Whose mandate? policy promises, strong bicameralism and polled opinion

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

16 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The political theory of Australian politics has been dominated, since the election of a Liberal-National Party government in 1996, by claims and counterclaims about electoral mandates. The government has privileged its position in the House of Representatives; opposition parties have pointed to their support in the Senate. This paper provides a historical re-examination of the meanings and merits of mandate theories; it outlines the difficulties posed by strong bicameralism for any mandate theory; and it shows how the rise of survey research has strengthened some claims to a mandate, especially in bicameral systems, while weakening others.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)327-352
Number of pages26
JournalAustralian Journal of Political Science
Volume34
Issue number3
Publication statusPublished - Nov 1999

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Whose mandate? policy promises, strong bicameralism and polled opinion'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this