Australian Election - 24 November

[Josem]

The Australian Election has just been called for 24 november.


discuss.

[tolbiny]

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The australian election has just been called for 24 november.


discuss

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You guys don't get a year of campaigning, followed by 2 months of primaries, followed by another 7 months of campaigning before the election?

[Josem]

-party candidate selection is done internally over a few weeks
-campaigning has been pretty full-on for the last year

[AlexM]

Australia has elections? Neat!

[DblBarrelJ]

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Australia has elections? Neat!

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Paging MidGe. Paging MidGe.

[Phil153]

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Australia has elections? Neat!

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Yeah...we have a far less corrupt democracy than the states, actually. Compulsory voting and the Westminster system FTW. Presidental systems are dumb and prone to corruption.

Anyway, I think Ruddock has it has in the bag at this stage. People despise the new industrial relations laws even though they're great for the economy and more libertarian in nature. Plus they're a great campaign platform for the communists/unions/Labor party. I actually don't mind Rudd as a PM, I heard him speak once at a business meeting about the future of Australian business and security given the threats from certain developing nations - a very smart man.

[AlexM]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Australia has elections? Neat!

[/ QUOTE ]
Yeah...we have a far less corrupt democracy than the states, actually. Compulsory voting and the Westminster system FTW. Presidental systems are dumb and prone to corruption.

Anyway, I think Ruddock has it has in the bag at this stage. People despise the new industrial relations laws even though they're great for the economy and more libertarian in nature. Plus they're a great campaign platform for the communists/unions/Labor party. I actually don't mind Rudd as a PM, I heard him speak once at a business meeting about the future of Australian business and security given the threats from certain developing nations - a very smart man.

[/ QUOTE ]

Australia's actually one of my top "there's still hope" countries. Much more decentralized than the U.S. these days.

[yukoncpa]

[ QUOTE ]
Yeah...we have a far less corrupt democracy than the states, actually. Compulsory voting and the Westminster system FTW. Presidental systems are dumb and prone to corruption.



[/ QUOTE ] What's a brief but telling difference that leads to less corruption between the Westminister system and the presidential system? Is England currently under the Westminister system?

[Phil153]

I think it's related to effective concentration of power as well as accountability. US politics is very fractured with the legislative and executive arms having a fairly large barrier. In a parliamentary system, the governing groups have to form a majority of legislative power in the lower house, which leads to accountability or at least blame.

But the above is just a theory - my comments about the lower corruption of parliamentary systems are based on studies.

[W brad]

Kudos to Australia, at least they get to have elections this year.


In the US we are stuck with an unpopular president until 2009.

In the UK, the unpopular Prime minister decided not to have elections this year because he thought he would lose. Brits are stuck with him until late next year.