Abstract
This chapter examines the characteristics of Australia’s political and social development that enabled compulsory voting to take such tenacious root and come to enjoy relatively uncontroversial support in this country. Compulsory voting in Australia is best understood in the context of a majoritarian and bureaucratic political culture that had its genesis in the colonial era of the nineteenth century, in a propensity to experimentation in electoral matters, and in the desire to ensure that the votes of moderate, respectable citizens would balance those of radical partisans.
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Notes
- 1.
This sum was produced by the Reserve Bank of Australia’s online pre-decimal inflation calculator.
- 2.
University of Western Australia, Australian Politics and Elections Database 1856–2018. http://elections.uwa.edu.au. Accessed 2018.
- 3.
These figures are from the second reading speech of Senator Payne who introduced the Bill. They are slightly different from those given in the Australian politics and election database (see Age, 5 September 1921, p. 7), but as these are the ones believed at the time they are the ones given here (CPD, 17 July 1924, p. 2180).
- 4.
Payne’s second reading speech (CPD, 16 July 1924, pp. 2180–2182).
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Brett, J. (2021). How Australia Got Compulsory Voting. In: Bonotti, M., Strangio, P. (eds) A Century of Compulsory Voting in Australia. Elections, Voting, Technology. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-33-4025-1_2
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