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Deliberative Democracy in Australia: The Changing Place of Parliament (Reshaping Australian Institutions)

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If you are interested in how Australian politics works, Uhr explains the federal system. He goes back before Federation and summarises changes in the last century. Differences with the US system are dealt with. The reader will see a curious variant of the American bicameral federal setup. In part this was necessitated by the sheer size of Australia. The copying of the British parliament and, beneath it, the shires and counties, was deemed too awkward.

The history of amendment propositions is also gone into. We see that the electorate is quite resistant to new amendments, even when all major parties supported these.

Alas, there is no discussion of secession, which was seriously mooted in the 30s by Western Australia and Queensland. But there is some space devoted to the republican movement and how it might impact the federal government.