Associate Professor Matteo Bonotti and Emeritus Professor Paul Strangio

Compulsory voting in Australia

In this lecture Matteo Bonotti and Paul Strangio will discuss compulsory voting in Australia to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1924 which introduced compulsory voting at federal elections.

Associate Professor Matteo Bonotti will offer an analysis of compulsory voting through the lens of political theory, with a special focus on the problem of political legitimacy. He will explore the connection between compulsory voting (including the various arguments that have been provided in its support) and public reason, i.e. the view that laws and policies are politically legitimate only if they are justified by appealing to reasons that all citizens can accept at some level of idealisation.

Emeritus Professor Paul Strangio will outline the historical background to the introduction of compulsory voting at the Commonwealth level in 1924. This history highlights that compulsory voting was part of a larger tradition of democratic innovation in Australia that stretched back to the colonial era. He will then identify the factors that have made compulsory voting such a resilient institution in Australia, despite some agitation for its abolition.

Matteo Bonotti is an Associate Professor of Politics and International Relations at Monash University. He is a political theorist whose research interests include democratic theory, linguistic justice, political liberalism, civility, free speech, and food justice.

Paul Strangio is an Emeritus Professor of Politics in the School of Social Sciences at Monash University. A political historian, he is the author and editor of a dozen books on Australian politics, which include award-winning titles.