Federalism

A federal system consists of dual sets of political institutions that complicate instituional arrangements in Australia. So they present institutionalists (Chapter 2) with particular challenges and opportunities for analysis. They have been criticised for making it difficult to determine who is responsible for implementing policy, as well as making it harder for voters to punish or reward those in government. On the other hand, they can be defended as creating more opportunities for representation and including a tier of government that is close to the people. So a consideration of democractic theory (Chapter 1) is one prerequisite for reflecting on the desirability and defensibility of a federal system. At the same time, the behaviour of individuals at each level of government and in intergovernmental interactions provides many opportunities for behaviouralist studies (Chapter 3).