Australia’s Electoral Innovations

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa Hill
Keyword(s):  
Political Culture ◽  
Electoral System ◽  
Women's Suffrage ◽  
Early Adopter ◽  
Secret Ballot ◽  
Compulsory Voting ◽  
The World ◽  
Women’S Suffrage

This chapter explores Australia’s well-deserved reputation as a democratic innovator and, in particular, an electoral innovator. This tendency has been driven substantially by two uniquely Australian inheritances: first, a relative absence of rights protections in the Constitution; and second, a pragmatic political culture less concerned with individualized rights than with utility, fairness, and equality. Australia introduced a number of electoral innovations that have defined and distinguished its democracy, some of which were enthusiastically adopted by other democracies. These include the secret ballot, preferential voting, mobile polling booths, Saturday voting, and, more recently, direct update. It was also an early adopter of women’s suffrage and compulsory voting, the latter of which is arguably Australia’s most important and consequential innovation. The latter also helped to drive the development of integrated, effective, and inventive electoral management that is respected the world over. All of these developments have resulted in an electoral system that is well managed and highly trusted and has unusually high and socially even rates of electoral inclusion. In turn, this has made Australian democracy quite robust.

Electoral Systems in Context

2017 ◽  
pp. 762-780 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ian McAllister ◽  
Toni Makkai
Keyword(s):  
House Of Representatives ◽  
Party System ◽  
Electoral Systems ◽  
Electoral System ◽  
Secret Ballot ◽  
Compulsory Voting ◽  
Lower House ◽  
System P ◽  
The World ◽  
2016 Election

Australia is often characterized as “a democratic laboratory,” where a wide variety of electoral systems have been designed and implemented. Australia gave the world “the Australian ballot” (or secret ballot), and it is one of the few countries to operate an enforced system of compulsory voting. This chapter examines the evolution of the electoral systems in the lower House of Representatives and in the upper house, the Senate. Particular attention is given to the design of the Senate electoral system, and to the changes that were implemented at the 2016 election to eliminate the proliferation of “micro parties.” The development of compulsory voting is also outlined, and its consequences for the party system evaluated. Finally, the chapter discusses the major challenges to reform of the electoral system.

10. Gender and Democratization

2009 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pamela Paxton
Keyword(s):  
Political Participation ◽  
Political Representation ◽  
Descriptive Representation ◽  
Women's Suffrage ◽  
Substantive Representation ◽  
Democratic Representation ◽  
The World ◽  
Role Of Women ◽  
Women’S Suffrage

This chapter examines the role of gender in democracy and democratization. It first considers how gender figures in definitions of democracy, noting that while women may appear to be included in definitions of democracy, they are often not included in practice. It then explores women’s democratic representation, making a distinction between formal, descriptive, and substantive representation. Women’s formal political representation is highlighted by focusing on the fight for women’s suffrage, whereas women’s descriptive representation is illustrated with detailed information on women’s political participation around the world. Finally, the chapter discusses the role of women in recent democratization movements around the world.

10. Gender and Democratization

2018 ◽  
pp. 158-170
Author(s):  
Pamela Paxton ◽  
Kristopher Velasco
Keyword(s):  
Political Participation ◽  
Political Representation ◽  
Descriptive Representation ◽  
Women's Suffrage ◽  
Substantive Representation ◽  
Democratic Representation ◽  
The World ◽  
Role Of Women ◽  
Women’S Suffrage

This chapter examines the role of gender in democracy and democratization. It first considers how gender figures in definitions of democracy, noting that while women may appear to be included in definitions of democracy, they are often not included in practice. It then explores women’s democratic representation, making a distinction between formal, descriptive, and substantive representation. Women’s formal political representation is highlighted by focusing on the fight for women’s suffrage, whereas women’s descriptive representation is illustrated with detailed information on women’s political participation around the world. Finally, the chapter discusses the role of women in recent democratization movements around the world.

“Latter-Day Slavery”

2020 ◽  
Vol 97 (4) ◽  
pp. 137-143
Author(s):  
Susan D. Anderson
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Black Women ◽  
African Americans ◽  
Political Culture ◽  
Black Men ◽  
Voting Rights ◽  
Women's Suffrage ◽  
White Led ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
Women’S Suffrage

My research highlights little-known aspects of African American participation in the mobilization on behalf of women’s suffrage in California, an issue of vital importance to African Americans. The history of suffrage in the United States is marked by varying degrees of denial of voting rights to African Americans. In California, African Americans were pivotal participants in three major suffrage campaigns. Based on black women’s support for the Fifteenth Amendment, which granted black men the right to vote, black men and women formed a critical political alliance, one in which black men almost universally supported black women’s suffrage. Black women began and continued their activism on behalf of male and female voting rights, not as an extension of white-led suffrage campaigns, but as an expression of African American political culture. African Americans—including black women suffragists—developed their own political culture, in part, to associate with those of similar culture and life experiences, but also because white-led suffrage organizations excluded black members. Black politics in California reflected African Americans’ confidence in black women as political actors and their faith in their own independent efforts to secure the franchise for both black men and women.

scholarly journals THE BRITISH WOMEN'S SUFFRAGE MOVEMENT AND THE PRACTICE OF PETITIONING, 1890–1914

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-25
Author(s):  
HENRY MILLER
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Political Culture ◽  
Direct Action ◽  
Women's Suffrage ◽  
Popular Politics ◽  
Pressure Groups ◽  
Suffrage Movement ◽  
Early Twentieth Century ◽  
Late Nineteenth ◽  
Women’S Suffrage

Abstract Through an examination of the women's suffrage movement, this article reassesses the place of petitioning within late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century British political culture. While critical of their Victorian predecessors’ reliance on petitions, the Edwardian women's suffrage movement did not abandon petitioning, but reinvented it. Rather than presenting a polarized view of relations between suffragettes and suffragists, the article shows how both operated on a spectrum of direct action politics through petitioning. Militants and constitutionalists pioneered new, although different, modes of petitioning that underpinned broader repertoires of popular politics, adapting this venerable practice to a nascent mass democracy. The article then situates suffrage campaigners’ reinvention of petitioning within a broader political context. The apparent decline of petitioning, long noted by scholars, is reframed as the waning of the classic model of mass petitioning parliament associated with Victorian pressure groups. The early twentieth century was a crucial period for the reshaping of petitioning as a tool for political participation and expression through myriad subscriptional forms, rather than primarily through the medium of parliamentary petitions.

scholarly journals Democratization of Zemstvo Electoral System in Ukraine after February Revolution of 1917

2021 ◽  
pp. 18-26
Author(s):  
A. I. Kozachenko
Keyword(s):  
Political Culture ◽  
Professional Training ◽  
Electoral System ◽  
Legal Culture ◽  
Public Organization ◽  
Left Bank ◽  
Training Level ◽  
Secret Ballot ◽  
Political Experience ◽  
The Right

The paper analyzes the legislation of the Provisional Government of Russia of 1917 which ensured the democratization of the Zemstvo electoral system by introducing general, equal, direct elections by secret ballot. According to the transitional legislation of 1917, elections of county and provincial councillors were held according to the proportional electoral system. As a result of the elections, the provincial and county zemstvos were Ukrainized and democratized by involving peasants’ representatives. However, given voters’ low political culture and lack of political experience, this electoral system proved ineffective. Participation in the elections of mainly one public organization - the Peasants' Union, which received the right to elect provincial councillors, led to a decrease in the zemstvo governors’ professional training level, which was one of the reasons for the zemstvo self-government decline. Elections of volost councillors on the resolution of county zemstvos representatives’ congresses could be held under both majority and proportional electoral systems, which indicates the expansion of suffrage. On the territory of the Left Bank of Ukraine, the elections of volost councillors were held under the majority electoral system, which was quite justified, as voters were not ready for elections on the basis of the proportional system. Holding the volost elections showed a number of shortcomings, which, objectively, included insufficient level of election commissions’ preparation and, as a result, violations of the law. The low level of voters’ political and legal culture did not allow to ensure the proper conduct of the election campaign. Opposition by anti-democratic and anti-Ukrainian forces in the process of holding zemstvo elections led to absenteeism among voters.

Suffrage Rights

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Humberto Llavador
Keyword(s):  
Women's Suffrage ◽  
Ruling Elite ◽  
Institutional Reforms ◽  
Compulsory Voting ◽  
History Of ◽  
Right To Vote ◽  
The Right ◽  
Almost All ◽  
Women’S Suffrage

The historical evolution of the right to vote offers three observations. First, almost all groups have seen their voting rights challenged at some point in time, and almost all political movements have sought to exclude some other group from voting. Second, reforms towards suffrage extension are varied—from the direct introduction of universal (male) suffrage to a trickle down process of enfranchising a small group at a time. Third, the history of franchise extension is a history of expansions and contractions. Much of the literature on the evolution of the right to vote builds on the following question: Why would a ruling elite decide to extend the suffrage to excluded groups who have different interests in the level of redistribution and the provision of public goods? Two competing theories dominate the debate: Bottom-up or demand theories emphasizing the role of revolutionary threats, and top-down or supply theories, explaining franchise extensions as the outcome of the strategic interactions of those in power and elites in the democratic opposition. A second question addresses the choice of a particular path of franchise extension, asking what explains different strategies and, in particular, the role of their accompanying institutional reforms. In contrast to the literature on the inclusion of the lower classes, women’s suffrage has been traditionally presented as the conquest of the suffragette movement. Current research, however, departs from this exceptionalism of female suffrage and shows certain consensus in explaining women’s suffrage as a political calculus, in which men willingly extend the franchise when they expect to benefit from it. Arguments differ though in the specific mechanisms that explain the political calculus. Finally, the literature on compulsory voting addresses the estimations of its impact on turnout; whether it translates into more efficient campaigning, improved legitimacy, and better representativity; and ultimately its effects on policies.

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