Electoral Regulation and the prospects for Australian Democracy
An examination of political processes that have led to electoral reform and a critical analysis of these changes from a democratic perspective
Investigators
Melbourne Law School
Faculty of Arts
Current Partners
Institute of Social Research, Swinburne University
Summary
Fundamental changes to Australian electoral regulation are imminent, with the federal and many state governments having recently embarked upon processes of electoral reform geared towards the introduction of far-reaching changes to the law. This project will examine the political processes that have led to this electoral reform while critically assessing these changes from a democratic perspective. The project will be especially concerned with tracking how these changes relate to the values of political equality and fairness, with how they affect political freedoms and the democratic functioning of political parties, and with their effectiveness in tackling corruption. A series of position paper evaluating changes to electoral legislation at the federal, state, and local levels will be published, while a major workshop on the democratic regulation of elections will be organized for late 2009 to coincide with the release of the Federal government’s white papers on electoral reform. The research and workshop will lay the foundations for a larger research project into electoral reform in Australia and pave the way for the establishment of an Electoral Regulation Network.