Alfred Street (University of Auckland Store)
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We The People : Participation In Government
Paperback Edition: 1
“We, the people”, the opening words of the preamble of the United States Constitution, reflect what was then a revolutionary concept – that power comes from the people and that rulers rule with their consent. It is the participation by the people that justifies, at
least partially, the continuing exercise of authority over them by democratic governments. This book presents a number of different perspectives on the role “the people” play – or should play – in governance.
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New Zealand has a long and proud tradition of democratic participation. It is an ideal venue from which to analyse the participation of the people(s) in governance: it remains structurally and constitutionally consistent with historical Westminster governance design; due to its small size, people can access those with governmental power relatively easily; there is no upper house; Maori seats are guaranteed in Parliament; it has a mixed-member-proportional electoral system; its select committee process is reasonably robust; and the passage of much of its legislation is relatively fast. The insights gleaned from this book are readily applicable elsewhere, especially to other Anglo–Commonwealth jurisdictions with a common heritage and also to countries like the United States that share similar democratic and electoral processes. An underlying theme of We the People(s) (and the reason for the ‘s’ in its title) is the participation of sub-state groups as collectives in governance, which is especially important in states where, as in New Zealand, indigenous peoples’ consent to non-indigenous authority was questionable at crucial constitutive moments in the state-building process. We the People(s) canvases a wide variety of important issues relating to the place of the people(s) within the frame of public law and government and adds a rich contribution to scholarship on participation in governance.
Featured in the November 2011 Law> newsletter.
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Featured in the 5 December 2011 New Zealand newsletter.
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Pages : 324
Publisher : Victoria University Press
Publication date : 2011-12
Subjects: Non-fiction, Published in New Zealand, New Zealand, NZ History