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Are territories and or cities able to independently legalize in Australia? If the US had not been able to gradually legalize at a state level and build momentu
by adventured 8y ago
Are territories and or cities able to independently legalize in Australia?
If the US had not been able to gradually legalize at a state level and build momentum, it seems unlikely that it would have gained such positive momentum overall nationally. Demonstrations through state experiments - showing that the world wouldn't end upon legalization - were important for swaying the fence sitters (and in helping to bury some of the more ridiculous propaganda by the anti crowd).
- crispinb 8y agoStates yes, cities no (I think). South Australia was an early leader here, but that has been retrenched somewhat (again I think - it's not where I live). Australian politics is inherently very 'centrist' for cultural and political-structural reasons. Australians culturally are comfortable and skittish, easy to scare. We have compulsory voting (so there's no skewing via getting-out-your-base), and a preferential count which tends to favour the two major parties. This has both positives and negatives, but it does make our politicians risk-averse, even when it comes to popular reforms like with marijuana laws. Not insuperably so (eg. Murdoch failed to stop equal marriage legislation), but change comes slowly.