13NFL1-Compulsory Voting
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PARTY STABILITY
COMPULSORY VOTING INCREASES PARTY STABILITY.
MacKerras and McAllister 99, M. Mackerras Department of Politics, University of NSW], I.
McAllister Research School of Social Sciences, Australian National University, "Compulsory voting, party stability, and electoral advantage in Australia, Electoral Studies 18 (1999) 217-233. A third consequence of compulsory voting is a high level of party stability. That is reflected in the large number of voters who identify with one or other of the majorparties, and in the preponderance of representatives of the major parties in the federaland state parliaments. Australia has one of the highest levels of party identificationin the world. While partisan dealignment in Britain, the United States and some othercountries has seen many voters rejecting the major parties, and either abstaining orchanging their party from one election to the next (Wattenberg, 1994; Dalton, Australia has largely been immune from these changes. Compulsory voting ensuresthat voters cast a ballot and the act of voting means that they are forced to think,
however superficially, about the major parties. The frequency of elections at the stateand federal levels further reinforces the high visibility that parties enjoy within theelectorate. Although, as noted previously, compulsory voting also favours supportfor minor and protest parties, the advantage they gain is small compared to the overallimpact on major party support.
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