Its not much. But it is better than nothing.

Its not much. But it is better than nothing. The archaic ritual that is democracy. The question that I have been pondering is whether there "Are there any features of a democracy that you would fight for, or even die to protect?" not for any real reason other than it is one of the question posed for me to write about. Not that I am picking this essay question but still, one can dream and speculate. I suppose to begin you need to start out with a fairly comprehensive outline at what it means to be a democracy and if our Governmental System (or really any of the Governmental Systems in the Western World) was taken away from us, would we care and if so would we do everything (or anything) in our power, and then some to retain it.

As a (young) very-nearly-able-to-vote voter I would say that it is important to me that I don't have to tell anyone who I will vote for (even if many people my age will ask for advice) nor do I have listen to anyone who will tell me who to vote for. As an adult (pretty much) I have the choice to decide on my own merits which candidate and which party gains my vote. Whether my chosen candidate and Political Party gain or retain office is another story entirely. My ability to cast a ballot is even more impressive given I am an (unmarried) female, when through out history I would have had very few rights and definitely not the right to vote. Although South Australia gave women the right to vote in 1894, the women before me fought many battles to try and become equal to their male counterparts. Would I fight for equal rights on the basis of gender? Yes.

Free and fair elections are taken on the whole for granted in Australia, a country that despite its political turmoil at the hands of our politicians, has seen fairly consistent behaviours when it comes to how elections are run. It was brought to the forefront of my mind today that Australia was one of the few countries in the world that was created not out of War or uprising, but by people who saw it time for a change and a unification of separated colonies. I do not wish to discredit the Indigenous lives lost and the heartbreak and sorrow they endured in the struggle for the land we call home, I just wish to point out we did not fight a revolution to get where we are today like some people in some countries did. Would I fight for free fair and compulsory elections? Probably, but then I have never known anything else.

Compulsory voting in elections seem like a huge injustice to the many people who dread the day of a election, because they have to, like, umm you know, get out of bed and go vote but this practice is not considered universal around the globe. According to an article written for the The Guardian in 2005, only 31 countries, including Australia, Italy and Peru had enacted compulsory voting laws; Which is not to say some people in all other countries vote, just perhaps not all of them. Increasingly, more and more people are asking me what I am looking forward to most when I turn 18 next month, and many if not all are surprised when I say the fact that I will be allowed to vote. Not the clubbing/drinking/getting wild all weekend long/getting legal tattoos answer they were looking for. Yes I am 'unique' and probably take politics way to seriously sometimes (read always) but hey a young girl can dream. So would I fight for the right to vote. In no uncertain terms YES.

Would other people look at this differently? Absolutely. While you may not believe that compulsory voting is vital to democracy nor might you feel so strongly about equality under the law, the point is that at some stage, when your rights start to be undermined or your views and opinions are no longer taken into consideration, everyone would, at some point seek to rectify the situation. I am by no means saying lets start a protest tomorrow over the fact our favored politician was elected out of office or over whether or not traffic lights or a roundabout should be put at a particular intersection, Im saying stay vigilant. I had the opportunity to listen to a lecture given by South Australian State Liberal Parliamentarian Martin Hamilton Smith last week, and he said "we will face challenges" in the future and perhaps let us not make one of them the quest to reclaim our democracy. We can not escape the politics of governance so let us embrace it and make sure it happens on our terms.

I may not need to fight for democracy but knowing that without the love and attention it deserves, it may disappear puts me on edge and in words of British Politician Sir Winston Churchill "It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried." So maybe we should seek to protect and nurture it...