scholarly journals The Politics of the Senate Reform Reference: Fidelity, Frustration, and Federal Unilateralism

2015 ◽  
Vol 60 (4) ◽  
pp. 623-672
Author(s):  
Adam Dodek

References are the most political of cases, almost always involving high profile public policy issues. Frequently, references are brought to obtain rulings on the relationship between the federal government and the provinces. Less frequently, references involve questions of interbranch relations, that is, between two or more of the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of government. The Senate Reform Reference was one of the rare cases that featured each of these three elements. This article analyzes the Senate Reform Reference on several political levels. First, it situates the reference in terms of megaconstitutional politics, the long-held Canadian practice of attempting to resolve constitutional issues through formal and often high-profile negotiations between the federal and provincial governments. Such interactions have been anathema to the Harper government which has preferred unilateral political action to negotiated political agreement. The article then examines interparty politics or the relationship between the Harper government and the opposition parties during the period of minority government (2006–2011). This is the period during which one would have expected the government to bring a reference because of its inability to obtain support from the other parties in the House of Commons and the Senate for its proposed legislation on the Senate. However, it did not. This leads to an examination of the third issue: intra-party politics or the politics within the governing party, the Conservative Party of Canada. Finally, the article discusses legal politics and how the government of Québec essentially forced the federal government’s hand by bringing its own reference to the Québec Court of Appeal. The overarching framework of interbranch politics—the relationship between the executive, legislative and judicial branches of government—is examined throughout the article.

Author(s):  
Ian Loveland

This chapter examines the relationship between the government and the legislature, in order to develop arguments concerning the doctrines of parliamentary sovereignty and the separation of powers within the contemporary constitution. It argues that, for most of the modern era, the House of Commons has been a body in which party politics is the dominant determinant both in the legislative process and in respect of executive accountability. The house is manifestly now a factional rather than national assembly for most purposes. But it would be premature to conclude that the constitution permits factional concerns to determine both the content of legislation and the parliamentary accountability of government behaviour.


2021 ◽  
pp. 105-134
Author(s):  
Ian Loveland

This chapter examines the relationship between the government and the House of Commons, in order further to develop arguments concerning the doctrines of parliamentary sovereignty and the separation of powers within the contemporary constitution. Consideration is given both to the role played by the House of Commons within the legislative process and its effectiveness as a means to provide scrutiny of and challenges to the ways in which the government exercises its statutory and prerogative powers. The chapter argues that, for most of the modern era, the House of Commons has been a body in which party politics is the dominant determinant both in the legislative process and in respect of executive accountability and asks if we should accept that the Commons is manifestly now a factional rather than national assembly for most purposes. But it is also suggested that it would be premature to conclude that the constitution permits factional concerns to determine both the content of legislation and the parliamentary accountability of government behaviour.


2016 ◽  
Vol 50 ◽  
pp. 1-25

Cecil Bisshop Harmsworth (1869–1948) was the third brother of a large, famous and influential family. His elder siblings were Alfred Charles William Harmsworth and Harold Sidney Harmsworth. These two self-made men – Lords Northcliffe and Rothermere, as they became – were amongst the most powerful and notorious press proprietors of their age. Both of them, Alfred especially, were brilliant and energetic, but they were not exactly well liked. By contrast, Cecil was an able person who had, by normal standards, a successful career as a Liberal MP and junior minister, and yet never acquired – and indeed never aspired to attain – the high profile of his brothers. If he was overshadowed, though, he had an important gift that they lacked: ‘a genius for friendship’. It is related that, before he was elected to Parliament, Cecil was invited to the terrace of the House of Commons and made a very good impression on those he met. Supposedly, Northcliffe, when informed of this by one of his journalists, replied sardonically: ‘Oh, I understand. They were delighted to meet a human Harmsworth.’


1997 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-69 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. A. MELIKAN

This article looks at the relationship between professional and political aspiration in Georgian England by examining the office of attorney general during the period 1714–1810. It argues that while the office offered a unique opportunity for a lawyer to combine a legal and political career, this was a formidable task and one rarely achieved. The generally hostile attitude toward lawyers in the house of commons was a significant obstacle. More important, however, were the complex and potentially conflicting expectations associated with the office of attorney. The relationship with the government was an awkward balance of loyalty and remoteness, whereby the attorney was encouraged to regard fellow ministers both as colleagues and as clients. Moreover, he owed a duty to parliament that was independent of, but inevitably linked to, his obligations to the crown. As a consequence of these various pressures attorneys tended to remain aloof from politics and interested primarily in their own professional advancement. The office of attorney general was less the stepping-stone to ministerial office than the reliable path to the bench.


1976 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 231-238 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven Beackon

By the late 1960s the shift of the Labour party away from its traditional base among the urban working class appeared to be gaining momentum. The opinion polls showed a marked swing of working-class sentiment away from the party, and the policies advanced during the period, especially with regard to prices and incomes and industrial relations, hardly seemed designed to satisfy the redistributive concerns traditionally imputed to the working class. Indeed the government's overriding concern with the problem of the economy during a period in which the Labour party had a large majority over all other parties in the House of Commons was seen by one commentator as the final act of a tragic farce entitled ‘The Decline and Fall of Social Democracy’. Clearly this conclusion was drawn somewhat prematurely: in the 1970s there is fragmented evidence to suggest that the Labour party has regained the votes of a number of its traditional supporters who had previously defected, just as there is evidence that the ‘left’ of the party is asserting itself. However, the events of the early 1970s are not sufficient to refute the proposition that some kind of fundamental change either has occurred, or is occurring, in the relationship between the Labour party and its traditional supporters. Even if the curtain has yet to fall, there is no reason to believe that the play has not begun.


1994 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 253-287 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. P. Salt

ABSTRACTThis paper investigates the relationship between constitutional ideas and political action during the 1630s by comparing the privately expressed ideas of Sir Simonds D'Ewes regarding ship money with his conduct regarding the levy, especially while he was sheriff of Suffolk in 1639–40. The first section investigates the constitutionalist views expressed in D'Ewes's ‘autobiography’, unpublished during his lifetime, and their relationship to D'Ewes's attitude to the political role of the levy. The second section studies D'Ewes's conduct as sheriff, in which he gave almost no expression to constitutionalist ideas, and suggests that he struck a middle course between neglect and zeal, while finding means to oppose the levy through his connections at court. The third section seeks to establish the reasons for the inconsistencies between D'Ewes's privately expressed ideas and his public conduct, which may have lain in a belief that, in the prevailing political situation, criticism of the levy had, in order to be effective, to be expressed in terms acceptable to potentially sympathetic courtiers; D'Ewes adapted the tone of his comments on ship money to his audience in order to achieve political ends, but had also to act in ways which would make that tone convincing. Participation in the collection of ship money was therefore not inconsistent with opposition to it.


2017 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 360
Author(s):  
Nur Feriyanto

The first aim of this study was to determine the relationship between the growth rate of GRDP and the growth rate of sectors’ labor absorption in Special Region of Yogyakarta. The second objective was using the Esteban Marquillas’ Shift-Share analysis to prove whether there has been a structural transformation of the economy in Special Region of Yogyakarta during 2009-2014. The third aim was to determine the impact of economic sectors’ growth in Indonesia on the growth of aggregate GRDP in Special Region of Yogyakarta.  Results of this study were: (1) There were three conditions used to observe the relationship between the growth rate of GRDP and the growth rate of labor absorption in Special Region of Yogyakarta namely anomalous; regressive; and progressive. (2) The use of Esteban Marquillas’ Shift-Share analysis showed that in the area of Special Region of Yogyakarta there had been a shift in the economic structure from the primary sector to the secondary and tertiary sectors. (3) The economic sectors’ growth in Indonesia could lead to the growth of aggregate GRDP in Special Region of Yogyakarta as much as 539.53 billion IDR. Suggestions offered by this research are as follows: (1) policy making by the government related to development has to pay attention to the relationship between economic growth and unemployment rate. (2) Government has to address the economic transformation from primary to tertiary sectors; especially for development planning; and (3) government needs to focus on economic development for the dominant sectors of economy in DIY province.


Author(s):  
Jim Tomlinson

This chapter analyses the inflation problem, assessing how accounts of inflation shaped the approach to incomes policies and their accompanying publicity. The focus is on the 1970s, when peacetime inflation peaked along with policy focus on its reduction. The discussion is in four sections. The first shows how a narrative about inflation was constructed, before and during the 1970s. The second looks at the Counter-Inflation Publicity Unit (CIPU), created by the government in 1975. The unit’s purpose was to shape opinion, but it also sponsored a substantial number of surveys of public understanding of inflation, so that from its records we can examine not only government statements on the issue, but how these impacted upon the intended audience. The third section assesses the relationship between the CIPU’s framing of the inflation issue and popular understanding, whilst the final section suggests the ambiguous effects of the unit’s activities


2021 ◽  
Vol 2020 (67) ◽  
pp. 132-153
Author(s):  
رسل كاظم جعفر ◽  
أ. م. د. عبد الرسول علي حسين

This study deals with the relationship between the flexible exchange rate system and the return on the monetary issue, in other words, it tries to clarify the extent of the impact of adopting the flexible exchange rate system on the monetary return that the government can get. Therefore, this study came divided into three sections, the first topic dealt with the concept of the flexible exchange rate, while the second topic dealt with the concept of the return on the cash issue and methods of measuring it, and the third section reviews the size of the return on the cash issue achieved by the government if it follows the flexible exchange rate system. Keywords: yield on the cash issue, flexible exchange rate system, inflation tax, opportunity cost.


Author(s):  
James Loxton

This chapter examines a number of other high-profile attempts at conservative party-building in Latin America. The first section examines RN in Chile, the PFL/DEM in Brazil, ADN in Bolivia, and Fujimorismo in Peru. Like the UDI and ARENA, all four were authoritarian successor parties; unlike the UDI and ARENA, however, they did not emerge from intense counterrevolutionary struggles and all faced serious problems of cohesion. The second section examines the Party of the U in Colombia, arguing that it was the “exception that proves the rule,” given its ties to violent armed groups. The third section considers four potential alternative paths to conservative party-building: (1) opposition to authoritarian regimes, (2) corporation-based parties, (3) the subnational strategy, and (4) conservative fusion. It discusses the viability of each by looking at several high-profile historical cases, and considers the implications for new conservative parties that cannot yet be definitively scored, notably the PRO in Argentina.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document