Australian Politics and Policy - Senior, 2019a

Zareh Ghazarian
Key terms/names
Australian Greens, Australian Labor Party, democratic socialism, electoral system,
House of Representatives, labourism, Liberal Party, minor parties, National Party,
nationalisation, One Nation, political parties, Senate, social democracy
Political parties are integral to modern political systems. Parties are organised
bodies of individuals that nominate candidates at elections, advancing specific
policy goals. 1 They play crucial roles in liberal democratic systems. Parties help
to decentralise power as they compete for electoral support. They provide a link
between government and society and, because they are comprised of ordinary
citizens, advance the notion of government ‘for the people, by the people’. 2 Parties
also contribute to the stability of political systems as they aggregate policy demands
and provide alternative policy choices for voters. 3 Furthermore, parties are responsible
for selecting candidates for election, forming government and opposition
and ‘promoting and participating in public debates on major issues’. 4 Parties are
seen as so important to modern liberal democracies that some have argued that
political systems could not exist without them. 5
Ghazarian, Zareh (2019). The Australian party system. In Peter J. Chen, Nicholas Barry, John R. Butcher,
David Clune, Ian Cook, Adele Garnier, Yvonne Haigh, Sara C. Motta and Marija Taflaga, eds. Australian
politics and policy: senior edition. Sydney: Sydney University Press. DOI: 10.30722/sup.9781743326671
1 See Ghazarian 2015, 1. See also White 2006, 6.
2 See Parkin 2006, 3–24, and Katz and Mair 1995.
3 Ball and Peters 2000, 97.
4 Mayer 1991, 49.
5 Macridis 1967, 9; Schattshneider 1942, 1.
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