Elections and Electoral Behaviour

Abstract

Although Australia has been one of the most innovative liberal democracies in the design of its electoral institutions, it is only in recent years that Australian elections and electoral behaviour have received the scholarly attention that they justly deserve. Early academic studies of Australian elections tended to be historically and/or institutionally focused, in line with the prevailing intellectual climate of the time. It is notable that several eminent American scholars took a special interest in Australian elections, and this brought the subject to the attention of a wider international audience. Nevertheless, in this period the study of elections was largely descriptive and historical, emulating the approach to British general election campaigns pioneered in the post-war ‘Nuffield’ studies authored by David Butler and his colleagues.