Chapter 2 Australia's System of Government AVA Flashcards
Liberal democracy
a form of government in which a country’s sovereignty is vested in it’s citizens
direct democracy
the direct political participation of all citizens in government
representative democracy
a form of self governing where citizens elect others to represent them in government and law making
elections in a liberal representative democracy
must be free of intimidation , fair in how they translate votes into seats into seats in parliament and enable widest number of citizens to participate
structure of the commonwealth parliament
the crown - the monarch , the house of representatives , the senate
bicameralism
a feature of most Australian parliaments where they have 2 houses of parliament
the house of representatives
the people’s house
senate
the state’s house
constitutionalism
an idea that power should be limited . powers that limit the power of government are called constiutions
constitutional rules
largely unwritten conventions , the processes limiting the power of kings and queens
conventions which put the monarchy under the rule of law
royal power only exercised on the advice of ministers , monarch always assents laws to be passed by the parliament
does the rule of law apply to the royal power
royal power is limited and governed by the law . the rule of law applies to the monarch and the powers of the monarch are subject to Australian constitutional law
responsible parliamentary government
executive is directly drawn from and accountable to the parliament
role of parliamentarians
to legislate , to create laws to debate matters of public importance and represent the people
what does this do ?
allows the parliament to hold individual government individuals accountable
parliamentary government
refers to the location and formation of the executive arm of government . parliamentary government means members of the government must also be members of the parliament
cabinet
a committee of the executive composed of ministers led by the prime minister which is drawn from and responsible to the parliament
what is the cabinet governed by
governed by unwritten westminister conventions of responsible government
constitutional executive
includes the constitutional monarch and the governor general
federalism
federalism is the division of a nation’s sovereignty between one national. and 2 or more regional governments
main institutions of australian federalism
commonwealth governments at the national levels and state governments at the regional levels
each level has it own separation of powers
nationally -
