Judith Brett — How Benthamite Thinking Shaped Australia's Electoral System [Aus. Policy Series] скачать в хорошем качестве

Judith Brett — How Benthamite Thinking Shaped Australia's Electoral System [Aus. Policy Series]

Australia stands alone among English-speaking democracies with its compulsory, preferential voting system. But why? This episode is the fourth instalment of my Australian policy series. It was recorded in Melbourne on March 6, 2025. I speak with Judith Brett—Emeritus Professor of Politics at La Trobe University and author of the canonical history of Australia's electoral system, From Secret Ballot to Democracy Sausage—about how Australia became an electoral trailblazer. We trace the accidental adoption of near-universal manhood suffrage in the 1850s, the political calculations that led to compulsory voting and preferential voting, and why bureaucratic efficiency is so deeply woven into our electoral culture. Along the way, we explore how Benthamite thinking and low taxation in the colonial era combined to create a voting system that is unique among English-speaking democracies. SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST ►    / @josephnoelwalker   LISTEN ON: SPOTIFY: https://open.spotify.com/episode/17XK... APPLE PODCASTS: https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast... TRANSCRIPT: WEBSITE: https://josephnoelwalker.com/aus-poli... FOLLOW ME ON: TWITTER:   / josephnwalker   TIMESTAMPS (00:00:00) - Introduction. (00:01:48) - Australia’s political culture. (00:17:22) - Compulsory voting. (00:23:47) - Preferential voting & proportional representation: If Edmund Barton and the originators of Australia's voting system could see the House of Reps and the Senate today, how would they reflect on the results of their experiment? (00:27:32) - If we did get preferential voting in 1902, would Labor have become the political force that it became? (00:28:12) - Role of contingency in the history of our voting system. (00:42:18) - How inevitable was Australia's adoption of compulsory voting and preferential voting? (00:45:23) - South Australian innovators. (00:56:02) - Audience Q&A.