Machinery Flashcards
What is governance
- The process through which people make decisions that guide their collective lives
- Machinery in action
- Understanding the context in which it is done
Four pillars of governance in Canada
- Liberal democracy
- Constitutional monarchy
- Responsible government
- Federalism
- Governance evolves into good governance which provides standards to evaluate the machinery in motion
Governance defined - it is the answer to the following questions
- Who makes decisions about the public good
Legislature - it provides the process by which the public is represented - How are decisions about the public good made
Legislature - structures how citizens determine what public good is - How are decisions about the public good implemented
Executive executes the decisions and laws, judiciary resolves any conflicts
State
An organized political community occupying a definite territory, having an organized government and possessing internal/external sovereignty
Government
A body that has the authority to enforce, the power to make rules and laws in the state
Legislature
The branch of government with the power to make laws that also has representative capacities
Executive
The branch of government charged with implementing and executing the law and running day to day affairs of government
Judiciary
Branch of government with the power to resolve legal conflicts that arise between citizens, citizens and government or between levels of government
Rule of Law
No individual stands above the law and that government is answerable to the law
Liberal democracy
A form of gov by which
- Decision making power is exercised by the people
- Rights and freedoms are protected for minorities from the majority
- They are protected by a written constitution, statutory law or case law
- Widely differing political and social views that are allowed to exist to compete for political power through periodic elections
Two types of liberal democracy
- Constitutional republic - highest form of power is an individual not a monarch (ex UN)
- Constitutional monarchy - monarch is highest power
Constitutional monarchy
Form of government established under a formal system that acknowledges an elected or hereditary monarch as the head of state
Three parts of Canada’s constitutional monarchy
- Crown - made of the queen and her reps
- Parliament - Federal = crown + HOC + Senate, Provincial = Crown + prov legislature
- Judiciary - courts
Constitution Act, 1867
- The “operating system” for Canada
- Vets executive power in the Queen
- Provides a parliament for Canada - Queen, elected/non elected members
- Makes specific provisions for the exercise of legislative power by parliament
- Provides for the establishment of a judiciary
- Section 91/92 - what areas of law fed/prov can make
- Section 93-95 - some fed jurisdictions have to work together to make law
Conventions
- Consists of unwritten rules and principals that are known, understood and accepted by those who hold elected and appointed office
- Most important convention is responsible government
Responsible government
- System of liberal democracy where an elected government is responsible to an elected legislature rather than to the monarch
- In Canada - that means that PM and Cabinet must always have the confidence of a majority of elected members of HOC
- Those who exercise power are responsible to the people
Historical responsible government
- Comes from 1830-1840 and the Durham Report
- Upper and lower Canada rebelled because they were angry that the executive was appointed by cabinet
- Lord Durham introduced concept that those executing law are responsible to the people
Ministerial Responsibility
- Principle that ministers (members of cabinet) are:
1. Individually responsible to the parliament for the exercise of powers assigned to them and their departments - held accountable through question period
2. Collectively responsible to parliament for decisions of the cabinet
Party government
System of government where political parties are the primary method of political organization
Political parties
Freely formed private coalitions of citizens who pursue shared political interests by having their candidates elected in hopes of forming gov or by simply advancing a policy agenda or promoting their definition of the public interest
Federalism
- System of government in which power is divided between a central gov and provinces/states or where each level of gov has its own powers and obligations to provide services and raise revenues
- Every province has its own: crown, legislature, judiciary
- Territories are given power by devolution and most revenues come from the fed gov
- Residual power is with the federal gov
Municipalities
- Only exist because provs allow them to - authority given by constitution (with whatever powers/structures they see fit)
- No constitutional power or formal legal recognition
- Issues are around budgets
- It spawns intergov relations - try to figure out how to exercise their power in a coordinated way
Legislatures - 3 key functions
- Representation
- Law-making
- Oversight
Legislature and Representation
- Primary method whereby citizens choose spokespeople to represent themselves in deliberations over the common good
- Their needs and concerns are brought into the policy process
- This leads to less things that are prescribed and more debates