Chapter Seven: Political Mandates

Question 1

Legitimacy

Answer 1

The rational by which a ruler justifies their excise of power, historically this was justified by the will of the gods.

Question 2

Political mandate

Answer 2

A claim for authority to exercise political and legal power within a state or nation.

Question 3

Hobbes’ Leviathan

Answer 3

A text by a seventeenth century English thinker Thomas Hobbes, who argued without government society would be chaos. Therefore, a social contract is needed between the people and the state where the people agree to surrender some of their freedoms and obey sovereign law in return for protection from the state.

Question 4

Popular sovereignty

Answer 4

A principle that emerged in the modern world which states that sovereignty is granted by the will of the people, not by the will of kings or gods.

Question 5

Direct democracy

Answer 5

A democracy in which every citizen plays an active part of politics and votes on legislation.

Question 6

Will of the majority mandate

Answer 6

The mandate claimed by the party that wins a majority of seats in the House of Representatives. The majority of the people have delegated their sovereignty to them thereby granting them legitimacy, however their majority may be exaggerated due to the ‘winners bonus’ in the lower house.

Question 7

Right to oppose

Answer 7

The mandate claimed by the party that has the second most number of seats in the lower house, or the opposition. They claim the mandate through the representation of people who are against the government but loyal to the state. If an oppositions minority is large, then they make claim to have a stronger mandate, such as Bill Shortens 2016 opposition.

Question 8

Balance of power mandate

Answer 8

The mandate claimed by members of the cross bench in the Senate. They claim that Australia has a bicameral parliamentary system in which the Senate is designed to act as a check on the power of the government. Governments seldom have control of the Senate, therefore they are forced to negotiate with the opposition or the crossbench in order to pass bills. This power is legitimised by claiming that the people voted for a hung Senate, so crossbenchers have the power to pass or fail controversial bills.

Question 9

Specific mandate

Answer 9

A specific mandate is part of the will of the majority mandate for a government, it refers to an election promise made about a specific policy. For example, the Abbott government promised in its election campaign that it would repeal the carbon tax, giving it a specific mandate to do so.

Question 10

General Mandate

Answer 10

This is based on the idea that parties have general ideological principles that are present throughout all their policy. Thus, when new issues arise during a governments tenure they enact a general mandate in order to implement new policy based on their parties philosophy.

Question 11

Liberalism

Answer 11

A belief that citizens are entitled to specific rights and that the government cannot impede on these rights. In a political system therefore, minorities must be adequately protected and government must be small and divided to protect the citizens.

Question 12

Democracy

Answer 12

The majority of the people dictate the will of the state, government therefore should be large and introduce sweeping change as per the will of the people.

Question 13

How does representative democracy solve the problem of sovereignty?

Answer 13

Under the principle of popular sovereignty, sovereignty is granted by the will of the people, so in order for this principle to be satisfied theoretically every citizen would have to be a part of government in a direct democracy. In a state with a large citizen population this becomes a very difficult thing to do logistically, so to solve this problem representative democracy is used. Citizens vote for the people who they think will represent them best in Parliament and thus delegate their sovereignty, and this sovereignty is re-delegated frequently in elections.

Question 14

What are the ways that popular sovereignty can be withdrawn and re-delegated?

Answer 14

Popular sovereignty can be taken away through two methods.
1. Violently through revolution or
2. Peacefully through elections
Elections ensure that sovereignty is re-delegated, which means that sovereignty never lies with the representative, it always lies with the people.

Question 15

How do elections in Australia delegate sovereignty?

Answer 15

Elections in Australia delegate sovereignty through the Westminster chain of accountability. Legislative power is held accountable by the people through regular three year elections of its representatives and executive power is held to account indirectly through the members of the House of Representatives.

Question 16

List the types of policies that could be proposed to voters during an election campaign

Answer 16

• Passing specific new laws, such as the 2016 election promise of Malcolm Turnbull to introduce the Building and Construction Commission.
• Repealing specific old laws, such as the Rudd campaigns promise to repeal the work choices legislation prior to the 2007 election.
• Adopting general approaches to areas of policy, such as Tony Abbotts idea of ‘stopping the boats’ in the 2013 election which required extensive changes to legislation and negotiation with different countries.
• Implementing broad changes designed to achieve a general goal, in 2013 the Abbott government promised ‘budget repair’ and the Turnbull government promised the same thing in 2016.

Question 17

Explain how a general mandate can give a government flexibility in governing

Answer 17

A general mandate can justify a government breaking election promises, for example, in 2013 the Abbott government promised to not cut funding for health or education, which it immediately did. In response to these actions, the government commented that they were not aware of the financial situation of the state at the time, and that they were elected on the platform to be financially responsible and the cuts needed to be made.

Question 18

List the arguments in favour of the balance of power mandate

Answer 18

• Section seven of the constitution states that Senators must be directly elected by the people, therefore the Senate has a democratic mandate to wield power over legislation.
• Some voters may be dual voters, people who vote for a major party in the lower house but vote for a minor party in the upper house, thus checking the power of that major party. It is the will of these voters that their minor party Senators check the government, approximately 15% of Australians vote in this way.

Question 19

List arguments against the balance of power mandate

Answer 19

• There is significant malapportionment in the Senate. Every state receives 12 Senators regardless of its population, which means that a Senator elected from Tasmania with a population of 324,000 is more over-representative then a Senator from New South Wales which has a voting body of 5.1 million voters. Brian Harradine from Tasmania is an example of an over-representative Senator. He was voted in by just 0.12% of the total number of votes, but he was able to control the passage of all bills in Parliament from 1994 to 1996.
• ‘Preference whispering’ used to be a major problem in the Australian Senate. Minor parties doing large scale preference deals could ensure that one of them got elected, Ricky Muir in the 2013 Senate is an example of such a candidate. Only 0.5% of voters gave him their first preference, the other 13.8% of the quota came from preferences. Preference whispering has been effectively stopped after the 2016 Senate voting reforms.

Question 20

What is meant by the term ‘conflicting mandates’ and why is it important in Australia’s political system?

Answer 20

‘Conflicting mandates’ refers to the idea that the mandate of the government, opposition and Senate crossbenchers all conflict with one and other. These mandates all combine to ensure that Australia has a strong and stable government in the lower house, but also that the power of the executive is checked in the Senate. This combines the two political philosophies of ‘liberalism’ and ‘democracy’.

Question 21

Cite examples when oppositions have both accepted and rejected government mandates

Answer 21

Oppositions will usually back off for a time if they are defeated by a significant margin, likewise if the government holds a slim majority the opposition will be very aggressive. After the 2007 election, the Liberal opposition backed off to a certain extent as a result of their crushing defeat. A major promise of the Rudd campaign was to repeal the controversial work choices legislation introduced by the Howard Government in its previous term, and such a significant victory gave the Rudd government a strong specific mandate to repeal work choices. The new Liberal opposition under Brendon Nelson acknowledged this, and agreed that they would vote with the government to repeal this law and would never re-introduce work choices to Parliament again. In 2010, Julia Gillard formed a minority government, which put the new government in a weak position and open to criticism. Opposition leader Tony Abbott claimed that this new government lacked a mandate, and as a result it was very hostile to the government’s policies such as the changes to the 1985 migration act.

Question 22

Why are mandates considered ‘a big claim with little substance’?

Answer 22

In reality, mandates are not legally enforceable, they are only persuasive. They can be completely ignored with very little consequence, if the Senate wishes to block a bill and can they will, if the government holds a double majority and they want to pass a bill they will. Mandates are purely theoretical, the hold very little significance in the real political activity inside government.