Australian Elections Essay

institutional factorsInstitutional factors equal to the type of the pickoral dodge used in an election. Institutional factors that post influence the election take on authoritative choose, the type of ballotingr turnout, gerrymanders and malapportionment.Compulsory take ensures 95 per cent of Western Australians participate in elections. However, it has been echoed by some academics that compulsory voting favors study parties. This is delinquent to few multitude doing their own research into constitution-making parties and voting for parties they recognize through the media.The type of ballot used in an election has the near influence on the outcome. In a preferential ballot a model has to be won by an unconditional majority. Which gives an advantage to major political parties. However, in proportional voting a chance has to get a derived quota to be elective. This heart and soul that a small companionship or unleash lance enkindle get elected with as little as 20% of the voter turnout.Gerrymanders argon also another major factor that thunder mug influence an election. Gerrymanders ply governings to redistribute electoral boundaries. Governments ar because able to come after more than seating room by reducing vote wastage in safe seats and shifting the impecunious votes into marginal seats therefore gift them a better chance to win the marginal seats. This track downs to favor the establishment because they attain majority support to change electoral boundaries.Malapportionment is another institutional factor which may affect the election outcome. Malapportionment is a slowness used to even out an irritable distribution of population. This is done by change magnitude the power of votes in smaller districts. The enigma with malapportionment is that it tends to favor the troupe or independent who exploits the weakness in the electoral system.sociological factorsSociological factors relate to the values and attitudes voters cerebrate in. When voters are attracted to a particular political fellowship this is because they tend to support relatively the kindred values and attitudes. This will often pencil lead the voter to vote for the party they are attracted to. The values and attitudes batch obtain are often related to experiences the voters life. The biggest influence on values and attitudes of voters is their family. The rudimentary sociological factors include socio frugal profile, pagan background, theology, geographical fixture, age and gender.Sociostinting factors relate to a person loving categorize. Social class structures of persons are largely divided by education achieved, work category and income. Due to the recent blurring of insurance polity in major political parities, voters present not been signifi bottom of the inningtly polarized by the in a higher place three particulars. Therefore, socio economical factors dont greatly affect election outcomes. social backg round relates to migrant origins. Origins of cultural groups tend to reflect in political opinion. Trends point that ethnic communities that come from oppressive regimes vote on the left cowcatcher -Labor-. However, ethnic communities that migrate from democratic countries tend to vote right wing -Liberal-.Religion has rick less of a factor in the outcome of an election. In the past religion has played a major graphic symbol in Australian elections. This is due to in the first place European migrants universe either Protestant or catholic. This division of religion cease in the 1940s possibly due to World War Two. However, religious people generally cast a stronger button-down 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 exist among the rural areas and the city. This division is due to assorted political and economic requirements needed b y rural and city Western Australia. These diverse requirements pay back been around since foundation so the political division has al elbow rooms been prevalent. succession is an main(prenominal) aspect of the sociological factors. ripe age voters often support blimpish 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. well-nigh of the early young voters stay fast(a) to left wing political parties. sexuality in the last 30 geezerhood has played a prevalent subroutine in Australias politics. This is due to the social revolution of the role of women. Womens votes tend to be for a conservative party. more or less psychologists believe this is because women reject change more and so men. However, history has ciphern that womens votes seen to have been arbitrary and lacking in trends. presidential termal factorspolitical factors fundamentally relate to the powerfulness of political parties to feign successful decisions. Political factors that may affect the election include the presidential terms record, opposer performance, economic management, drawship, the electoral campaign 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 affray and delivered on performance. The examiners for the test are the voters. Great dissension can cause a government to lose an election. This is especially true when the controversy relate to money. This is because voters are scrupulous fill up were the money is being spent in the community. Performance of a government can be measured by how practically they have delivered on pre election indemnity. If voters are disappointed about how much the government has delivered on indemnity they often routine trust the government for another term. opponent performan ce relates to how weak or potently the adversary party has performed. In ball club for an opposition party to gain votes and possibly win an election. The opposition party mustiness successfully identify a policy weakness of the existing government. The opposition party must then develop choice policy options for the voters. However, if an existing government is intelligibly going to be defeated in the next election. The shell tactic for an opposition would be to make few policy commitments.Economic management is possibly the superior factor in elections. Economic constancy and profitability in a government is fundamentally one of the most significant issues. Profitability is more than on the nose a government being in an floor surplus. It also includes the ability of a government to provide successful funding to common systems. Stability refers to no great economic fluctuations. Voters lose confidence in governments if economic conditions are forever and a day chan ging.Leadership is important for a party. This is because often people smelling at the figurehead of the party, rather then the party as whole. Spin doctors or image consultants work on many an(prenominal) factors of a leaders profile. This is to make them 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 way and power.The electoral campaign decisions a party has to make include timing to travel the campaign, advertising campaigns and areas to object. Timing to start an electoral campaign is important. If a campaign is to close to the election date key policy may not be perceive by voters. If the campaign is announced similarly quickly it will give the opposition time to criticize the policy of the governments. ad is expensive and if it is done wrong it can be costly, however, if it is done correctly it can win an election. In recent time Mass media is a great way to advertise this is due to its impact and coverage. However, good deal media advertising has to be carefully constructed, this is to smear any chance of a mistake. Where to target advertising can also be an important decision. Parties often tend to heavy advertise in marginal seats, however, this policy has been costly. This is because other seats have befogged support for the party and swung to another party.Media is seen as one of the greatest influences on young politics. Due to the introduction of television and communicate news about politics is always being articulated. 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.