Why Australia’s elections are less interesting than in Latin America
Australian Electoral Commission (Flickr)
On May 21, Australians will head to the polls in a general election to elect their federal government for the next three years. Australian politics is distinct from Latin American politics in system and style. In particular, how and who Australians vote for in their elections has a moderating effect on Australian politics, which in turn makes elections generally less determinative of Australia’s foreign policy than elections in Latin America. In an era of barely precedented world politics, here’s what you need to know about why Australia’s elections will make few waves overseas.
The Boring Part: Australia’s Hybrid System of Government
The Commonwealth of Australia is a constitutional monarchy and a representative democracy with a parliamentary system. This means that Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II is, notionally, the head of state, but in practice, plays a mostly overseeing role through her representative, the Governor-General of Australia. The Governor-General is constitutionally bound to exercise executive power, usually on the advice of a minister of Australia’s government, such as the swearing-in of ambassadors, the dissolution of parliament, or––in rare circumstances––the dismissal and appointment of Prime Ministers of Australia in the event of an unresolvable political impasse. Initially, Australia’s constitutional monarchy was inherited from its history as a colonial subject of the United Kingdom, but it now serves an almost entirely neutral and ceremonial role, only stepping into the fray as a circuit-breaker when Australian politics ceases to function normally.
Political power in Australia is primarily organised through its status as a representative democracy with a parliamentary system. Unlike the majority of Latin American political systems, Australia is not a republic and does not have a president. Instead, at each general election, Australians vote in two ballots: one for who they would like to represent them in the House of Representatives––a 151-member body of lawmakers; and one for their representative in the Senate––a 76-member chamber. The leader of the political party (or coalition of parties) with the most seats in the House of Representatives may form government as long as they can guarantee the Governor General their continued ability to pass a spending bill and secure the confidence of at least the majority of lawmakers in the House of Representatives. The leader of the party that forms government becomes the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister appoints a cabinet of ministers to lead various government departments, such as the Department of Treasury, and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
The Interesting Part: How Australians Vote
Voting in Australia is compulsory, with amongst the highest participation rates in the world. In a country where everyone is expected to vote, successful political strategies tend to appeal to the broadest possible base rather than attempting to mobilise voters on one side of the political spectrum. About a third of Latin American countries have compulsory voting, with voter participation as high as 90% for smaller countries like Uruguay, and closer to 80% in recent elections for larger democracies, Brazil and Argentina.
Voting in Australia also uses forms of ranked preferential voting to elect its legislatures, rather than the proportional representation system used for elections of most of Latin America’s legislatures. This voting system has voters exhaustively rank all parties or candidates on a crowded ballot paper, indicating their preferences with a number next to the candidate’s name. The candidate that receives the most first-preference votes usually wins––but in cases when no candidate wins an outright majority, the second and third preferences of voters get considered until one candidate achieves a majority. This means no votes are wasted on unpopular candidates and the system tends to favour the candidate that is least objectionable or ideologically extreme, rather than the most popular. In contrast, most Latin American legislative elections employ a system of proportional representation, which often results in multi-party legislatures that might require uneasy coalitions to form a working majority.
However, the most prominent political difference between Australia and most of Latin America is that Australia’s head of government, the Prime Minister, is not directly elected and wields less individual power than the Presidents of Latin America. The Prime Minister of Australia is simply the leader of the party that can form government. In recent history, the Prime Ministership has been an insecure position vulnerable to the wavering confidences of the party that elects them. Overall, Latin American presidents command more power and have more of a mandate to direct foreign policy than Australian prime ministers.
The Australian House of Representatives. Photo by Aditya Joshi on Unsplash
Why Elections Don’t Matter As Much For Australia’s Foreign Relations
Australia’s history and electoral system explains much of its political stability. High-turnout, compulsory, ranked-choice voting makes Australian election outcomes highly predictable and dependent on a hotly contested middle voter. Coupled with a long history of broad prosperity and strong institutions, this has made Australians more sensitive towards instability, less tolerant of dysfunction, and more consensus-oriented in their mode of government.
This don’t-rock-the-boat attitude extends even more so into Australia’s foreign policy. It is well established that Australia’s two major political parties––the centre-left Labor Party and the centre-right Liberal National Party––abide by an unwritten truce to not heavily politicise what is often seen as a more technocratic and apolitical foreign and security policy domain. The big questions of alliances, security, trade, and global engagement have already been answered and do not animate strong disagreement.
In Latin America there is much less consensus on big political issues, both within and amongst nations. Elections there become battles between parties on opposing sides of deep, ideological divides that have the potential to drastically shift internal balances of power and spill out onto the international stage. Australian politics and Australian elections are by comparison very tight and very quiet. They vary only by degrees. The small things Australians do squabble over rarely rattle their international relationships.
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The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views or opinions of the Australia-Latam Emerging Leaders Dialogue.