Online Tutoring on Liberal Democratic System

Introduction:

The democratic system of Australia is seen as a liberal democracy. The terminology is referred to few western countries such as the Great Britain, Canada, New Zealand, United States of America and also Australia. The colonization of the country by the Britishers gave it a benefit of creating a liberal democracy, it was the Britishers who practically established the idea of rights and liberties for individuals that are main notions of a liberal democracy (Hirst, 2002). The Australians in the country has been accomplished more in this type of democracy than other types of democracies in the country comparatively. The individuals of the country see the its democracy as important and as a provision of freedom to them. The Australians now has evolved strong interpersonal liberal morals that are common with other democracies but is not common with its local neighbors (Evans, Jennings & Stoker, 2020). Moreover, this report would look into the concept of Liberal Democracy in Australia through analyzing the case study of legalization of same sex marriage. The report would include a brief explanation of liberalism and democracy along with the link between two. The report will analyze the values of the liberal democracy and whether the Australian Democratic System enhance the well being of the citizens or not. The evaluation would be done through the issue of legalization of the same sex marriages in the country.

The word liberalism can be referred as “the liberal doctrine of the harmony of the rightly understood interests of all members of a free society founded on the principle of private ownership of the means of production” (Von Mises, 2012, p. 2). In other words, liberalism is a mechanism of social entity. It aims at ensuring equivalence keeping in mind the freedom and law for every citizen to help them in decision making while not interfering with equal rights for everyone, the concept doesn’t provide unique privileges to anyone (Von Mises, 2012). When the notion of liberalism came into being, feudalism was a norm, the main idea of the concept was to provide every individual with equal right, ownership of land and the believe that all individuals are equal no matter what their status or color is. The working class attained a sense of confidence when the notion of feudalism reducing bit by bit, the working class achieved self actualization through free market. This theory provided the right to one’s own land, wealth, profit and many other things (Heywood, 1992). The concept of democracy can be referred to as “the power of the people is thus the authority to decide matters by majority rule” (Ober, 2007, p. 2). The mechanism of liberal democracy tries to promote the well being of the individuals but it cannot be explained through the explanation of the two concepts. The concept of Liberal Democracy can be described as a political mechanism through which the democratic entities occurs along with liberal origins including rights of the citizen and on the bases of market system for economic performance. The well being of the individuals can be referred to as the contentment of the needs of the entire community and citizens for effective functioning. The different elements of the well being include basic necessities provided to the individuals like quality of housing, status, employment, security, education, health and safety (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2019). Other factors include the income of an individual and accessibility of shared commodities and services like infrastructure and transport (Jamrozik, 2009). To guarantee the efficient distribution of these necessities to the individuals the government constructs social policies which are dependent on the political movement. The social policies are constructed keeping in mind every citizen’s financial requirements and the allocation of shared commodities and basic services. The provision is dictated by the ones who are in power and on the bases of desire, those who are deserving and those who can provide it (Habibi & Walter, 2009).

The Australian citizens have taken advantage from the political system in the country; however, the changes have taken quite a while but things have changed in the country. For instance, the right to marry someone of a same gender was legalized in 2017. It was announced in 2017 that by the Australian Bureau of Statistics that about 61.6% of Australians support the idea of a same sex marriage. It took Australia approximately 16 years after the first same sex marriage was legalized in Netherlands in 2001 (Gravelle & Carson, 2019). To legalize the same sex marriage in the country, the LGBTQ community struggled to get their rights, the community was harassed and discriminated for being out of the ordinary and extraordinary. One of the victims in the survey said “The LGBTQI community were used as unwilling human guinea pigs in a political experiment. We may never know the exact human cost of this experiment. The truth is some of us did not survive this process” (Altman, 2017). The heterosexuals have been harmed by many due to their belief, the comment of a victim shows that many of the believers didn’t survive during their struggle which is their basic right towards happiness. There has been a lot of amendments passed out for marriage bill like the Marriage Equality Plebiscite Bill 2015 on 19 August 2015 but the failed at the prorogation of the 44^th parliament. In the succeeding year, same sex marriage bill was passed by PM Turnbull on 14 September 2016, this bill was once again failed at the second stage in the Senate. This bill allowed the individuals to mandatory vote in favor or against of the same sex marriage. Moreover, after the defeat of the Bill, the Australian government advised the Australian Bureau of Statistics to conduct a survey among all over the country whether they are in favor of same sex marriage or not. The survey indicated the majority said yes and as more than half percent of the sample population was in the favor of the bill, it was eventually passed in 2017 (McKeown, 2018). There can be seen a stance of liberal democracy on this as the Government allowed the individuals to make a collective decision about the issue. The PM has been ridiculed by his own party members for taking this issue to the Senate and legalizing a sensitive issue. The opposition party found a way to make him look like someone who doesn’t oblige the Parliament. Only the Liberals were in favor of the issue to be legalized because they think that the change in the Bill should be promoted as it is the perfect representation of democracy.

Liberal democracy also has its limit and it sometimes do not see that there are some issues that cannot be resolved through the inclusion of citizens. The case of same sex marriage was solved without the public voting in United States of America and Great Britain while the Australian Parliament could have rejected the answer. Moreover, the liberal democrats must think before promoting anything most importantly the issue of same sex. The reason for it is that the issue can create chaos in the country and peace would not have been restored in the country. The PM of Australia sometimes believes in the values of liberal democracy but it can also back fire if he couldn’t resolve any issue through the notion than it could put him in a difficult position (van Mill, 2016). However, the Australian Government did enhance the well being of the citizens by taking into account what they think about the issue and if they are comfortable with it then why should they step back. The Australian Liberal Democratic System does enhance the well being of its citizens which is shown through the legalization of same sex marriage.

Conclusion:

Liberal Democracy has been seen as a new notion in the world today to address different types of issues. The concept is made up of two words that liberalism and democracy, both of these when amalgamated means that to vote in a favor or against an issue that will benefit the people individually. The Australian Government is a liberal democracy which emphasis on the well being of the citizens and tries to enhance it. The same has been done in the issue of the same sex marriage, this issue was always defeated as it was seen as a major alternation in the Marriage Bill. Moreover, the majority of the Parliamentarians weren’t in favor of legalizing same sex marriage in the country apart from the Prime Minister of the country. Even members of his own party were not in favor of the same sex marriage but he made it possible through keeping in mind the values of liberal democracy. The majority of the people in the country voted as yes, about 61% which said that they do not have a problem regarding legalizing the same sex marriage. This shows that the government does actually takes into account the decision of its citizens and enhances it rather than restricting it.

References:

Altman, D. (2017). How the same-sex marriage vote will impact on human rights and democracy, News, Retrieved on 17 August <https://theconversation.com/how-the-same-sex-marriage-vote-will-impact-on-human-rights-and-democracy-88323>

Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. (2019). Understanding welfare and wellbeing, Australian Government, Report, retrieved on 17 August 2020 <https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/australias-welfare/understanding-welfare-and-wellbeing>