Australia as a Democracy: Key Traits and Modern Outlooks

This essay highlights the key moral and operational aspects of democracy in Australia such as voting system, various types and forms of democracy and the role of parliament in democratic proceedings.

Australia is a
Democracy

The major thesis statement on the basis of which this particular essay is based will be
healthy and successful framework of democracy in the growth of Australia's social value, in
addition an optimum utilisation of principles of this particular form of government. In our society,
each and every person has different rights which allow them to speak up about their needs and
requirements which they are expecting to be fulfilled by the government authority. One of the most
major forms of national governance and how the political system and major identity groups are
catered towards and the way in which the relationship between the state and the people is defined is
democracy. The word democracy has been arose from the demos which is basically used for the
people and kratos that means power. In short democracy is the state of government in which
common people have all the powers to control the functioning of the government by their
intervention (Abjorensen, 2019). However, contrary to the inflexible and often times wrong
practices which are displace out under different countries, where individuals are not embraced with
all the voting rights and does not get the amount of respect which is needed. This given essay is
about the importance and needs of democratic tradition, along with current trends in better
formation of a nation in context of Australia. This essay will elaborate the thoughts and views of
Australian people towards the features of democracy.
Democracy is one of the most important framework for the public and political
administration and this essay will highlight the key traits associated with democracy such as the
parliamentary system, the voting system and the level of public participation in the national and
societal administration. The essay will strive to prove this argument by highlighting the key aspects
and social paradigms related to democracy and its modern day outlooks, comment on the unique
democratic system of Australia and the various operations of its voting system and parliament such
as its levels and functions.
Australian government works by prevailing parliamentary structure in their functioning
where every member has equal right to speak about the current issues and weaknesses of the current
ruling government. On the other hand talking about some other countries such as Saudi Arabia
where there is only one person has all the right to control the country, this autocratic form or one
man rule form of government can be found in Iran and China too. This shows that how badly people
can be treated when there is no systematic arrangement of democracy, just like Australia. One of the
major golden rules which every party which rules a nation must follow is the will of the people to
ensure communal and societal hierarchy and one of the best systems which facilitates such
proceedings is democracy (Ananian-Welsh, 2019).
It is a complex system in which elected government involves representative which are
elected from the free will of people through various systems of voting which reflects the current
political climate in the country’s grass roots population. It is not necessary that the countries which

are following the concept of democracy must same rules and guidelines. Different countries used
different structure in order to convey the freedom of speak and actions among the people as per
their will.
Nations like India, U.S.A and Australia are few countries where democracy is worked under
the sub- systems. Citizen of these nations are allowed to choose their own political leader and have
enough rights to question their working if it is not going according to their promises. The former
refers to the type of democratic framework in which the representatives of the interests of the
general public are elected by them and put in charge of everyday governance. On the other hand, the
latter refers to the type of system within which a drafted document of national importance known as
the constitution lays down the criteria on the basis of which people are elected and governed. When
it comes to the type of political and administrative framework which has been adopted by Australia,
it is both a representative and constitutional democracy as the elected representatives are given their
administrative position through a due elective process powered by the people and a written
constitution lays down various governance guidelines to be followed by the Australian leadership
in-charge (De and Shackleton, 2019).
The overall framework of democracy is worked as per the formulation of constitution like in
Australia there is an federal document which contains all the rules and obligation which needs to be
followed by the people and legislative authority. Along with a nations controlling or political
authority could be divided into three sub parts such as Australian has divided- legislature,
government general or executives and judiciary. One of the major pillars of the institution of
democracy which is found in Australia can be divided into 3 major parts which function as three
separate levels of government which operate in areas such as public health administration and
societal law. One of the most striking features of a democracy is the way in which the electoral
process works in a country as it defines the way in which independent candidate are elected to
become a part of a professional network. The Australian electoral system allows one representative
for each Australian and up-to 12 senators in the federal parliament. The working of Australian
democracy is multi layered as the political authority wants have complete control over national and
local level which will allow them to be more open towards the wellness of the citizen by
considering all of their demand.
The way in which people get to vote their preferred government electives and state level
candidates is also a very important part of the local democratic process and Australia is no different
as there is a complex system in place which is known as proportional representation. In this type of
electoral voting system, the seats are first allocated to different parties on the basis of the share of
total votes they receive and then the seats are allocated specifically to the party members based on
the name on the party’s candidate lists. This system is also very democratic and forms an important

argument in the favour of Australia being a healthy modern democracy as this system of electoral
voting allows people belonging to minorities and severely marginalized backgrounds to get their
local candidates elected into administrative positions. This helps in community development and
the current political and senatorial picture of Australia is quite diverse. In the earlier days during
which the political and parliament system of Australia was heavily dependent on the first past the
post electoral system during democracy’s inception, the voting system was heavily flawed. One of
the major things wrong with this system is that it is thoroughly against the set value of democracy
as it fails to represent the popular preference of the people and the new Australian adoption of
proportional representation is a major pillar in the country’s modern democratic scenario (EGAN
NUGENT and PATERSON).
Speaking of the parliament, one of the major models upon which most of the systems of
democracy are made functional is the parliamentary form of democracy. One of the major functions
of such forms of democratic systems is to sure that the lawful absoluteness of the three bodies,
namely the legislative, executive and judiciary remains supreme and the line between executive and
legislative functions are consequentially blurred. This is done to maintain the accountability of the
executives towards the parliament and to make them derive their legitimacy and power to command
from the same framework. One of the major advantages of having parliamentary system in place for
countries such as Australia is that it always keeps the ruling party in check as people can demand
for fast and prompt re-elections in case the government fails to take care of the people and the
broader society at large. The modern political landscape of Australia has also become quite diverse
which the policies such as the gap being made to take care of the Aboriginal population and Torres
Strait Islander people being given their due and being thoroughly rehabilitated (Mineur, 2020).
In order to reflect this headstrong approach towards diversity and electing people from less
popular and mainstream backgrounds, the parliament system of Australia has done commendable
job in recent years as the people getting re-elected from minority backgrounds have resulted in less
dominance of white and British popular of Australia which has been the majority for a while.
Another major trait of democracy is the assurance of the maximum amount of public
participation when it comes to the elective process and official operations related to public
governance and Australia has also displayed major progress in this regard as the possession of a
robust parliamentary system has been quite important to ensure that proper public accountability is
present in the country. Like in Australia or other democratic nation voice of the people is enough to
force the government so they can lookout their working and progress which is being taken by them
for the prosperity of the nation. In order to uphold the democratic fibre of the nation, Australia has
also come up with major rules inscribed in the constitution and part of the federal framework of the
company as all the citizens above the age of 18 are legally required by law to participate and give

their vote in both national and state level elections of their respective constituencies (Nakata, 2018).
As discussed in the earlier parts of this argumentative essay, one of the most striking aspects
of democracy is that despite being a commonly adopted framework which takes into account the
will and choice of the masses, it fundamentally differs at an operational and structural level between
different countries. To add further weight to this argument, the system, of governance which exists
in Australia is quite unique as the country is a federation, a constitutional monarchy and a
parliamentary democracy at the same time which sets it completely apart from its contemporaries
such as the United Kingdom. What this means in more simplistic terms is that Australia has a
monarch which resides in the United Kingdom and is represented in Australia via the Governor
General and at the same time, is governed by a properly elected ministry led by the prime minister.
Australia also has a fully dedicated 2 chamber parliament system to make and bypass laws and has
eight state and territory parliament. This particular model takes it inspiration from the British roots
of Australia and is known as the Westminster system as it is derived from the Westminster
parliament in the United Kingdom (Słomka, 2020).
Australia is a federation made up of six states which until 1901 were all separate British
colonies, the names being Tasmania, South Australia, West Australia, Queensland, New South
Wales and Victoria which all have their separate and well-functioning democratic government. The
main head of each of these six states is the governor and each of these democratic states have a two
chamber parliament except Queensland which for political reasons has only one chamber since
1921. The unique democratic outlook of Australia is also special as despite being a parliamentary;
democracy, the nation also shares a queen with many countries including Canada and United
Kingdom thereby also being a constitutional monarchy. The way in which this queen functions is
also very complex as despite being the champion of Australia’s commonwealth, the queen’s power
in Australia is represented and acted through by the governor general U3135316 Nasir Khuaja 6 6
which is why her operational authority is limited to the extent permitted by the Australian
constitution (Schapals et.al., 2019).
The main aim of the Australian democracy is to create a framework through which the
people are governed in an effective manner and this is indicated through the main messaging of
parliament which is defined in the constitution as The Queen, The Senate and The Representatives.
The main feature of democracy which is followed in Australia and is a common hallmark is the way
in which laws are passed in the assembly after due debate between opposing parties. This is done in
Australian context through something called the cabinet. A law can only be duly passed if it is
having been cleared by the senates and through the house of representatives.
This argumentative essay went into detail regarding the various ways in which the meaning
and key aspects of democracy are upheld and practised differently by various countries with

specific attention being given to the Australian form of democracy. This essay highlighted key
moral and operational aspects of democracy such as voting system, various types and forms of
democracy and the role of parliament in democratic proceedings in Australia. It was concluded from
this essay that Australia is indeed a well-functioning democracy with people centric administrative
values which can be seen from the diverse elective representation and the adoption of modern
voting systems such as proportional representation.

References
Books and Journals:
Abjorensen, N. (2019). Historical dictionary of democracy. Rowman & Littlefield.
Wain, R. (2022). Declared criminal: An examination of the South Australian ‘bikie gang’moral
panic.
De Feo, A. (2019). Communicating the Work of the Parliament. In Shaping Parliamentary
Democracy (pp. 101-110). Palgrave Pivot, Cham.
EGAN, M., NUGENT, N., & PATERSON, W. E. Shaping Parliamentary Democracy.
Mineur, D. (2020). Theories of parliamentarism, philosophies of democracy. In Handbook of
Parliamentary Studies (pp. 86-100). Edward Elgar Publishing.
Nakata, S. (2018). The infantilisation of indigenous Australians: A problem for democracy. Griffith
Review, (60), 104-116.
Schapals, A. K., Bruns, A., & McNair, B. (Eds.). (2019). Digitizing democracy. Nueva York:
Routledge.
Słomka, T. (2020). SOCIALIST PARLIAMENTARY DEMOCRACY: THE LIMITS OF THE
GOVERNMENT AGREEMENT IN 1989. Studia Politologiczne, 15.