Sociology Assignment: Democracy, Government, and Representation

This sociology assignment delves into the complexities of democratic governance, focusing on the representation of citizens' interests. It examines the perspective of Russell Brand, supported by an analysis of the Australian federal government, drawing on newspaper reports and articles. The essay explores the perceived failure of modern governments to prioritize the needs of the people, influenced by financial interests and political campaigns. It critiques the impact of algorithmic decision-making in government, highlighting potential biases and challenges to the rule of law. Furthermore, the assignment discusses the advantages and disadvantages of the Australian federal structure, differentiating between federal and state government responses to the COVID-19 pandemic, and emphasizes the importance of building trust between governments and the populace. The assignment includes responses to provided discussion posts, providing a comprehensive analysis of the issues.

Running head: SOCIOLOGY
Sociology
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1SOCIOLOGY
Answer to Question 2
A democratic government is set up by the democracy of a country; the same
democracy that is said to be the power in the hands of the common people of the country as it
is them who elects their choice of governance of the state. The chosen governance is
supposed to act to represent the interest of the common people and to maintain law and order
in the society. It is the duty of the selected government to make laws that address the societal
issues and strives to resolve them. However, it is strongly believed that in today's time, the
present federal governments of most modern States are failing to represent the interests of the
people as they heavily inclined towards meeting their own purpose of money-making and
propagating their own interest of being re-elected in the next election (Smith 2014). In this
regard Russell Brand, a popular public figure has strongly claimed that most modern
democratic governments are a failure in terms of representing the interest of the people who
elect them. In this paper, the perspective of Russell Brand shall be supported with respect to
the Australian federal government with the help of newspaper reports, books and articles.
Failure of most Federal Governments to Represent the Interests of the People
Majority opinion of political thinkers, jurists and politically conscious people of the
Western political system are that the western countries are not democratic anymore but they
are plutocratic (driven by money/wealth), as most of the election candidates as well as
political parties are heavily dependent upon expensive election campaigns and which political
agenda which cannot be fulfilled without the help of an enormous amount of financial
support by industrialists and financial institutions, thereby giving an hint that such political
parties, after being elected as the ruling party, are bound to aid and support the money-
makers who had helped in their election campaigns (Smith 2014). Therefore, the political
parties, one selected as the federal government, spend more time and focus on helping the

2SOCIOLOGY
ones who had helped them winning against their competitors rather than the ones for whom
they became a political party or the greater mass who actually voted for them (Smith 2014).
Australian scenario
The comments of Russell Brand in terms of the failure of the federal government to
represent the interest of the people who cast their vote to elect them fits with the present
scenario of Australia and its government's failure to take necessary actions for the welfare of
the people. In a recent poll, the Australian public faith in politics was the lowest at 43% as
compared to another poll in 2007 where the percentage of people’s faith on the government
was 68% (Smith 2014). It was stated by many that the bipartisan support towards anti-
democratic policies like free trade agreements, persecution of asylum seekers, blindly
following the US, unmanageable ecological disasters, economic disparity, et cetera makes the
government a complete failure to address the needs of the common people, instead the
government is showing its loyalty towards the US by following it in terms of any decision
rather than making its own independent decisions (Smith 2014).
In a recent poll conducted by the Sydney Morning Herald, a coveted Australian
newspaper, majority readers were of the view that the Australian democracy was broken
because:
a) politicians were nowhere near to the real world and has always put their political party's
interest over the welfare of the nation, which could be proven by the fact that the government
has always been interested to adopt short term policy stances, as they are aware that their
future is uncertain (The Sydney Morning Herald 2018).
b) the political parties who ever has made the federal government has never decided on the
fact that whether voting should be compulsory or it should be made preferential.

3SOCIOLOGY
c) the excessive, unaccountable and non-transparent donations for election campaigns and
political funds are one of the major reasons that the government has been indebted to the
industrialists and financial institutions who have aided their political campaigns, rather than
focusing more on the people who have voted for them.
One of the responses of a respondent was the decision of privatisation of certain
Australian government institutions is one of the major instances of ineffectiveness of the
government. While there were some other responses that blamed the Australian media for
influencing and manipulating the public opinion, thereby causing confusion in terms of law-
making (The Sydney Morning Herald 2018).
Reply to Post 1 (question 1)
The article talks about automations of systems in every sector, public or private which
has created several confusions and complexities in the departments that are majorly run by
automated decisions generated by machines, one of which is the present governments most
modern States. All the Rule of Law as well as the Constitution of the state suggest that the
government should make equal laws and rights for the citizens, however automations of
systems challenges this rule as the decisions taken by the government in terms of law-making
is often dependent upon an algorithmic decision-making framework or software. Such a
sudden change the decision-making mechanism of the government creates bias, thereby
affecting humanity. Automated algorithms are often difficult to be argued against due to their
complicated scale, speed, cost saving and labour-saving benefits factors advocated by the
algorithm makers (Vijayakumar 2017). The results delivered by algorithmic software could
often be wrong as the result is based on the data stored in the database the software, which

4SOCIOLOGY
could be wrong as there is no proof of its authenticity, like the information held by mobile
service providers, insurance companies, healthcare institutions, judicial system, et cetera.
The article has rightly pointed out that alike the other departments, the algorithmic
decision-making process undertaken by the government is also filled with flaws, thereby
affecting the rule of law. As the algorithm works on the records of the database, the result is
often incorrect as the stored data is often incorrect in itself. The decisions of the algorithm is
often discriminatory towards a particular race or class of people, for example the number of
black people held as offenders has always been higher than that of the number of white
people sentenced for offences, thereby furnishing a wrong perspective to the algorithm
software, which would deliver biased results towards black people as every time a black
person would be put under the scanner of the algorithmic decision-making process
(Vijayakumar 2017).
Reply to Post 2 (question 3)
The article rightly points out the advantages and disadvantages of Australia Federal
structure, thereby differentiating the initiatives taken by the Federal Government and the
State Governments in the present crisis time of a pandemic. The Australian federal
government has delayed in terms of taking a serious step in terms of battling with the
COVID-19 infection, while the state governments were ahead in their initiatives to lay down
certain guidelines for the citizens to avoid the infection, like the WA Government and the
ACT Government. Thereby some people have criticised the three-tier government of the
Australian Federation, stating that there is a bridge between the three levels of the
government creating disparity in the society.

5SOCIOLOGY
The dependency of the states on the Federal government is a rightly pointed
disadvantage of the three-tier system of the government, as it makes the local and the state
governments dependent as well as answerable to the Federal government for taking any
major decisions. Such protocols slow down the decision-making process of the state and local
government. However, it is also to be noted that the Federal government always pushes the
other two tiers of government to come up with more efficient and innovative resolutions to
improve the condition of the country, which makes the mixed federalism of Australia an
advantage for the country.
It is rightly said that the local governments are more efficient in dealing with disputes
of a certain area as they are able to be involved in such matters more closely than the Federal
government could (Bell 2006). The governments are doing their share of work for the welfare
of the people; however, it is extremely essential to build the trust that should be there
between the government and the common people of the country especially in times of a
global pandemic.

6SOCIOLOGY
References
Bell, P., 2006. How local government can save Australia’s federal system. Federalism and
Regionalism in Australia, p.171.
Smith, W., 2014. If Democracy Is Broken, Why Should We Vote? | Warwick Smith. [online]
The Guardian. Available at: <https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/sep/18/if-
democracy-is-broken-why-should-we-vote> [Accessed 4 April 2020].
The Sydney Morning Herald. 2018. We Asked If And How You Thought Australia's
Democracy Was Broken. This Is What You Said. [online] Available at:
<https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/we-asked-if-and-how-you-thought-australia-s-
democracy-was-broken-this-is-what-you-said-20180403-p4z7kz.html> [Accessed 4 April
2020].
Vijayakumar, S., 2017. Algorithmic Decision-Making | Harvard Political Review. [online]
Harvard Politics. Available at: <http://harvardpolitics.com/covers/algorithmic-decision-
making-to-what-extent-should-computers-make-decisions-for-society/> [Accessed 4 April
2020].