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Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/1959.3/61628
- Title
- The electoral system
- Author(s)
- Costar, Brian
- Abstract
- An electoral system is a device for translating the votes won by candidates in elections into an authoritative outcome, such as seats in a Parliament. Free, fair and frequent elections are essential conditions for any functioning democracy. Determining the best way of translating votes into an election outcome is an exercise fraught with difficulty. Notwithstanding widespread agreement that elections should be free, fair and frequent, there can be disagreement over what fairness means and over other fundamental goals. Should, for example, the prime consideration in an electoral system be achieving an outcome that mirrors the opinion of voters? Or is putting into place a stable and 'strong' government of greater importance?
- Publication type
- Book chapter
- Research centre
- Swinburne University of Technology. Faculty of Life and Social Sciences. Institute for Social Research
- Source
- Government, politics, power and policy in Australia, 9th ed. / Dennis Woodward, Andrew Parkin and John Summers (eds.), Chapter 10, pp. 195-209
- Publication year
- 2009
- FOR Code(s)
- 160601 Australian Government and Politics; 160609 Political Theory and Political Philosophy
- Keyword(s)
- Australia; Compulsory voting; Corruption; Electoral fraud; Electoral systems; Government; Political parties; Political planning; Politics; Power; Preferential voting; Proportional representationr
- Publisher
- Pearson Australia
- ISBN
- 9781442508736, 1442508736
- Publisher URL
- http://www.pearson.com.au/Catalogue/TitleDetails.aspx?isbn=9781442508736
- Copyright
- Copyright © Pearson Australia (a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty Ltd) 2010.
- Additional information
- The full text of the 8th edition of this book chapter is available here: http://hdl.handle.net/1959.3/37926.
- Peer reviewed
