The Australian Horn of Plenty : How Britain's Australian Colonies Began Democracy

Abstract

Hamilton explores in a short history how all men gained the vote, self-government and the secret ballot in South Australia (1856), Victoria (1857), and New South Wales (1858).

Australia permanently democratised without a violent revolution, and at a very early time. In 1851–1858, local parliaments in the British colonies of New South Wales, Victoria, and South Australia gave all men the vote, including Aboriginal and Chinese men, the secret ballot, and self-government of local affairs. Britain approved, this book examines the parliamentary debate which led to these radical democracies. Debates covered voting eligibility, the secret ballot, the upper house of parliament, equal electorates, multiple voting, illiterate voters, control of Crown lands, terms of parliament, payment of members, and separation of Church and State. British parliamentary tradition was combined with the advanced liberal thinking of the time, Chartism with the British constitution. The democratisation of 1851–1858 in the three largest Australian colonies was as fundamental to Australian prosperity as the ‘mixed’ market economy.

This is a vital text for scholars of democracy as well as those interested in Australian Studies, Australian History, Political Science, Constitutional Law, and the building blocks of first-world prosperity.