Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in
Palgrave Macmillan
Book cover

A Century of Compulsory Voting in Australia

Genesis, Impact and Future

  • Book
  • © 2021

Overview

Editors:
  1. Matteo Bonotti

    1. Politics and International Relations, Monash University, Clayton, Australia

    View editor publications

    You can also search for this editor in PubMed   Google Scholar

  2. Paul Strangio

    1. Politics and International Relations, Monash University, Clayton, Australia

    View editor publications

    You can also search for this editor in PubMed   Google Scholar

  • Presents an interdisciplinary analysis of Australia’s century-old experience of compulsory voting
  • Offers a comparative analysis of compulsory voting in Australia with past and current experiences and debates on compulsory voting in Europe and North America
  • Asks whether there is a relationship between compulsory voting and democratic well-being
  • Questions if Australia’s experience of compulsory voting is instructive in an era when democratic politics is under pressure globally

Part of the book series: Elections, Voting, Technology (EVT)

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this book

Log in via an institution
eBook USD 109.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book USD 139.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book USD 139.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access

Licence this eBook for your library

Institutional subscriptions

Table of contents (12 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xv
    Download chapter PDF

  2. Introduction

    • Matteo Bonotti, Paul Strangio
    Pages 1-13

  3. How Australia Got Compulsory Voting

    • Judith Brett
    Pages 15-32

  4. ‘A Lonely and Quixotic Battle’: A Short History of Agitation Against Compulsory Voting in Australia

    • Paul Strangio
    Pages 33-57

  5. Assessing Objections to Compulsory Voting in Australia

    • Lachlan Montgomery Umbers
    Pages 59-82

  6. Public Opinion and Compulsory Voting in Australia

    • Jill Sheppard
    Pages 83-98

  7. Non-participation in Australian National Elections: Fault-Lines in the Compulsory Voting Consensus

    • Nicholas Economou
    Pages 99-117

  8. Becoming an Informed Voter: Compulsory Voting and Developing Political Knowledge in Australia

    • Zareh Ghazarian, Jacqueline Laughland-Booÿ
    Pages 119-140

  9. ‘Choice of the Manner in Which Thou Wilt Die’: The Australian Courts on Compulsory Voting

    • Graeme Orr
    Pages 141-164

  10. Compulsory Voting: Activating the Demos and Enhancing Procedural Democracy in Australia

    • Lisa Hill
    Pages 165-187

  11. Public Reason, Compulsory Voting and Australian Democracy

    • Matteo Bonotti
    Pages 189-211

  12. More Representation, Less Radicalism: How Compulsory Voting Was Defended in Europe

    • Anthoula Malkopoulou
    Pages 213-233

  13. Compulsory Voting: The View from Canada and the United States

    • Shane P. Singh, Neil S. Williams
    Pages 235-258

  14. Back Matter

    Pages 259-272
    Download chapter PDF
Back to top

Keywords

About this book

Compulsory voting has operated in Australia for a century, and remains the best known and arguably the most successful example of the practice globally. By probing that experience from several disciplinary perspectives, this book offers a fresh, up-to-date insight into the development and distinctive functioning of compulsory voting in Australia. By juxtaposing the Australian experience with that of other representative democracies in Europe and North America, the volume also offers a much needed comparative dimension to compulsory voting in Australia. A unifying theme running through this study is the relationship between compulsory voting and democratic well-being. Can we learn anything from Australia’s experience of the practice that is instructive for the development of institutional bulwarks in an era when democratic politics is under pressure globally? Or is Australia’s case sui generis – best understood in the final analysis as an intriguing outlier?

Reviews

This volume provides valuable insight into how compulsory voting has worked over the last century in Australia and beyond. The collection includes contributions by historians, political theorists and empirical political scientists, and in addition to Australia it also considers how compulsory voting has been debated in Europe and North America. The authors address a wide variety of different aspects of the institution and offer analyses that will be highly relevant to all who take an interest in electoral institution design and voter participation. - Professor Sarah Birch, King’s College London


Political scientists, historians and legal scholars regularly examine facets of Australia’s system of compulsory voting.   But, for the first time, this volume provides a comprehensive set of analyses, spanning the history, justification, administration, public support and opposition, and — critically — the political consequences of compulsoryvoting. A long overdue and rigorous contribution to our understanding of one of Australia’s most important yet most understudied and undervalued political institutions.
- Professor Simon Jackman, University of Sydney

Editors and Affiliations

  • Politics and International Relations, Monash University, Clayton, Australia

    Matteo Bonotti, Paul Strangio

About the editors

Matteo Bonotti is a Senior Lecturer in Politics and International Relations at Monash University, having previously taught at Cardiff University, Queen’s University Belfast, and the University of Edinburgh. His research interests include democratic theory, political liberalism, the normative dimensions of partisanship and electoral design, linguistic justice, food justice, and free speech. 


Paul Strangio is an Associate Professor of Politics at Monash University. Paul specialises in Australian political history with a particular focus on political leadership and political parties. He is an author and editor of eleven books. 


Bibliographic Information

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Back to top

Search

Navigation