Government Essay:
The New Zealand government at both a Local and National level is an excellent example of a modern, Representative Democracy. Different election systems, including First Past the Post (FPP), Mixed Member Proportional (MMP) and Single Transferable Vote (STV), are used to allow electors to select representatives to sit on Councils, Boards and in Parliament. Some elements of Constitutional Monarchy are present in the New Zealand system of democratically elected representatives within a constitutional Monarchy contrasts well with the dictatorship of Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe.
Central Government in New Zealand is based on the democratic system with Political Parties voted into Parliament based on the will of the people. The
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In a parallel system to National Government is Local Government who is responsible. For the management and operation of our cities, towns and local environments. The country is divided up into city and District councils. Representatives of the community are democratically elected to sit on councils and represent the needs and views of citizens. Each council is supported infrastructure of local Government employees who carry out the duties of the council. These duties cover every aspect of the everyday life including running services such as rubbish removal and sewerage, through to Maintaining Facilities such as parks and reserves to town planning and Resource Management Act Compliance and even traffic wardens. Councils are funded through rates which are a levy charged to individual households and businesses based on the value of their property or industry. Local councils may introduce bylaws which only apply to the citizens or business located within that councils area. These local bylaws give each council the opportunity to create rules for how that city or district can operate.
As systems of government, Democracy and Dictatorship exhibit key differences in how leaders are elected, power is distributed and how people are governed. Nations that have a democratic element are those where the people have a substantial say, through a system of voting, about who is representing them in the government, and where leaders are not governing for life. In
Local authorities such as the county and city councils have roles such as education, libraries, public transport, emergency planning which will contribute in more of the latest technology resources which will help the people of illness or of people who need immediate medical attention; this will help services throughout a city or a county. Planning and development to improve on the communities appearance; this will make the people in the society love the place where they live which may lead to less criminal damage. Also fire and public safety and waste management and trading standards. Councils make decisions on the situations within the community; they do this by holding council meetings to discuss what needs to be done to help the society. Members of the public are allowed to attend the meetings so they have first hearing of the decisions discussed than those who don’t attend. All decisions the council make in these meeting must be later published. In my opinion I would say that local authorities are a good thing to have as they can focus on small communities than looking at things as a whole country, otherwise no problems within a community will be solved. I think there should be no improvements for local authorities as they tackle all areas that need improving in the community. Local authorities help the public
4. Weakening democracies in New Zealand is coming from voters no longer finding voting to be important anymore. The biggest group
Basically, voters select one candidate from their riding, just like in an SMP system, but they also place a vote for which party they would like to form the government. This second vote determines the amount of seats that each party gains proportional to the amount of votes they collected in the countries. The representatives from each party are then made up of the elected representatives from each riding (if that party was able to elect any) and other members selected by the leader1. An STV system, which is what the Citizen’s Assembly recommended to the people of BC, can be found in Ireland, Malta, and in some levels of government in Australia. Voters rank candidates according to their priorities, choosing as many as they wish. For example, a certain voter could select a Conservative as his or her first choice, a Liberal as the second, a New Democrat as third, and then cast no votes for the Green Party. When each a candidate reaches a certain quota of first place votes, they are elected, and the extra first place votes that they did not need are distributed to the other parties according to their overall ranking. If a second candidate is then elected, his or her extra votes are then distributed to the remaining parties, and so on . This system is rather complicated, especially when compared to our current system, but computerized voting systems have generally alleviated any problems.
Australia, a country with a population of more than 22 million has quite the complex governmental system. Australia is known as a federation, a constitutional monarchy and a parliamentary democracy all in one. As a result, Australia has a queen, who resides in the United Kingdom, but is represented by a Governor-General in Australia. Following, a Prime Minister governs the country. In addition, there is a two-chamber Commonwealth Parliament that makes the laws. This diverse government is often referred to as the Westminster System. The goal of this paper is to examine Australia’s representative parliamentary democracy and if it is effective.
Democracy, as it is used today, means “ the people rule.” A democracy is a form of government ruled by the people of the country through elections and representation. A democracy is really a form of republic known as a democratic republic. A republic is a government where officials elected by a small group of people that make the important decisions.
A democracy is when the common people are considered as the primary source of political power. Although democracy and absolutism had advantages and disadvantages, democracy was a more effective type of government for it limited royal power and protected the rights of the people socially, politically, and economically. Throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, tension arose between the two different types of governments, the democracy and absolute monarchs.
‘Recent Commonwealth Parliaments have confirmed that the ability of governments to implement their mandates is more a function of the will of the Parliament than the will of the people.’
are two countries that are very similar but not quite the same. The U.S. is a democracy, but New Zealand is a Parliament. These are two very similar types of government but a Parliament takes some aspects from a monarchy and combine them with some from a democracy. New Zealand does not have a president, they have a prime minister. In the U.S. citizens vote for a president. But in New Zealand they vote for the members of the Parliament, and the legislative branch of the Parliament assigns a prime minister. New Zealand also does not have states. They did used to have provinces, but they scraped in the provincial system in the late
1. Democracy is a type of government that emanates from the constituted powers that are elected, depending on the system (presidentialist, parliamentary, constitutional monarchy, semi presidentialist, semi parliamentary, etc...) directly or indirectly by the people. Whereas in an absolute monarchy, an absolutist regime exists and is in power because of family lineage.
Two most important potential changes to NZ’s political environment that may influence our businesses and development of our society during the next decade will be a change of government and voting rights for prisoners, each of which is analysed in the following paragraphs.
The ideas, social democracy and conservatism have impacted social policy to support the citizens within New Zealand. They contrast in ways, which they are based upon. Social democracy bases their ideas in state intervention to support the welfare creating egalitarianism. Whereas conservatism base their ideas by providing minimal state intervention, where tradition social institutions are conserved and natural authority is established. Both ideas support individuals by providing a good vision; this is achieved through the state implementing policies.
New Zealand 's constitution is very unique and is the base of our legal system. The constitution is unwritten allowing a variety of elements that make up our constitution some are; constitution conventions and statutes. New Zealand 's constitution structure is separated into three branches; the legislature, judiciary and the executive . The executive is the decision making branch, it is believed that the executive is where the real power of parliamentary supremacy lies, as the decisions they make influence the process of legislation . Throughout this essay I will emphasise how statutes are more important and effective in contrast to constitution conventions.
‘Person B’ is correct in saying that New Zealand is neither a chaotic mess nor a dictatorship and that is because we must have a constitution. New Zealand is not a chaotic mess as that means that the country would be in complete disorder and total confusion, which fortunately it is not. A dictatorship is defined as ‘power to govern without consent of those being governed’, which is not the case in New Zealand. It is a democracy, which is an underlying principle of the constitution. It is defined as ‘a system of government in which all the people of a state are involved
A dictatorship is a government ruled by one commander. An example of this is Iraq. Saddam Hussein is the dictator of Iraq. Whatever he decides becomes law. Dictatorships are similar to absolute monarchies in that they are very oppressive to the people of the country. The major difference between the two is that absolute monarchies are families inheriting their power while dictatorships often result from military takeovers or from an elected official who refuses to step down from his elected office.
Democracy varies in every country depending on the type of government or regime they have. There is the liberal democracy, which is all about giving people their rights and liberties; everything is done through fair voting and electing. The people are aware of everything that happens in their government. Illiberal democracies are basically the same as liberal, but the people in power are more secretive of their activities, and there is less civil liberty. It is essentially a partial democracy. Now Authoritarian regimes designate any political system that concentrates power in the hands of one leader or a small elite. There are no free elections and very little regard for the law. Political institutions, social structures, and the democratic rule of law all affect liberal, illiberal, and authoritarian regimes democratic quality differently.