Subject Area: Politics
This course can also be studied in the following specialisation: Legal Studies

This course introduces students to Australian federal politics through the study of key features of the political system and of key concepts central to that system. The course starts with the basic premise that democracy is a complex concept and supplies no simple formula to success. As a result, our political system is complex and defies simplistic formulas for political success. Conflict and cooperation are built into the idea of ‘liberal democracy’ and into our political system, leading to complicated outcomes. The political parties of course institutionalise conflict but they also organise and mobilise politics for us as well. Furthermore, different, contending groups or institutions within society can appeal to the different parts of democratic theory to justify their actions. Thus, the state is at the centre of very complex manoeuvrings to satisfy both ‘the national interest’ and sectional interests.