An Analysis of Federation and Its Influence on Australian Society

This sociology essay provides a comprehensive overview of the concept of federation and its significant role in Australian society. It delves into how federation has shaped the nation's culture, identity, and political system, examining the historical context of the six colonies uniting to form the Commonwealth of Australia. The essay explores the impact of federation on multiculturalism, the development of a shared national identity, and the secular nature of the Australian state. It further analyzes the structure of the Australian government, including the roles of the parliament, the monarchy, and the local government bodies. The essay concludes by highlighting the decentralization of power and its influence on various aspects of Australian society.

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Sociology
2/20/2019

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The essay brings about the description of the concept of federation and the role it plays in
context to the Australian society and other related aspects. The concept of federation has been
crucial or significant to the economy of Australia, as it determines their functions or effects
on the culture, identity and the political system within country.
To study about the concept of federation, it can be stated that it is referred to the group of
states in the central government but have their discretion in their internal affairs; therefore, it
is a political entity. In context to the country, federation is defined as the mechanism through
which the different six colonies governed by British, united and formed the commonwealth of
Australia; thus established the federation system of Australia (Keane, 2018).
Thus, to understand the impact or change within Australian society it has found that Australia
has become the independent nation after the introduction of federation. At that time, i.e.
before the year 1901, Australia was not a nation, and the continent included six different
colonies but subjected to the laws or power of the British government. After the introduction
of the federation in the country, the Australians enjoyed their nationhood, and now, the
federal government make laws in the concerned matters such as defence, immigration, trade,
and government (Hom, Nelson and Roxin, 2016).
To state the aspect of the federation in context to the factors of culture and identity of the
country Australia, it can be stated that the colonist shared a common language, culture, and
heritage. The culture of the country Australia is Western in nature, and the identity of the
country has recognised for the diversity amongst population. The communities comprise of
the individuals from different social and ethnic backgrounds; therefore, cultural diversity is
the major element, which defines the Australian society (Brock and Tulasiewicz, 2018).
Due to the introduction of the federation system in the Australia, the aspect of
multiculturalism has identified within the society. The element of multiculturalism in the
Australian society has reflected by the factors such as diversity amongst population, and
several others.
To discuss or mention more about the culture, and norm in the country, Australia it has been
determined that multiculturalism is one of the major aspects of country’s social system. Thus,
Australians generally treat and accept people from all the backgrounds or communities and
simply considers them as a part of the nation or society (Cultural Atlas, 2018). Moreover,

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another aspect, which has increasingly observed within Australia, is bi-cultural identity and it
is treasured as an identity (Australian government, 2018).
Religion in any country or region is considered part of the culture or identity of the country,
thus, religion of the nation is secular which determines that the citizens are entitled to the
freedom. They are given freedom until the religion or their practices, does not violate, or
break the law. No official national religion exists in the country, but the religion of
Christianity has been the dominant faith or religion since the period of colonisation, and also
the country and their citizens focuses on aesthetics and other values. They emphasize on the
values, which determines a strong culture and builds a positive identity of the nation
(Deeming and Smyth, 2015).
To state about the establishment of the Australian federation system it has been found that the
Australian colonies was ruled at first by a governor responsible to the British government.
There were some acts passed in the history in context to the New South Wales, as the act,
which states a legislative council would advise the Governor. Therefore, the concept of the
federalism meant as the principle of the constitution established on January 1, 1901 within
Australia. This is when all the six different colonies of New South Wales, Queensland, South
Australia, Tasmania, Victoria, and Western Australia federated and officially constituted the
commonwealth of Australia (Paris, 2017).
The history of the country Australia has been studied in respect to the area and the people
belonging to the commonwealth of Australia, with their societies, i.e. indigenous and
colonial. To discuss about the history of Australia before the introduction of the system of
federation, it has discovered that the Aboriginal Australians arrived on the Australia mainland
through the medium of sea from the Maritime Southeast Asia between the 40000 and 70000
years ago. In the constitutional history of Australia, it has found that growth of
commonwealth sphere has gained a wide acceptance, which is considered as an important
feature of the Australian society. Moreover, the history of the country, Australia stated that
before the establishment of federalism or federation system, Australia was not established as
a nation so it lacks the privilege of legal status or power (Australian government, 2018).
To describe the term or concept of federalism it has been that it actually meant as the pact or
contract, treaty or agreement alliance, through which one or more persons from a family or a
group assume reciprocal or equal commitments towards performing their tasks or duties.

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A federal government refers to the system, which divides the power between the national
government, which is strong and other local or small government within nation. The concept
or political theory mentions the aspects of three powers of government, i.e. the legislative
powers towards establishing laws, the executive power for the enforcement of laws; and the
judicial powers, which describes about the interpretation and implementation of the laws.
The Australia’s parliament is also termed as commonwealth or federal government, which
includes three parts i.e. the monarch, the senate, and the House of Representatives. As per the
federation or federal system, the parliament of Australia called as the world’s sixth oldest
democracy (Hua, Oliphant and Hu, 2016).
To state Australia, it has been established as representative democracy, and under this type of
political system, people give votes to the candidates to carry out their work of the business.
The political system of the country is based on the aspects, or elements of the democratic
tradition, and which describes the aspect of religious tolerance and freedom of speech and
association. Constitution of Australia has established rules and norms of the government, thus
determines the powers of the three branches, i.e. legislative, executive, and judicial. In the
political system of Australia, there are some powers, which are not administered by the
commonwealth government, thus the State and Territory governments within country govern
them (Australian government, 2018).
The constitution of the country states that the main power of commonwealth vests in the
Queen and thus exercised by the Governor General i.e. the representative of the Queen. Local
government as a part of the political system of Commonwealth, states that Australia has 900
local government bodies, and their powers vary from State to State (Randles and Ballantyne,
2018).
In context to the political system of Australia it has been found that the country, levies the
aspect of income tax federally, and debate or issues between the governments in
consideration to the aspect of access to the revenue has been one of the perennial feature of
Australia. The Australian political system of democracy and involves certain aspects which
are compulsory such as voting is compulsory, and the federal elections are held every three
years unlike other countries where elections are held every four or five years (Parliament of
Australia, 2018).

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To conclude the above discussion it has been analysed that federation has been an ideology or
philosophy or a doctrine found supporting a different pattern of government. It is the concept
or ideology, which include both the aspects of decentralisation of some powers and
decentralisation of others. Hence, the essay has described the federation in the country and
the association with other aspects such as political system, cultural and identity and the
history of the country in relation with the federation system.

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References
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