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Republic? More Power For Politicians (p2 of 11)
PRINCIPLES OF GOVERNMENT
Every nation has a system of law and government. Some systems are perceived as being better than others. In present day Australia most people would consider that nazi or communist government is undesirable. Both those systems are examples of 'totalitarian' government, a theory of government in which the government itself is the ultimate source for determining what the law of the nation should be.
Most Australians favour 'democracy' as the system of government. By 'democracy' they mean there should be regular elections to enable the people of the nation to choose their parliamentarians. Perhaps there is a popular perception that regular elections ensure that the will of the majority of people is always reflected by what the government decides. Demonstrably, the reality in Australia is different from this. Everyone knows about broken political promises and about false claims to holding 'mandates'. Even politicians themselves refer to 'core promises' and 'non-core promises', the one to be honoured and the other to be disregarded, but they do not explain how the people can distinguish the one from the other.
In the current practice of Australian 'democracy' political parties present proposed agendas (policies and promises) at election time but after election they might or might not adhere to them. In fact, although our politicians are elected, governments do make their own decisions of what is 'best' for the nation and its people. They put their own ideas into effect through the laws they pass in parliament and other government decisions. In this way they act as the mechanism for deciding the measure of 'right' and 'wrong'. It is easy to perceive that even an elected government can be 'totalitarian' for the period it is in office.
Australian governments have responsibility to implement the will of the people (not their own will) so long as the will of the people is consistent with the historic principle of constitutional government (often called the Westminster System) that our nation inherited from Britain.
Written and authorised by Dr David Mitchell,
18 Proctors Rd. Dynnyrne, Tasmania 7005
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