Author: ASHWORTH, T.R. & H.P.C.
Title: Proportional Representation Applied to Party Government. A new electoral system.
Description: Melbourne &c, Robertson 1900. Octavo publisher's cloth (spine top worn); viii,223pp. With a 1933 presentation inscription from barrister, academic and momentary politician Richard Windeyer. ¶ First edition. A new idea in Australian politics, proportional representation here does not mean what it now means to us but this is the germ of a new and theoretically fairer electoral system, as long as two parties are institutionally supported and minorities (such as the unions) are not allowed untrammelled access to parliament. This was published for the first Commonwealth election. Thomas Ramsden Ashworth stood unsuccessfully for that first parliament in 1901 and while he continued to work for constitutional reform, taking part in the 1927 constitutional reform commission, he did not publish anything else this substantial. It is his only sustained publication (he published a lot in newspapers and in pamphlet form later in life) and most of this book seems to have been his work. His brother doesn't seem to have published anything else. An architect by trade and an anti-labourite by profession, T.R. Ashworth was one of the most strident and effective Australian anti-communist propagandists pre-WWII, taking his lessons from the most reactionary American societies - and the American mistake of unchecked immigration.

Keywords: politics government c19th Australia electoral system reform progress