Comment Vote with your feet? (Score 1) 455
(Looking in from Australia, having never been to North or South America)
On the surface our countries are fairly similar (mostly speak english, mostly settled (invaded?) by white anglos from england about 300 years ago)
Our country is a bit smaller and has a much smaller population, mostly in cities. We don't have a bill of rights or a civil war or a big history of slavery. We haven't ever had guns in as big a way as you but we do love our cars.
I don't have any easy answers, but I think some good non-obvious differences in our electoral system make a big difference:
Preferential voting (instant run-off / ranked choice)
- means you can vote for a minor party first, a major party 2nd, and the other major party last, and if your 3rd party candidate doesn't get in, your full vote goes to your next preference. In a first past the post system minor parties get shafted in the medium to long term and you end up with 2 dominant parties.
Voting on Saturdays
- means most don't have to choose between earning money and voting
- means you can have democracy sausage
Compulsory Voting
- means that politicians don't have to spend all their energy / campaign dollars / airtime to get people angry enough to bother to vote, instead can talk about the issues.
