Australian Elections Essay

Institutional genesInstitutional actors relate to the type of the electoral remains used in an resource. Institutional factors that endure influence the election admit compulsory right to select, the type of ballot, gerrymanders and malapportionment.Compulsory ballot ensures 95 per cent of western Australians participate in elections. However, it has been echoed by some academics that compulsory voting ships company favors major(ip) parties. This is due to few community doing their own research into political parties and voting for parties they recognize through the media.The type of ballot used in an election has the most influence on the outcome. In a preferential ballot a seat has to be won by an absolute majority. Which gives an emolument to major political parties. However, in proportional voting a prognosis has to get a derived quota to be elected. This means that a small fellowship or independent can get elected with as little(a) as 20% of the pick out.Gerrym anders ar also another major factor that can influence an election. Gerrymanders allow politicss to redistribute electoral boundaries. Governments are thusly able to win more(prenominal) sit down by reducing vote wastage in safe seats and shifting the wasted votes into borderline seats therefore giving them a better chance to win the marginal seats. This extends to favor the brass because they puzzle majority supporting to change electoral boundaries.Malapportionment is another institutional factor which may adjoin the election outcome. Malapportionment is a calculation used to even out an uneven distribution of population. This is through by increasing the power of votes in smaller districts. The problem with malapportionment is that it tends to favor the party or independent who exploits the weakness in the electoral system.sociological factorsSociological factors relate to the determine and attitudes voters believe in. When voters are attracted to a limited party thi s is because they tend to support tellingly the same values and attitudes. This go forth often lead the voter to vote for the party they are attracted to. The values and attitudes people obtain are often related to experiences the voters life. The biggest influence on values and attitudes of voters is their family. The fundamental sociological factors include socio stintingal profile, ethnic background, devotion, geographical fix, age and gender.Socioeconomic factors relate to a soulfulness social class. Social class structures of persons are generally split up by education achieved, employment category and income. Due to the recent blurring of insurance in major political parities, voters submit not been significantly polarized by the above three particulars. Therefore, socioeconomic factors dont with child(p)ly affect election outcomes.Ethnic background relates to migrant origins. Origins of ethnic groups tend to excogitate in political sentiment. Trends allude that eth nic communities that come from oppressive regimes vote on the unexpended wing -Labor-. However, ethnic communities that migrate from democratic countries tend to vote right wing -Liberal-.Religion has become less of a factor in the outcome of an election. In the past religion has play a major role in Australian elections. This is due to in general European migrants being either pro tryoutant or catholic. This division of religion ended in the 1940s possibly due to World state of war Two. However, religious people generally cast a stronger conservative vote, relative to people with limited or no assimilation with religion.Geographic location in Western Australia has caused strong political divides. These strong political divides constitute between the rural areas and the city. This division is due to different political and economic requirements needed by rural and city Western Australia. These different requirements have been around since foundation so the political division has always been prevalent. term is an important aspect of the sociological factors. Mature age voters often support conservative right wing political parties. Where as, younger voters tend towards voting for left wing political parties. This trend for younger voters to elect left wing parties has been around since the 1970s. Some of the early young voters stay hard-core to left wing political parties.Gender in the last 30 years has played a prevalent role in Australias politics. This is due to the social revolution of the role of women. Womens votes tend to be for a conservative party. Some psychologists believe this is because women reject change more then men. However, history has seen that womens votes seen to have been arbitrary and lacking in trends.Political factorsPolitical factors fundamentally relate to the cleverness of political parties to stain successful decisions. Political factors that may affect the election include the establishments record, impedance performance, economic management, leadership, the electoral apparent movement and media.The governments record is an integral part of the party being re-elected. This is because re-election is a test to see if governments have avoided great controversy and delivered on performance. The examiners for the test are the voters. Great controversy can cause a government to stick out an election. This is especially true when the controversy relate to money. This is because voters are scrupulous pen up to were the money is being spent in the community. Performance of a government can be measured by how much they have delivered on pre election policy. If voters are disappointed about how much the government has delivered on policy they often wont trust the government for another term. opposite performance relates to how weak or strongly the opposition party has performed. In order for an opposition party to fix votes and possibly win an election. The opposition party must successfully identify a po licy weakness of the existing government. The opposition party must then develop alternate(a) policy options for the voters. However, if an existinggovernment is clearly going to be defeated in the next election. The best tactic for an opposition would be to give birth few policy commitments.Economic management is possibly the great factor in elections. Economic stability and profitability in a government is fundamentally one of the most important issues. Profitability is more than yet a government being in an account surplus. It also includes the ability of a government to provide successful funding to public systems. constancy refers to no great economic fluctuations. Voters lose confidence in governments if economic conditions are always changing.Leadership is important for a party. This is because often people look at the figurehead of the party, rather then the party as whole. Spin doctors or image consultants work on many factors of a leaders profile. This is to make the m as appealing to the public as possible. Leadership also includes how well the leader can hold the party together. This demonstrates a sign of strength to the voters. Strength alludes to the factors of authority and power.The electoral campaign decisions a party has to make include timing to start the campaign, advertize campaigns and areas to target. Timing to start an electoral campaign is important. If a campaign is to close to the election date key policy may not be heard by voters. If the campaign is announced too quickly it lead give the opposition time to criticize the policy of the governments. Advertising is pricy and if it is done wrong it can be costly, however, if it is done correctly it can win an election. In recent times Mass media is a great way to advertise this is due to its impact and coverage. However, mass media publicizing has to be carefully constructed, this is to minimize any chance of a mistake. Where to target advertising can also be an important deci sion. Parties often tend to hard advertise in marginal seats, however, this policy has been costly. This is because other seats have lost support for the party and swung to another party.Media is seen as one of the greatest influences on modern politics. Due to the introduction of television and radio word about politics is always beingarticulated. This is because people use media as the main medium to decide on political parties. However, recent pools suggest that media being so influential is overrated. This is due to free to air media needing to gain ratings to sell advertising. Thus, if a political party is unpopular it would not be in the medias best interest to support the party. As the media could potentially lose ratings. It is echoed by John Willmott that media doesnt set political opinion it just merely enforces it.