Parliamentary Democracy: Is There a Perfect Model? / Edition 1

by Nicholas Hopkinson

Overview

This title was first published in 2001. With the collapse of Communism in Central and Eastern Europe, the legitimacy of one-party, and often one-person rule in other parts of the world has been fundamentally challenged. It appears that for the first time parliamentary democracy has become the universally accepted model to adopt or to be perfected. Newer democracies have started to build the institutions and capacity necessary to sustain democracy, while established democracies continue to refine their democracy, sometimes introducing full-scale reforms. This book examines whether elements of the perfect democracy can be identified and how democratic structures and practices can be improved.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780367250171
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	03/31/2021
Series:	Routledge Revivals
Pages:	140
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.19(h) x (d)

Table of Contents

Foreword Senator Margaret Reid vii

Preface ix

Introduction xi

1 Democracy and Good Government 1

What is Democracy? 1

What is Good Government? 3

Multi-party Democracy 4

Independence of Public Servants 5

Efficient Public Administration 6

The Military 9

Creating an Enabling Environment for Economic Development 10

Media Freedom 15

2 To What Extent Should Cultural Values and the National Context Determine Democratic Practice? 19

3 Adapting Democracy to National Circumstances 23

Federalism 23

Local Government 30

Which Electoral System? 31

Alternative Electoral Systems in Small States 33

4 Free and Fair Elections 37

Ensuring a Representative Electoral Roll 38

The Role of Boundary Commissions 40

Voter Education 43

Access to the Media 43

5 Representation, Political Parties and Direct Democracy 45

Models of Political Representation 45

Building Representative and Effective Political Parties 48

Financing Political Parties 51

Direct Democracy 52

6 Ensuring Parliamentarians are Representative 57

Selection of Candidates and Members 57

Gender 59

7 Improving the Effectiveness of Parliament 63

The Balance between Parliament and the Executive 64

Pros and Cons of Parliamentary and Presidential Government 66

Parliamentary Committees 68

Improving the Quality of Legislation 71

The Role of Presiding Officers 73

Rules on the Outside Interests of Parliamentarians 78

The Role of Parliamentary Associations 82

8 Is There a Correlation between Democracy and Development? 85

9 Case Studies 87

The United States 87

Europe 91

Switzerland 92

The European Union 93

Central Europe 98

Small Commonwealth States 99

The Caribbean 100

Singapore 103

Large Commonwealth States 104

Australia 104

India 105

South Africa 107

Alternatives to Multi-party Democracy 109

Uganda 109

Guernsey 113

10 Conclusions 117

Appendix: List of Participants 121

Editorial Reviews

Eight unattributed studies record the contributions of Parliamentarians and other specialists from around the world to a February 1999 conference of Australian Commonwealth Parliamentary Association and Wilton Park, an academically independent Executive Agency of the Australian Foreign and Commonwealth Office where Hopkinson is deputy director. They explore such topics as the extent to which cultural values and the national context should determine democratic practice, free and fair elections, and improving the effectiveness of parliament. Also included are 11 case studies. There is no index. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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