Voluntary Voting in Australia

Paper Summary:

This paper contends that as Australia is a liberal democracy, voluntary voting is desirable. The paper argues this by stating the positive liberal democratic effects that a voluntary voting system would have such as
drastically increasing overall political activity, enhancing the current political system by making it more democratic in nature and the advancement of the fundamental rights of Australia's citizens.

From the Paper:

"Far from decreasing political activity, voluntary voting would in fact increase political activity. This would be primarily caused by two major effects resulting from people no longer having to vote for the better of multiple parties, but rather only voting when a party shows itself as worthy of the effort. Firstly, parties and party supporters would be forced to become more involved in the local issues of the people and the community in order to motivate the electorate to vote for them. Secondly, campaigning would become just as prominent in safe seats as it is in marginal seats, as the number of votes from safe seats would no longer be guaranteed. When one considers that current party election efforts focus primarily not just on marginal seats but on swinging marginal seats, which make up only 7% of the population, it's obvious that the resulting increase in political activity would be drastic. "

Sample of Sources Used:

• T Evans, 'Compulsory Voting in Australia', Australian Electoral Commission, November 2006, viewed on 6 April 2007, <http://www.aec.gov.au/_content/What/voting/compulsory_voting.pdf>.
• L Hill, 'On the reasonableness of Compelling Citizens to Vote: The Australian Case', Political Studies, vol. 50, 1, 2002, pp. 80-101.
• N Minchin, 'A denial of rights, a detriment to democracy', The Parliamentarian, vol. 77, 3, 1996, pp. 244-248.

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