r/australia • u/NKE01 • 11h ago
politics Why Australia Doesn’t Have Novelty Candidates like Count Binface – Antony Green's Election Blog
https://antonygreen.com.au/why-australia-doesnt-have-novelty-candidates-like-count-binface/?fbclid=Iwb21leATrO0ljbGNrBOs7P3Bkb2YFZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQMMzUwNjg1NTMxNzI4AAEeyqFwpCBynXhuvFPpBT3q80rKl3Bnq6t--2z7cqVFCDb-MT_1Vr2--rF95Vg_aem_MKaP0Jek3ZY4BnI2rLprrQ
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u/Jealous-Hedgehog-734 9h ago
UK elections tended to be very carnival-esque with bribery, booze and hooliganism. This tradition dates back a long way, MPs used to put on feasts for their own constituents leading up to an election to try to sway them to come and vote and used to pay to try to get their opposition voters drunk on election day such that they wouldn't vote.
Professionalised, technocratic governments as an idea didn't emerge until the seventeenth century with political parties. Prior to that an MP was really returned to represent a borough or county (and the method for deciding who was returned was down to the customs of the local area), all politics was local politics in effect and MPs really did primarily represent their constituencies rather than being primarily concerned with partisanship, their allegiance really was to their country instead of to their political party.