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Recent cases of partisan-motivated prorogations of parliaments at the federal and provincial levels in Canada have focused attention on this phenomenon. While such prorogations are uncommon in the mature Westminster-style parliaments, the Canadian cases are not unique. Systematic study of partisan-motivated prorogations in the Australian states has illuminated the factors commonly associated with such cases. This paper outlines the results of this literature and then tests whether the Canadian cases fit the pattern. It shows that, on balance, these factors do apply. The paper thus concludes that, while partisan-motivated prorogations may not be predictable, it is possible to identify circumstances in which there is a substantially greater risk of their occurrence. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Canadian Muslim women, as opposed to their Australian counterparts, have attained prominent social status not only in terms of their contribution to electoral politics but also in other political spheres. With its focus on the Sharia debate, this paper investigates one potential explanation for this difference. Challenging Okin's feminist perspective, which claims that multiculturalism is an undesirable policy for emancipation, it is argued that multiculturalism facilitates agency of female members of Muslim communities. A comparative examination of the Sharia debate between the two secular countries of Canada and Australia demonstrates that the former's more robust multicultural polity in terms of responding to requests to adopt the Sharia have not only culminated in Muslim women's empowerment but have enhanced their political representation. In contrast, Australian Muslim women have neither had the opportunity to articulate their position with regard to Sharia nor to contribute to an important issue that could have empowered them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a comparative analysis of the extent to which party law influences the internal organisation of parties in four Commonwealth common law states: Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. The research engages with recent comparative party literature that emphasises the increasingly close relationship between political parties and the state, in particular the cartel party thesis. My findings indicate that over the last few decades parties have become subject to greater legal regulation, which supports the claim that parties are now managed more closely by the state. However, it is important to distinguish between legislative and common law (judicial) regulation, as each has a different impact on the organisational autonomy of the cartel party. I argue that parties (as autonomous actors and the authors of parliamentary decrees) have been able to shape legislative regulation to their advantage by eliciting significant financial support from the state, yet minimising the corresponding degree of legislative intrusion into their internal activities. However, cartel parties have not been able to prevent judicial scrutiny of their internal workings, and have lost a significant degree of organisational independence as principles of administrative law (usually reserved for state bodies) are being increasingly applied to their structure and behaviour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite a steady erosion of the major parties' share of the vote in Australia, minor parties have been unable to attract more than 15 per cent of the vote. Employing a variation of Katz and Mair's cartel party thesis, this paper argues that the major parties have an advantage in defining and limiting power sharing arrangements and setting and reacting to the policy agenda. They can act together to deny a third-party oxygen, or can deflect criticism of controversial policies onto the third party. A critical appraisal of seven cases of government formation involving the Australian Greens and Australian Democrats, along with two case studies of legislative negotiation shows that the electoral backlash is often borne by the minor parties. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper builds on the insights of Sawer and Laycock (2009) to explore similarities in the use of populist discourse by former Australian Prime John Howard and current Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper. While Sawer and Laycock label this discourse ‘market populism’ and focus on economic issues, here it is argued that Howard and Harper's populism is better understood as ‘mainstream populism’ due to the equal importance of sociocultural issues in their discourses. To demonstrate this, the treatment of issues such as immigration, multiculturalism, the culture wars, criminal justice, and childcare is considered. It is further suggested that such populist policies were used to satisfy rival wings of their respective parties – neoliberals and social conservatives – that do not always share the same priorities. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article addresses contemporary security challenges related to borders within Oceania, focusing on trans-Tasman relations. We address border security between Aotearoa New Zealand and Australia as a matter of an ascendant relationship, based on coordination and cooperation. By interrogating shared and divergent attributes between the nations, we are able to provide an overview of approaches towards regional threats. Behind these approaches are socio-political contexts, including drivers and authorities for cooperation as well as cultural and political identities. Importantly, the evolution of shared practices between the nations and a future scan of security in the region lead to important geopolitical considerations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses the processes of social policy transfer between Australia and Great Britain under the auspices of Australian Labor Party in the early 1990s. Details of rules on eligibility for unemployment assistance; Information on labor welfare programs for employees in both countries; Reform of funding for students in higher education; Impact of partisanship on labor market.

The Commonwealth functions in contemporary international relations as a ‘mini’ version of multilateralism, encompassing issues of geopolitics, the global economy, climate change, and human rights and democracy. While essentially an organisation of developing countries, it also includes the United Kingdom and the ‘old Dominions’. There is a particular focus on the role of small states, even though the Commonwealth also includes some very large developing countries. Apart from its global role, the Commonwealth can be significant in regional contexts where there is some concentration of Commonwealth members. The Commonwealth also has a role as a context for civil society organisations. The article provides an assessment of the role of the Commonwealth within these various settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relationship between the Pacific islands and the region’s ‘bigger brothers’ – Australia and New Zealand – is often seen in two-dimensional terms with the latter appearing to act in concert and in terms characterised by underlying neo-colonial attitudes and a determination to dominate the regional agenda. Given that both are former colonial powers with considerable political and economic resources and are the major aid donors in the region as well as being members of the powerful geopolitical entity known as ‘the West’, it is not difficult to sustain an image of neo-colonial dominance. But to do so also requires casting Pacific island countries in a certain role, not only lacking agency but also cohering around a common identity and set of interests. This article examines key aspects of regional relations as played out through the region’s premier organisation, the Pacific Islands Forum, and assesses the extent to which a simple political divide between Australia and New Zealand on the one hand, and the island states on the other, can be maintained. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

For most of the twentieth century, New Zealanders could cross the Tasman Sea freely to live and work in Australia, with access to citizenship and social welfare benefits, similar to those enjoyed by Australians who moved to New Zealand. Migration was not difficult as the systems were similar. From 2001, however, while Australians living in New Zealand could still gain access to citizenship with social welfare benefits, many New Zealanders moving to live in Australia have been unable to become citizens and, despite paying taxes, cannot receive some social welfare benefits or have rights to permanent residence. Effectively, they are in welfare limbo. Clearly, Australian political processes drove changes to welfare eligibility for New Zealanders living in Australia. This ‘limbo’ raises the question, however, as to whether New Zealand governments could have done more to protect the rights of New Zealanders living in Australia. This intriguing social issue has implications for other similar close nations in the Commonwealth managing political tensions and social prejudices in integrating supranational entities. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

National parties in the Canadian and Australian parliamentary federations, despite the differences in their federal systems, are dependent for their success in mobilising electoral support on a similar network of local and subnational partisan activity over which they have, at best, only limited control. We find that, over the last 100 years, national parties in both federations have moved through a similar sequence of structural changes, none of which has altered their reliance on subnational agencies for mobilising local support. We argue that these regularities flow from the nature of parliamentary government in these two federations, their origins as federations by aggregation, and the use of single member districts for electing the lower house of their national legislatures. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The British government recently proposed to replace the House of Lords with an upper house that is largely elected by proportional representation. Could such a reform paradoxically pose a threat to Westminster-style democracy? Australian experience provides one of the best guides to the likely consequences. Australia not only has over 100 years experience of an elected federal Senate, but it also has over 150 years experience of upper house reforms in the various state parliaments. These state parliaments, though rarely discussed, provide good comparative reference points for understanding the likely effects of Lords reform. Australian parliamentary history suggests six main lessons about the potential dangers of these British proposals. It also points to the importance of properly considering the option of abolishing the upper house, and it highlights the main democratic safeguards that need to be put in place if an elected second chamber is introduced. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The conventional wisdom has been that the Canadian Citizenship Act and the British Nationality and Australian Citizenship Act demonstrated the growth of a local nationalism after the Second World War. In reality, the situation was more complicated. Both English-speaking Canada and Australia still regarded themselves as British nations. The passage of the Canadian Act was an illustration of the bicultural nature of that country, which developments during the war had brought to the fore. The Australian Act was simply a reaction to the Canadian Act, as the latter had undermined the common code of British subject status across the Commonwealth. Meanwhile, the British Nationality Act was primarily an attempt to preserve the common status of British subjects throughout the Commonwealth and maintain the integrity of this organisation during a period when it was being rapidly transformed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Institutional theory suggests that policy views of a Court in democratic regimes are never far out of line for long with the policy views of the dominant lawmaking majorities because of relatively regular turnover in the membership of the Court. The result is the Court may provide legitimacy to majoritarian policies and can sometimes influence elite preferences. The authors develop and test a theory of legitimation using a data set administered to all candidates running for a seat in both houses of the Australian National Parliament. Using methods originally developed in public opinion research, they explore whether political elites respond to decisions made by the High Court in the area of governmental regulation of work environments. Their findings indicate that the High Court was able to effect a structural change in elite opinion. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

There is a rich comparative literature on Australian and Canadian politics but relatively little comparing political discourse, despite the election in both countries of governments promising to 'govern for the mainstream'. This article presents a comparative analysis of market populist discourse as articulated by the Howard and Harper governments, using a conceptualisation of market populism that draws on work by Thomas Frank. The article examines the origins and vectors of this discourse, its adaptation to local circumstances and the way it mobilises resentment against so-called 'elites' and 'special interests' associated with the welfare state and with the intermediary institutions of representative democracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article aims to explain a hitherto neglected phenomenon: whereas in Australia polls show widespread support for republicanism, most New Zealanders still prefer to retain the monarchy. The main argument of this article is that this difference can only in part be attributed to the polities of the two states or the just slightly varying political cultures. Rather, there are good reasons to assume that the republican shift in Australia was mainly brought about by an intense and lasting public debate on the future of the monarchy 'down under' throughout the 1990s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Political scientists pay consistent attention to the institutional cohesion of the US Supreme Court; that is, the extent to which and conditions under which the judges collaborate to write joint or unanimous judgments. This article tests whether factors that explain cohesion in the US Supreme Court are relevant in other Anglo-derived judicial systems. It tracks variation in judgment writing patterns on the Australian High Court from 1940 to 2002 and assesses the individual, institutional, and political forces that influence its cohesion. The article concludes that much of the Supreme Court scholarship has explanatory power in the Australian context, but that comparative court scholars must be attentive to the idiosyncrasies of particular courts when developing generalisable theories on court cohesion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines why Australia remains the only country in the Westminster world not to have adopted a national Bill of Rights. It is argued that an explanation based on allegedly inherently weak demand for such initiatives is at best incomplete. Instead, two elite political supply 'blockages' have also proved significant. Firstly, Australia's much stronger institutional fragmentation compared especially with the UK and New Zealand have raised the barrier against such a constitutional (or quasi-constitutional) reform. Secondly, during the crucial periods of its political history, Australia (in contrast to Canada, the UK and New Zealand) has lacked an appropriate 'trigger dynamic' providing elites with an immediate rationale and impetus for change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The primary objective of this study is to assess the psychological effects of the voting systems on the substantive representation of women. The central hypothesis is that voting systems influence the perception that female politicians have of their role as political representatives of women and, in particular, that women elected by PR systems are more likely than those elected by majority systems to feel they have a responsibility to represent women. Interviews conducted with 110 female MPs in Australia, Canada and New Zealand between 2001 and 2004-5 do not support this assumption. The conclusion explores how the concept of surrogate representation may improve our understanding of the psychological effects of the voting system on the substantive representation of women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article tests the hypothesis that multi-member single transferable vote systems elect more women than single-member district systems by analysing the two houses of the Australian Parliament. The data regarding the number of female members of the Australian Parliament has been collected since the first woman was elected 61 years ago. The Senate, which utilises an STV voting system, has averaged more than two and a half times the percentage of women elected than the SMD House. The data confirms that multi-member district electoral systems using STV elect more women than single-member districts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent comparative studies find Canada, Australia, and New Zealand to be among world leaders in tobacco control, but the explanations differ. Are cultural or institutional factors, especially federalism, more important in making these three English-speaking countries among the strongest tobacco-control regimes in the world? This study employs data on policy instruments that have been commonly used in tobacco control policy. Paradoxically, the federation that is more fiscally centralised, Australia, has had the most decentralised process of tobacco control, which has allowed it to initiate new policies earlier. Through similar underlying 'secular morality' values of public health promotion and diffusion, both within and across countries, similar outcomes are achieved through different institutional processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Making his first speech to Liberal Party MPs after his victory in the October 2004 Australian federal election, Prime Minister John Howard said that he was 'a great believer in perpetual campaigning' and that the government campaign to win the next election had already begun. The concept of the permanent campaign is important to understanding modern political communication. While an increasing number of voters are claiming to be making up their mind who to vote for in the last week of the formal election campaign, they are influenced in their decision by political messages received well before the formal campaign period. The 2004 Australian federal election displayed many features of permanent campaigning; in particular the advantage permanent campaigning affords the government over the opposition. The Government Members' Secretariat is an example of such advantage. Modern campaign methods such as focus groups, qualitative polling, voter databases, and strategic use of Senate resources for House of Representatives races are used on a permanent basis to build a communications strategy. The resources of the state, including government advertising, postal and office entitlements of members of parliament, are used to research and communicate with the electorate. While many of these techniques have been under development while also being in use for some time, it is only recently that they have been successfully coordinated to the extent that we can now say that the permanent campaign has reached Australia. This article examines this process in the lead-up to the 2004 Australian federal election. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using a ‘most-similar-systems’ design, several major theories of welfare state development are shown to have some weaknesses in comparing the Australian and Canadian welfare states during the Golden Age. I offer instead a party competition theory, with the degree of party system polarisation as a key variable. Located in a highly polarised party system, the Australian Liberals adopted a directional social policy strategy and further shifted the Australian welfare state in favour of the middle class. Located in a less polarised party system, the Canadian Liberals adopted a more proximity-based brokerage strategy of social policy and co-opted the left's popular social policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the role of a judge's social background and the role of' the leadership of the chief justice in explaining variations in dissent rates on the High Court of Australia between 1903 and 1975. It is of interest for students of comparative judicial politics because it is the first study to consider whether many of the factors which have been used to explain variations in dissent rates for the United States Supreme Court are applicable to courts outside the United States. The study finds that Latham's period as chief justice had a statistically significant negative effect on the dissent rate while there is mixed support for the hypotheses linking dissent rates to judges' social background. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Political parties can be distinguished in the degree to which they retain their status as private associations. A comparative framework based on this dimension is constructed for parties from different countries, and developed in detail for Australian parties. Australian parties have sought the assistance of the state, and in some cases changed their legal status, with the result that, inter alia, there is an increase in the likelihood that internal disputes will be resolved by the courts. This loss of privacy will result not from a failure to maintain the integrity of their internal processes, or a conscious determination of the electorate to scrutinise their behaviour, but because they are becoming public organisations. Should their long history of self-regulation be overturned, the freedom of association which they have enjoyed may be curtailed by external regulation and scrutiny, with consequences for the way they operate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on prime ministers who reached office by succeeding another prime minister from the same party rather than by .winning an election in their own right. Successors are found to be as numerous as those who won office through a general election. The odds are currently against successors. Successors who have the highest rate of success are those who waited between one and 12 months before calling an election. Defeated successors are likely to quit as party leaders afterwards. The findings are similar among jurisdictions, except for the Australian states, where successors have rarely been successful in recent decades. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]