political socialisation.
• Vote choice is a product of rational concerns and psychological
predispositions.
• Parties balance voter appeal against elite policy preferences.
• Election campaigns tend to produce little change in voter intentions
compared to the actual election result.
06/4/2017
Political parties are organisations that promote interests, policies, values and/or
ideologies by attempting to win public offices. These parties have to be organised in
some way.
In Westminister systems such as Australia, the parliamentary leadership of the party
that wins a majority of seats in the lower house forms government.
Almost all the bicameral Australian parliaments utilise a combination of
preferential voting for the lower house and proportional representation for
the upper house. The exception is Tasmania, where the application of electoral
system to house is reversed.
These generally promote views of a particular view of people, e.g labor and workers.
• Parties often have their origins in social cleavages, such as regions, social
classes or religions.
• Political parties are interest aggregators and simplify choices for voters
It is relatively easy to set up a party. It has to be organised in some sort of way
holding meetings, etc.
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• Party registration enables a form of 'political engineering' to occur - either
encouraging the formation of new parties (typically where a democracy's
party system is weak) or creating barriers to the continuation of existing
parties.
• A healthy democracy would normally provide a balance between
encouragement and restriction it is party regulation regime.
• There is a minimum no of members required in order to be registered. This
varies amongst jurisdiction.
The key thing that separates political parties from another organisation that
promotes aligned values like amnesty international for example is that they attempt
to win public offices.
In democracies, political parties help people form their opinions.
Australia's party system is a hybrid: how we see it depends on which questions we
ask.
" By a party system we just mean that parties interact with one another. Parties tend
to endure a certain logic, parties operate predictably, it isn't random."
It is notable that Australia is actually coalition in the sense that government is a
formation of multiple governments. The formation of coalitions need not be
unstable.
• A 'two party' system/ or majoritarian system/ associated with
Westminster system
• If we ask who forms government? Winner takes all; Labor v non-labor (the
major parties)
• A majoritarian system is relatively stable in that it solves the problem of
confidence in parliamentary systems by retaining the confidence of
government/ the lower house. At least 76/150 members. Whereas when we
think about italian coalitions in the past we tend to think of them as relatively
unstable.
• A 'multi-party' system/ associated with continental europe:
• If we ask who affects legislation? Non-Labor Coalition (Liberal and National
Parties) 'minor' parties in upper houses; minority governments; federalism
• Who determines election outcomes? Standing candidates; campaigning;
preferential voting.
• Because all of the other parties are very important to, we are more like a
multi party system in this sense of legislating.
On inglehearts thinking c. 1970
Pure Materialist = maintaining order and economic growth etc
Pure Post materialist = more freedom of speech, sexuality, giving people more say in
government decisions etc. e.g Greens
The major parties of Australia are;
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find more resources at oneclass.com
