Sally Young looks at the rise in the level of informal votes cast in the 2004 federal election, which highlights the need for funding to be restored to the Australian Electoral Commission so that it can conduct adequate community education programs, particularly in electorates with large numbers of Australians from non-English speaking countries. Such a...

Peter van Onselen provides an overview of the way the databases function and the purposes for which the major political parties use them. He shows they impinge negatively on the value of political equality through entrenching incumbency, both of the government of the day and the major parties collectively over competing minor parties.

The Australian Parliament recently tightened section 93 of the Commonwealth Electoral Act to provide that a person serving a sentence of three years or more may not vote in national elections. Australia is not the only democratic country to debate the question of continued felon disenfranchisement. Richard L. Hasen discusses the very different situation in...

What can we make of the 'great debate' between Prime Minister John Howard and Opposition leader Mark Latham televised live on 12 September, asks John Uhr. Where does the Australian experience fit in the larger world of democratic politics? What lessons about the state of Australian democracy can be taken from Sunday's televised debate?

Anthony M. Sayers and Lisa Young take a comparative look at political party funding in Canada and Australia. Among other things, they find that the lack of restrictions on contributions to Australian parties means that the large parties in particular do much better than their Canadian counterparts and limits the impact of public funding.