Australia (and others) proving again that elections do lead to actual change [Video]

Australia is proving yet again that replacing a government can profoundly impact citizen wellbeing, Alan Austin reports.

THE WORLD IS CHANGING. Already this year, elections have switched administrations in Indonesia, Pakistan and Slovakia. Major countries with elections and possible regime change still looming include Britain, South Africa, Brazil, Mexico, Austria and the USA. 

Voters in many countries have elected incompetent regimes and soon regretted it. Conversely, several populations have benefitted from wise democratic decisions. Of these, Australia is exhibit A, as we shall see.

Snapshots of severe slumps

One major electoral blunder was Turkey electing Recep Tayyip Erdoğan as President in 2014. The jobless rate soared thereafter to peak at 14.1% in mid-2019, well before COVID-19. With 4.6 million Turks out of work, that was the worst pre-COVID-19 blow-out by far in the 38-member OECD.

At 8.7% in February, the jobless rate is still too high:

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