Perhaps I should mention that the reason I am interested in this question is
to understand the issues with the federation of some of the micro-states of
the Eastern Caribbean which is at present a possibility. They will be faced
with the same constitutional question that Australia was: how do you make
a federal parliamentary system work?
If I have understood this correctly, the Australian and U.S. Senate
are constitutionally very similar, but due to each U.S. Senator being selected
in a first-past-the-post statewide poll and Australian senators being selected
by a quota system the resulting representations are quite different.
A further query: I have gained the impression that third parties in
Australian lower house elections can have an influence depending on where
their followers through their vote. Does this only work when the third
parties that emerge take positions between the two biggest parties, or can
progressive parties influence elections by this route as well?
