Outside of the requirement for free, regular, unavoidable, non-corrupt, competitive elections, there is no standard set of rules for defining a democracy. As a result, care needs to be taken not to generalise. This research paper attempts to judge certain aspects of Australia's parliamentary democracy in their own terms. In particular it looks at the relationships between the people and the Parliament as their elected representative institution, and at Parliament's role in holding Government responsible and accountable, examining the ways these relationships have changed across the past one hundred years.