Hitler’s conquests temporarily snuffed out most of the vigorous democracies
in Europe.
Why did the colonies move so quickly from despotism to an advanced kind
of democracy at a time when democratic states in the world were few? The
great majority of immigrants, especially in the 1840s and 1850s, came from
the British Isles where a restricted and highly cautious form of democracy was
already being practised. Moreover, these immigrants were largely people who
possessed no vote at home but believed—more perhaps than any previous
generation—that they should be entitled to a vote.
The quick rise of an advanced democracy in Australia also owed much to a
group of British politicians and critics. Recalling the breakaway of the North
American colonies and the outbreak of the American War of Independence in
the 1770s, they tended to believe that overseas colonies would inevitably
break away unless they were treated sensitively and favourably. Indeed, the
seven colonies in Australasia might eventually secede, even if they were
humoured and courted by the mother country. These more radical British
politicians and critics were sympathetic to the creation in both Canada and
Australasia of self-governing colonies with a franchise and structure notably
more democratic than that prevailing in the British Isles. In line with the
decay of the mercantilist vision of empire, such countries received a kind of
economic freedom not usually accorded to colonies: the right to impose a
protective tariff against goods exported from the motherland.
2.7 How a Populist Democracy Flavoured Economic Life
As one of the earliest democracies, Australia, in the second half of the nine-
teenth century, might have been expected to pursue distinctive economic
policies. The poorer people exercised more political weight than in almost
any other country, and so certain equalitarian trends were evident in new
laws. The state could interfere more often: it could take on additional duties; it
could occasionally redistribute wealth.
This kind of exceptionalism did occur, though on a moderate more than a
sweeping scale. For example, in England, the USA, and many other countries,
the private companies operated nearly all the railways. In contrast, after the
first private railway companies in Victoria and New South Wales (NSW) failed
in the 1850s, the governments became the dominant builders and operators
of railways (Ergas and Pincus 2015, pp. 234–5). By 1900 the government-
owned railways were the biggest business enterprises in Australia and dwarfed
any single mining and manufacturing andfinancial company in their rev-
enue, and in the number of their employees. In Australia, government rail-
ways were pace-setters in providing secure employment, in paying higher
Australian Exceptionalism: A Personal View