
Sign up to save your podcasts
Or


Australia stands alone among English-speaking democracies with its compulsory, preferential voting system. But why?
This episode is the fourth instalment of my Australian policy series. It was recorded in Melbourne on March 6, 2025.
I speak with Judith Brett—Emeritus Professor of Politics at La Trobe University and author of the canonical history of Australia's electoral system, From Secret Ballot to Democracy Sausage—about how Australia became an electoral trailblazer.
We trace the accidental adoption of near-universal manhood suffrage in the 1850s, the political calculations that led to compulsory voting and preferential voting, and why bureaucratic efficiency is so deeply woven into our electoral culture.
Along the way, we explore how Benthamite thinking and low taxation in the colonial era combined to create a voting system that is unique among English-speaking democracies.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
By Joe Walker4.8
120120 ratings
Australia stands alone among English-speaking democracies with its compulsory, preferential voting system. But why?
This episode is the fourth instalment of my Australian policy series. It was recorded in Melbourne on March 6, 2025.
I speak with Judith Brett—Emeritus Professor of Politics at La Trobe University and author of the canonical history of Australia's electoral system, From Secret Ballot to Democracy Sausage—about how Australia became an electoral trailblazer.
We trace the accidental adoption of near-universal manhood suffrage in the 1850s, the political calculations that led to compulsory voting and preferential voting, and why bureaucratic efficiency is so deeply woven into our electoral culture.
Along the way, we explore how Benthamite thinking and low taxation in the colonial era combined to create a voting system that is unique among English-speaking democracies.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

1,857 Listeners

26,377 Listeners

4,262 Listeners

2,430 Listeners

907 Listeners

922 Listeners

92 Listeners

691 Listeners

489 Listeners

132 Listeners

30 Listeners

40 Listeners

151 Listeners

16 Listeners

131 Listeners