Introduction

Political parties are regarded as a fundamental element of the Australian system of politics and government and an important component of the broader policy process. As aggregators and articulators of citizen opinion, one of the key functions of parties in representative democracies is to develop policy, which is presented to the voters at elections and implemented once a political party assumes elected office. This function is integral to the operation of party government and an important mechanism by which political parties act as intermediaries between citizens and the state – providing the basis for representation, citizen participation in politics and the aggregation of the policy preferences of the masses.

Contemporary Australian parties, however, face several challenges in fulfilling these democratic aspirations. In the last half-century, party membership in Australia has fallen from 4% to under 1% of the electorate (McAllister, 2002, pp 389–91; Sawer et al, 2009, pp 134–5). This loss of members and the corresponding contraction of party organisations have had significant implications for the sources of policy input and the resources for policy development upon which Australian parties have traditionally relied. Beyond this, political parties have always encountered a series of tensions in structuring their policymaking processes, which centre on the question of which individuals and groups should have a voice in the process and the extent of their participation. For example, political parties need to strike a balance between accommodating the views of their members and supporters, and developing policies that will enable the party to appeal to the broader electorate. Parties in government face different policy pressures from those in opposition. As this chapter will show, different parties approach this task (and therefore structure their policy processes) in different ways, but all face similar cultural, strategic and institutional challenges.

The chapter compares policy development in the Australian Labor Party (ALP), the Liberals, the Nationals and the Greens. This selection covers the four largest parties with federal parliamentary representation and provides the opportunity to compare policy development across a range of parties with different ideologies, organisational histories and legislative positions (the ALP and the Liberals as the ‘major’ parties alternating between government and opposition, the Nationals as the Coalition partner, and the Greens as a third/balance-of-power party).

An understanding of what happens internally within parties, such as how candidates for office are selected and how policy positions are determined, is shaped by theories of democracy (Chapter 1), as well as understandings of rules and institutions (Chapter 2) and models of individual political behaviour (Chapter 3). This chapter links these different theoretical positions by arguing that parties are the main and crucial link between citizens and government, but that this link is made increasingly problematic by the top-down structure of parties. These tensions might be understood in terms of broader shifts in the social identities of Australians, which produce new demands for representation and participation (see Chapters 4 and 5).

Political parties are intended to play a crucial role within Australia’s system of representative democracy and government by providing a link between citizens and the state. In order to do this, parties function as arenas of both participation and representation. In facilitating participation, they provide a forum where citizens (through party membership) can engage with and shape political debate. However, increased disaffection with political parties and a steady decline in membership have been the prevailing trends in recent decades.