How Aussies do politics

the link did not work for me.

ok . i found the link but did not find anything about the moral conscience vote. how does that work?

Forcing people to vote is a bad idea. First, voting is a right and as with all rights one is free to chose not to exercise it. Second, encouraging uninformed people to vote is really really dumb. Why on earth would you want people who are not going to pay attention or actually educate themselves to vote. Of course, you can’t do anything to stop them from voting but encouraging them to vote is just stupid.

As for the moral issue question, that comparison breaks down here doesn’t it? No Democrats are forced to vote pro-choice and no Republicans are forced to vote pro-life. See e.g. Rudy. But the bigger problem is who gets to decide if it is a moral question? Is there anything a gov’t does that could not be wrapped in the language of morality? Where is the line and who draws it.

I would be interested in a six week campaign, but I don’t see how you enforce it without trampling on candidates’ and citizens’ 1st Amendment rights even more than we currently do. Other countries do not enjoy 1st Amendment rights, so it is easier to implement something like a 6 week limitation.

I agree with Joe — compulsory voting is a horrible idea. We have enough problems with uninformed voters, duped by dishonest campaigns and complicit media, diluting and negating the votes of citizens who care enough to educate themselves on the issues and to cast a thoughtful ballot. We don’t need voters who are casting a ballot solely to avoid a fine.

Aren’t all of our legislators supposed to always cast a “conscience vote”? “Mavericks” like Chuck Hagel are always praised by the press for bucking the Republican party principles (not so much for guys like Joe Lieberman on the other side of the aisle). And how would such a principle be enforced? If a democrat were to vote pro-life on an issue, despite “conscience vote” protections, he would certainly see his favorite pork projects slashed, no doubt because of a sudden need to cut the budget.

N.B. Don S (@8), Lieberman is an independent, and has been for a year, though he caucuses with the Democrats.

Also, I easily found an op-ed in the New York Times praising Lieberman’s independence. Care to cite instances of the press “prais[ing]” the same in Chuck Hagel?

Don S (@11), it seems that you think the Republicans tolerate “conscience voting” more than Democrats because you’re focusing on abortion. If you even consider the Iraq War, I believe you’ll find the diversity among Democratic members of Congress is not so different from that among Republicans (Biden?). Less divisive topics show a greater amount of “tolerance”. Similarly, arm-twisting and “discipline” is not unknown among Republicans (DeLay’s “hammer”, late-night extended voting sessions, etc.)

As for the New York Times article I cited, I said it was an op-ed. And while it doesn’t reflect the opinions of their editorial board as such, it does so as much as any other non-editorial piece — that is, they chose to run it. That said, your counterpoint — an article in the New York Times Magazine written by someone who also doesn’t work at the Times (though he once did) is no more indicative of the editors’ positions than an op-ed would be.

I’m not arguing that Hagel isn’t the subject of puff pieces — clearly, he is. No, I’m arguing that you may have a bias that prevents you from taking into account, for example, the disproportionate number of times that Sens. Biden and Lieberman have appeared on Sunday morning talk shows, compared to, say, the more numerous, more stridently anti-war Democrats. What you perceive as a liberal bias I see as a bias towards “mavericks” of all stripes, because, to our media, that is “news”.

At least we agree that implementing “conscience voting” here would be pointless. (Though myself, I think so because, yes, there would be consequences anyhow, and also because our representatives are not bound to their parties anyhow.)

As I understand it, in a parliamentary government, if a member votes against the party line, he is liable to be expelled from the party, thereby losing his seat, since in a parliamentary system, voters vote for the party, not the person. I know there are different types of parliamentary systems, so perhaps this is not always the case. A vote of conscience would be for things like the death penalty, abortion, divorce, euthanasia, cloning, riding to hounds – stuff like that there. As to how a decision is reached regarding exactly which votes would be votes of conscience, I’m guessing the Prime Minister would decide when the cabinet had reached a consensus.

Here’s how it works:

The conscience vote is on moral issues and protects the MP from any coercion of his conscience either from his party or his constituents. We are talking here about representative democracy, remember, not a plebiscite system, although a mechanism for referenda exists at the discretion of the government of the day. There is nothing to prevent a group of people lobbying parliament for a referendum on any particular issue, but the decision is in the hands of the government.

Voting is indeed viewed in our participatory democracy as an obligation, hence its compulsory nature.
In practice, it seems to increase interest in politics rather than facilitating a dumbing down of political discourse. I certainly haven’t noticed that the Australian system contributes to any greater impoverishment in the life of the body politic than is evident in the USA.

Bike Bubba,

The Westminster parliamentary system which we operate with actually has built-in mechanisms that limit the power of party leaders and prime ministers (and the organisational political parties and their parliamentary wings are actually separate entities as well).
Policy is formulated in cabinet, and then has to be argued on the floor of the party room, where every member has a say, and then has to pass both houses of parliament before becoming law. Minor parties and independents in the senate often then have the power to call for amendments of legislation in order for it to get their vote and pass. Then it has to be signed into law by the constitutional head of state, in our case the governor-general, representing the Queen. Bear in mind that the Australian people have proved historically reluctant to grant a majority to one party in both houses of parliament, which checks the power of the government of the day. Further, a prime minister is just that, first among equals, and has no power of veto like the US president. The governor-general is not party-political.