scholarly journals Bureaucracy, Democracy and Westminster:  The Quest for Political Control

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Jean-Christopher Somers
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Liberal Democracy ◽  
Central Values ◽  
Parliamentary Sovereignty ◽  
Public Sector Reforms ◽  
Paradoxical Effects ◽  
Neoliberal Ideology ◽  
Liberal Constitutionalism ◽  
Democratic Control ◽  
Managerial System

<p>This thesis argues that a Weberian process of bureaucratisation poses a serious threat in itself to the central values and ideals of liberal democracy. Such a threat arises not only from the bureaucratic pathology of 'goal displacement' of substantive ends by instrumental means, but also, because of this pathology, its tendency to mask and embed ideological challenges to liberal democracy. An effective liberal political constitution is therefore necessary to maintain the democratic control of bureaucracy while exploiting the efficiency benefits of bureaucratic administration. Such a political constitution is in fact contained in the Westminster tradition of liberal constitutionalism, based on the principles of parliamentary sovereignty, ministerial responsibility and political neutrality. Through this theoretical lens, the thesis proceeds to examine the trajectory of public sector reforms against the changing political contexts in New Zealand over the past 20 years and its constitutional implications. The NPM reforms in New Zealand, whether intended or unintended, displaced the political and constitutional safeguards implicit in the traditional model of public service with managerial norms which simultaneously serve to embed the neoliberal ideology. Despite the claim of NPM reformers to control bureaucracy, the paradoxical effects of the reform have been to accelerate the process of bureaucratisation and attenuate democratic control. Recent initiatives aimed to address some apparent weaknesses of NPM, have not changed the fundamentals of the managerial system, and thus fail to reverse this trend of declining democratic control of bureaucratic power. A reassertion of the fundamental norms of the Westminster system is recommended to arrest this decline of liberal democracy.</p>

scholarly journals Bureaucracy, Democracy and Westminster:  The Quest for Political Control

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Jean-Christopher Somers
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Liberal Democracy ◽  
Central Values ◽  
Parliamentary Sovereignty ◽  
Public Sector Reforms ◽  
Paradoxical Effects ◽  
Neoliberal Ideology ◽  
Liberal Constitutionalism ◽  
Democratic Control ◽  
Managerial System

<p>This thesis argues that a Weberian process of bureaucratisation poses a serious threat in itself to the central values and ideals of liberal democracy. Such a threat arises not only from the bureaucratic pathology of 'goal displacement' of substantive ends by instrumental means, but also, because of this pathology, its tendency to mask and embed ideological challenges to liberal democracy. An effective liberal political constitution is therefore necessary to maintain the democratic control of bureaucracy while exploiting the efficiency benefits of bureaucratic administration. Such a political constitution is in fact contained in the Westminster tradition of liberal constitutionalism, based on the principles of parliamentary sovereignty, ministerial responsibility and political neutrality. Through this theoretical lens, the thesis proceeds to examine the trajectory of public sector reforms against the changing political contexts in New Zealand over the past 20 years and its constitutional implications. The NPM reforms in New Zealand, whether intended or unintended, displaced the political and constitutional safeguards implicit in the traditional model of public service with managerial norms which simultaneously serve to embed the neoliberal ideology. Despite the claim of NPM reformers to control bureaucracy, the paradoxical effects of the reform have been to accelerate the process of bureaucratisation and attenuate democratic control. Recent initiatives aimed to address some apparent weaknesses of NPM, have not changed the fundamentals of the managerial system, and thus fail to reverse this trend of declining democratic control of bureaucratic power. A reassertion of the fundamental norms of the Westminster system is recommended to arrest this decline of liberal democracy.</p>

‘Maranga Ake Ai’ The Heroics of Constitutionalising Te Tiriti O Waitangi/The Treaty of Waitangi in Aotearoa New Zealand

2020 ◽  
Vol 48 (4) ◽  
pp. 556-569
Author(s):  
Jacinta Ruru ◽  
Jacobi Kohu-Morris
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Power Sharing ◽  
British Colonialism ◽  
Language Version ◽  
Legal Traditions ◽  
International Borders ◽  
Aotearoa New Zealand ◽  
Parliamentary Sovereignty ◽  
Treaty Of Waitangi ◽  
Parliamentary Supremacy

In 1840, some of the sovereign nations of Māori signed te Tiriti o Waitangi (the Māori language version of the Treaty of Waitangi) with the British Crown. Hone Heke was the first Māori leader of the northern nation of Ngāpuhi to sign, but by 1844 he was leading a significant revolt against British colonialism in Aotearoa New Zealand by chopping down British flagpoles erected on his lands. While Māori may have initially welcomed the intent of te Tiriti as a means for seeking British help to protect their international borders, the British prioritised the English version of the Treaty which recorded the transfer of sovereignty from Māori to the British. As the British transposed their dominant legal traditions of governance, including bringing to the fore their doctrine of parliamentary supremacy, Māori have been seeking their survival ever since. We extend this by focusing on why the doctrine of parliamentary sovereignty needs to adapt to the Treaty’s promise of bicultural power sharing.

scholarly journals Human Rights and Parliamentary Sovereignty in New Zealand

2004 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 341 ◽  
Author(s):  
Petra Butler
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Supreme Court ◽  
Special Focus ◽  
Parliamentary Sovereignty ◽  
House Of Lords ◽  
The Supreme Court ◽  
Human Rights Act ◽  
Human Rights Act 1998 ◽  
Court Of Appeal

The paper examines whether there was any basis for Parliament to enact section 3(2) of the Supreme Court Act 2003 in regard to human rights decisions of the Court of Appeal. The paper asks whether the Court of Appeal has indeed been "activist" in its human rights decisions. The discussion focuses on the areas where judicial activism might be suspected, firstly the filling of legislative gaps, and secondly statutory interpretation, with a special focus on implied repeal. Relevant decisions of the House of Lords under the Human Rights Act 1998 (UK) are used as a contrast to the decisions of the New Zealand Court of Appeal. The paper comes to the conclusion that the New Zealand Court of Appeal has not been activist in the area of human rights.

scholarly journals Parliamentary sovereignty as a barrier to a Treaty-based partnership

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Lydia O'Hagan
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Common Law ◽  
Current Approach ◽  
Constitutional History ◽  
Public Power ◽  
Constitutional Review ◽  
Parliamentary Sovereignty ◽  
Legal Effect ◽  
Treaty Of Waitangi ◽  
Constitutional System

<p>The Treaty of Waitangi has repeatedly been affirmed as New Zealand’s founding document, yet our constitutional arrangements rest on the untrammelled principle of parliamentary sovereignty. This paper argues that the doctrine of parliamentary sovereignty is contrary to the sharing of powers provided for in the Treaty, as it concentrates ultimate law-making authority in one body. New Zealand’s constitutional history is canvassed briefly, with a specific focus on the Treaty and the basis of British Crown’s acquisition of sovereignty over New Zealand. It is noted that the current place of the Treaty within New Zealand’s constitution is within the vast powers of parliament - the Treaty can only have legal effect to the extent that Parliament provides for. After looking at examples from statute and common law it is concluded that, rather than limiting parliamentary sovereignty, the current approach ultimately reinforces the absolute and indivisible power of parliament. As such, it is a barrier to a Treaty partnership between the Crown and Maori. To truly give effect to the Treaty a change in the way in which public power in New Zealand is configured and exercised is necessary. Three models for Treaty-based constitutional reform are therefore discussed. The current constitutional review provides Iwi and the Crown with an opportunity to look beyond the confines of the doctrine of parliamentary sovereignty and forge a unique constitutional system that gives effect to the Treaty as New Zealand’s founding document.</p>

scholarly journals A New Approach to Conservation: A Critical Analysis of DOC’s Commercial Partnership Strategy

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Ben Stantiall
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Critical Analysis ◽  
Conservation Strategies ◽  
New Approach ◽  
External Resources ◽  
Conservation Movement ◽  
Aotearoa New Zealand ◽  
New Concepts ◽  
Neoliberal Ideology ◽  
National Significance

<p>The complex range of challenges facing the environment has prompted the conservation movement to evolve and incorporate new concepts, attitudes and strategies. A prominent approach that has attracted scholarly attention is the appeal for broader societal involvement and an increased human-focus for the conservation movement. This new approach is particularly notable for the inclusion of private business in conservation strategies. Subsequently, these strategies have prompted criticism of their links to neoliberal ideology and the encouragement of consumption-based measures.  Conservation in Aotearoa New Zealand has followed this strategy of business involvement, represented by the Department of Conservation’s (DOC) commercial partnerships. The deliberate use of large businesses is used to access external resources and expertise alongside exposure to their respective customer bases. However, the criticisms of neoliberal ideology, matched by the national significance of the conservation estate and its relationship with the New Zealand public has created numerous challenges and considerations for DOC to navigate.  To acknowledge the different attitudes and relationships that people have to the environment and conservation, a constructivist approach was used to examine the implementation of DOC’s partnership strategy. A case study consisting of seven interviews with representatives from DOC, environmental NGOs and the businesses involved in the partnerships was carried out. The data revealed three central themes; initially, of the need for a wider approach to conservation, followed by the intrusion and influence of neoliberal ideology into the domain, and the presentation of win-win strategies. This research provides a critical analysis of DOC’s recent shift in strategy and the implications of it on future strategies.</p>

scholarly journals A New Approach to Conservation: A Critical Analysis of DOC’s Commercial Partnership Strategy

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Ben Stantiall
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Critical Analysis ◽  
Conservation Strategies ◽  
New Approach ◽  
External Resources ◽  
Conservation Movement ◽  
Aotearoa New Zealand ◽  
New Concepts ◽  
Neoliberal Ideology ◽  
National Significance

<p>The complex range of challenges facing the environment has prompted the conservation movement to evolve and incorporate new concepts, attitudes and strategies. A prominent approach that has attracted scholarly attention is the appeal for broader societal involvement and an increased human-focus for the conservation movement. This new approach is particularly notable for the inclusion of private business in conservation strategies. Subsequently, these strategies have prompted criticism of their links to neoliberal ideology and the encouragement of consumption-based measures.  Conservation in Aotearoa New Zealand has followed this strategy of business involvement, represented by the Department of Conservation’s (DOC) commercial partnerships. The deliberate use of large businesses is used to access external resources and expertise alongside exposure to their respective customer bases. However, the criticisms of neoliberal ideology, matched by the national significance of the conservation estate and its relationship with the New Zealand public has created numerous challenges and considerations for DOC to navigate.  To acknowledge the different attitudes and relationships that people have to the environment and conservation, a constructivist approach was used to examine the implementation of DOC’s partnership strategy. A case study consisting of seven interviews with representatives from DOC, environmental NGOs and the businesses involved in the partnerships was carried out. The data revealed three central themes; initially, of the need for a wider approach to conservation, followed by the intrusion and influence of neoliberal ideology into the domain, and the presentation of win-win strategies. This research provides a critical analysis of DOC’s recent shift in strategy and the implications of it on future strategies.</p>

Constraining political extremism and legal revolution

2019 ◽  
Vol 46 (3) ◽  
pp. 249-273
Author(s):  
Benjamin A. Schupmann
Keyword(s):  
Liberal Democracy ◽  
Political Extremism ◽  
Moral Legitimacy ◽  
Liberal Democracies ◽  
Illiberal Democracy ◽  
Awkward Position ◽  
Equal Chance ◽  
Liberal Constitutionalism ◽  
The Government ◽  
Do So

Recently, extremist ‘populist’ parties have succeeded in obtaining large enough democratic electoral mandates both to legally make substantive changes to the law and constitution and to legally eliminate avenues to challenge their control over the government. Extremists place committed liberal democrats in an awkward position as they work to legally revolutionize their constitutions and turn them into ‘illiberal democracies’. This article analyses political responses to this problem. It argues that the twin phenomena of legal revolution and illiberal democracy reveal a latent tension between the constitutional commitments to democracy and liberalism, that is, the equal chance to have one’s political goals enacted into law and individual basic rights. Political extremists make the latent tension real when they use the procedures of democratic legal change to abrogate constitutional commitments to liberalism, among other things. Although the two commitments normally coexist side by side, exceptional times raise an existential dilemma for liberal democracies: is it constitutional to democratically amend liberalism out of the constitution? After analysing the moral legitimacy of both the democratic and liberal arguments, this article concludes that liberal constitutionalism is constitutive of genuine democracy. In other words, it is unconstitutional to abrogate basic liberal commitments and it is legitimate to adopt constitutional mechanisms to guarantee liberalism – even if it means constraining democracy to do so. This article then situates ‘constrained democracy’ within the liberal current as a way to conceive of and respond to this pressing problem. It concludes by discussing four constitutional mechanisms – inspired by the German Grundgesetz – to guarantee liberalism: unambiguous lexically prior commitment to liberalism, limits on negative majorities, the eternity clause and party bans. It concludes that constrained democracy is an important constitutional guarantee of liberal democracy and that the four mechanisms, among others, are essential to enact constrained democracy.

Liberal Democracy and the Problem of Patriarchy

2013 ◽  
Vol 46 (2) ◽  
pp. 169-191 ◽  
Author(s):  
David AJ Richards
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Liberal Democracy ◽  
The United States ◽  
Historical Understanding ◽  
Right To Privacy ◽  
Constitutional Protection ◽  
Liberal Democratic ◽  
Liberal Constitutionalism ◽  
Constitutional Right ◽  
The Way

This article addresses how and why liberal democratic constitutions, such as the United States, have come to recognise the tension between liberal values of equal liberty and patriarchy in three areas – contraception, abortion, and gay/lesbian sex acts – and to resolve them in the way in which they have: by extending constitutional protection to these activities on the basis of a constitutional right to privacy. The article begins with some historical understanding of the background of the rise of patriarchy, and why the control of sexuality in general, and women's sexuality in particular, was so central to its aims. It then turns to how and why liberal constitutionalism has found these aims to be so problematic as a basis for law.

scholarly journals A Constitution for Aotearoa in the context of Parliamentary Sovereignty

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Jannik Zerbst
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Constitutional Amendment ◽  
Constituent Power ◽  
State Institutions ◽  
Parliamentary Sovereignty

<p>This dissertation argues that human rights and constitutional amendment provisions should be entrenched eternally in the course of adopting a formal constitution in New Zealand. This would prevent abuses of powers within state institutions and provide sufficient protection to basic human rights. The constituent power, which consists of parliament and the electorate, can bind the ordinary parliament through the entrenchment of certain provisions in a formal constitution. The doctrine of parliamentary sovereignty would not be breached if this doctrine is understood to only apply to parliament when acting as an ordinary legislature.</p>

scholarly journals The wisdom of crowds versus the madness of crowds

2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Colin James
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Digital Media ◽  
Voter Turnout ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
Liberal Democracy ◽  
Wisdom Of Crowds ◽  
Fake News ◽  
Traditional Media ◽  
Liberal Democratic ◽  
The Wisdom Of Crowds

Declining trust in northern liberal democratic institutions poses serious challenges to legislatures (parliaments). That mistrust extends to traditional media at a time when new digital media are fanning ‘fake news’ and a ‘madness of crowds’. Will the ‘wisdom of crowds’ on which liberal democracy critically depends prevail over the ‘madness’? Can parliaments resolve that tension positively? In New Zealand trust in political institutions is still high, but voter turnout has slid, especially among the young. Parliament has work to do.

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