WHAT MAKES AUSTRALIA A DEMOCRACY

What makes Australia a Democracy?

What makes Australia a Democracy?

Democracy, in its original Greek meaning, translates as rule of people (demos means people and kratos power) and was based on direct decision-making by each citizens. A more recent standard definition states that democracy is:

“government by the people; that form of government in which the sovereign power resides in the people as a whole, and is exercised either directly by them (as in small republics of antiquity) or by officers elected by them. In modern use often more vaguely denoting a social state in which all have equal rights, without hereditary or arbitrary differences of rank or privilege”.( dictionary.oed)

Australia and many other countries in the world call themselves democracies. Whether there is true democratic process in place in each of the self-proclaimed democracies, however, may be questioned.

The worldmap on page 3 was taken from the 2010 Freedom in the World Report of Freedom House, a non-governmental organisation monitoring freedom and democratic change. Only countries depicted in green are considered free, with a broad scope for open political competition, a climate of respect for civil liberties, significant independent civic life, and independent media.(freedomhouse.org)

A direct democracy, in which all citizens vote for each decision would be impractical in a big country like Australia. Instead most democracies today are so called representative democracies, where citizens elect representatives that rule for them. In Australia these representatives are the members of parliament.

A Democratic Audit of Australia has attempted to measure the state of democracy in Australia. The audit team found not only popular control of the government and political equality, but also as an additional central value of democracy being the quality of public debate and discussion.( Sawer, 2009, p 5) Democratic engagement is seen by many as the influence every citizen has at ...