Uncontested Seats and the Evolution of Party Competition in Australia

Representative democracy presumes competitive elections at which voters have a choice of candidates. This is consistent with the current nature of electoral campaigning, which is system-wide and embraces every opportunity for partisan competition. From this perspective, uncon-tested seats in parliamentary systems are associated with earlier stages of representative government before modern parties emerged. Yet a survey of Australian state and federal general elections since 1890 shows that uncontested seats persisted in most systems well after the estab-lishment of the current party system and, in two states, until the 1980s. In examining various explanations for the existence of uncontested seats in parliamentary systems, the article finds that the nature of the electoral system, the characteristics of the party system and party organization are key factors. Given a single-member district electoral system, the pattern of uncontested seats can be used as an indicator of the evolution of the party system and the structure of partisan competition. KEY WORDS Australia candidate selection electoral system party competition uncontested seats Representative democracy presumes competitive elections at which voters have a choice of candidates. This is consistent with the current nature of party organization and electoral campaigning which are system-wide and embrace every opportunity for partisan competition. Uncontested seats at parliamentary elections are associated with earlier stages of representative government before parties emerged in their current form and local notables could dominate electoral contests to the point of precluding rivals. Once political parties become major players in electoral contests, other factors may lead to a few uncontested seats; the electoral system may have limite