The Evolution and Significance of Australian Federalism

The assignment discusses the Australian electoral system and its institutions, highlighting their effectiveness in maintaining a fair and transparent democratic process. The country's federalism and constitutionalism are also explored, revealing the influences of British and American legal traditions on modern Australian constitutionalism. The essay concludes that Australia's democratic character is evident in the drafting of the Constitution through conventions and referendums, as well as its pragmatic approach to federalism.

Theories of State – Its Role and Relationship with its Citizens
In most general terms, a state may be defined as an organized community living under a system
that governs them. It is a territory where rules are followed and societies prosper and develop
based on its policies (Carneiro, 1970). There are different theories regarding statecraft
propounded by different theorists:
1) Evolutionary theory of state: according to this theory, a state is the product of gradual
process of social development. It is developed from simple and basic social structures
that take a long time to evolve.
2) Force theory of state: according to this theory, state came into existence because of
aggression, war, invasion and subjugation. It says how one person or a group of persons
took control of a population by force.
3) Social contact theory: according to this theory, from the beginning humans have been
living in the state of nature, with no government or law to control them. Subsequently,
they came together and made arrangements for themselves and devised rules and laws.
4) Theory of divine right: this theory talks about the doctrine that kings are bestowed by
enormous power by god in order to rule the people. Any attempt to go against his will
was like going against the will of god.
Apart from the above theories, Marxist theory attempts to define an ideal state that is most
closely associated with what people feel a state ought to be. It challenges and tries to address the
loopholes of a liberal state by emphasizing on the realization of collective aims (Jessop, 1990).
He was of this view that without this approach the emancipation of common men would not be
possible.
Australian Political System
The official name given to Australia is Commonwealth of Australia. The system of government
in Australia is based on both liberal representative democracy and constitutional monarchy.
Queen Elizabeth 2 is Constitutional head of the state. This democratic foundation is based on
pillar of religious tolerance, freedom of speech and association (Marsh, 1983).
The commonwealth of Australia was established on 1st January 1901 with a conglomeration of
six different self-governing parties that used to be the former British Colonies. They came
together to form a union, which are now six states of Australia. The governing laws of this new
union of states, which was now a nation, were laid down in the Australian Constitution. These
were the first crucial laws that defined as to how the Commonwealth government would operate
(MCALLISTER, 1998).
The Australian federation and Constitution
The Australian federal system is primarily divided between Commonwealth and State and
Territory governments. The parliament of Australia consists of the Queen, which is represented
by Governor-General, the Senate and House of Representatives. Having so many important
organs of the government, Parliament is the place where laws are passed that are intended to
affect each and every citizen of the country. The State governments and Commonwealth do not

always converge on all matters but they do cooperate on education, transport, health and law-
enforcement. The State governments constitute their own legislatures, bureaucracies, courts and
police much the same way as the local government bodies are created by state and territory
legislation.
The Constitution of Australia is the supreme body that lays down the roles, responsibilities and
powers of national parliament, the government as well as the courts. It is the guardian that
protects the fundamental rights and freedoms of citizens. The Constitution also provides
provisions for the possible amendments (Hirst, 2000).
One important principle being laid down in the constitution is “Separation of Powers”, which,
from any point of view, as far as any healthy and working democracy is concerned, is very
important feature. So, the power of making laws rests with the federal legislature, while the
power of implementing the law solely rests on the executive (the government). Finally, the
judiciary is being solely given the power to interpret the laws. All these bodies will, therefore, be
allowed to function independently without interfering in one another’s domains.
Political Parties and Elections
In Australia, there are primarily three major political parties – The Labor Party, The Liberal
Party and The National Party. Apart from these there are numerous smaller parties such as
Nationals and Greens. The Parliamentarians belonging to Commonwealth, States and Territories
are directly elected by the people. The Australian Electoral Commission (AEC), as per the
Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918, is responsible for conducting the federal elections. The AEC
for quite some time has been doing a commendable job by carrying out its roles and
responsibilities. As per the above mentioned Act of 1918, the AEC is obliged to determine the
electoral boundaries, maintaining electoral rolls, registration of political parties, and security of
votes as well as keeping track of public funding (Bean and Mughan, 1989). So, all of these duties
have been well dispensed by AEC on its part as the people of the country have been seeing full
and fair elections.
So, it will not be an overstatement to make that in Australia, because of prevalent of proper
electoral system and all the related electoral institutions in place, there is a profound public
participation as well as a fair degree of trust in the political system. If we try to make a
comparison with other countries, Australia indicates a significant level of public satisfaction. So,
as we rightly found out that these elections are a reflective mechanism for electing government
with adequate power to act and at the same time ensuring government accountability as well as
its responsiveness.
Critical View of Australian Federalism and Constitutionalism
Historically, the founding of federation, in essence, was based on colonial concerns regarding
defense as well as efficiency, which were grossly accommodated while the Westminster was
inherited. So, in that sense, the federation became a helping hand in understanding the Australian

Constitutionalism as well. The founding of federation became revolutionary in a subtle yet
fundamental way as it transformed orthodox Westminster Constitutionalism.
It is an accepted fact that Australian founding of federation is an admixture of British and
American legal influences. This paved a way for influencing and shaping modern Australian
constitutionalism. The colonial constitutionalism was constituted by a number of traditions,
which particularly include parliamentarianism and the common law (Orr, 2010).
It is important to understand the innovation that made way for federalism was incorporated by
the newly formed Australian colonies. We still have insufficient knowledge as to whether the
different traditions and indigenous traditions had shaped the Australian Constitutionalism or not.
However, what seems to be clear that the colonial founding was shaped by considerable dynamic
tensions within the orthodox constitutionalism. The Westminster inheritance for a new state and
Commonwealth government largely relied on the conventions. These conventions of British
Constitutionalism were for the responsible government, which gave way for the formal structures
such as the system of the Crown, the House of the Commons and the House of Lords (Galligan
and Wright, 2002). So, these concepts regarding parliamentary and responsible government were
in the forefront for influencing the Australian founders’ understanding of political arrangement.
The tradition of English Common Law has provided a profound understanding of the common
law that underlined the importance of exercising of personal discretion by the judges and the
judiciary. So, it essentially propounded that the judges duty was to discover, not invent, as to
what were the laws that governed the cases at their hands. Also, it tried to thwart away the
ambiguities as when the cases were genuine, the judges were to proceed with a reason by
drawing an analogy to an appropriate precedent. In this regard, Sir Owen Dixon, Chief Justice of
the Australian High Court, once made a very profound remark. He said that Australia subscribes
to a very different yet constructive notion. He espoused that Australians conceive a state as
deriving from the law, not the law deriving from the state (Smullen, 2014). So, the common law
has been a source of the authority of the parliament and the English constitution played a crucial
role in that Australia had its ultimate constitutional foundation – the common law.
The democratic character of Australian federation becomes clearer when we analyze how
Australian Constitution was drafted. Two major conventions played a pivotal role in this as well
- the National Australasian Convention of 1891 and the Australasian Federal Convention of
1897. These conventions drafted the final version of the Constitution and after that it was put to
the people in the form of referendum on the Constitution Bill. After much consensus in states
and territories, the Constitution was adopted by the final endorsement by the people. So, this
whole exercise of Australian founding revealed and confirmed its democratic credentials.
Initially, the Australian federation had the profound difficulties in creating new institutions along
with allocating powers and responsibilities while making states autonomous as much as possible
at the same time. It is interesting to observe that wherever the orthodox constitutionalism had
confrontations with the new age federalism, the founders did not address them in abstract or
theoretical manner. But debates were conducted to reconcile different theoretical concerns in the
specific context of practical or institutional arrangements. One such issue was appeared in 1891

Convention that was concerning the Senate’s power regarding amendment and rejection of
money Bills. However, after tough negotiations, the Compromise of 1891 was adopted and that
restricted the initiation of money Bills to the House of Representatives (Hollander and Patapan,
2007).
The success of Australian federalism can be clearly understood in terms of relations between
states and Commonwealth. The federalism can be viewed in terms of struggle among different
forces like coordinate, cooperative or coercive federalism. So, we can conclude that the
innovative nature of Australian federalism was the churning of ideas and their ingestion in the
Australian Constitution. Therefore, this constitutionalism has immediate and practical
consequences for Australian political life.

References
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