In this essay, I will discuss my understanding of Liberal Democracy and how the Australian political system fits in to this particular type system. I will also give some examples on Australia liberal democracy attempts to enhance people’s well-being.
Liberal democracy is a political system with liberal conceptions about the rights of individuals and the market-based mechanisms for economic production and distribution in which democratically based institution of governance. (Parkin, 2002, p297)
Democracy enable the citizen to choose the country’s political leaders by regular, free, and fair elections and people have a choice between different candidates and parties to be in power to govern the country. The country’s citizens also can criticise and/or replace the elected leaders if they do not perform well. Citizens are the highest authority and government is based on the will of the people. Elected representatives at the national and states must listen to their people and…show more content… Within three years of the first meeting of a new deferral parliament, a nation general election must be held. General elections are held when the Governor-General agrees to a request from the Prime Minister who chose’s the date of the election. All citizens over aged of 18 must vote in the election of both federal and state government. Failure to vote might would incur a fine or prosecution. The electoral system of Australia in many respects is an example of the fulfilment of democratic value. Unlike other parts of the world using simple majority voting, Australia has its unique system of voting called “Preferential voting or alternate vote”. The principle of this method is the winner should have 50% + 1 support. The method is used in the House of Representatives, the lower house of every State Parliament except ACT and Tasmania. The Senate elections in Australia use proportional representation which requires the winner to reach a set quota of