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What Is A (Political) Mandate?
A Personal View
The following sources have been used:
- Wikipedia
- Wiktionary
- Dictionary.com
- Collins English Mini Dictionary [ISBN: 0-00-472367-8]
- Oxford English Reference Dictionary [Oxford University Press], 2nd ed. 1996
This webpage will be divided up as follows:
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Definitions
- The entry in Wikipedia can be found at Mandate (Politics)
- The entry in Wiktionary can be found at Mandate
- The entry in "Dictionary.com" cam be found at Mandate
- The entry in the "Collins English Mini Dictionary" is as follows:
- official or authoritative command
- authorization or instruction from an electorate to its representative or government
- give authority to
- The entry in the "Oxford English Reference Dictionary" is divided into two "groups" as follows:
Group One:
- an official command or instruction by an authority
- support for a policy or course of action, regarded by a victorious party, candidate, etc, as derived from
the wishes of the people in an election
- a commission to act for another
- law a commission by which a party is entrusted to perform a service, often gratuitously and with
indemnity against loss by that party
- hist a commission from the League of Nations to a member state to administer a territory
- a papal decree or decision
Group Two:
- instruct (a delegate) to act or vote in a certain way
- (usu. foll. by to) hist commit (a territory etc.) to a mandatary. [L mandatum nuet.
past part. ofmandare command f. manus hand + dare give: sense 2 of n. after F mandat]
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What a mandate isn't - A mandate isn't a rubber stamp
After a multi-party election the party with the majority of the seats in the House of Government (in Australia, the House of
Representatives; in the United Kingdom, the Commons; etc) gains a mandate to form Government and the right to have its policies
and promises presented to the Parliament for CONSIDERATION by that Parliament. A mandate isn't a right for the Government to
get "rubber stamp" support from the Opposition and "Cross Bench" Parties to the Legislation, etc. In Australia, it falls to the
Senate (our Upper House) to REVIEW Government Legislation and propose amendments to that legislation to improve it. No Government
has ever produced the "perfect" piece of legislation.
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What a mandate is
Every Member of the House of Representatives and of the Senate, when elected, obtains a PERSONAL mandate from their constituents.
In some Parties (eg. the ALP) once a person is elected to the Parliament they can nolonger personally represent their constituents,
but must rather "toe the Party line" or risk expulsion from that Party. To the best of my knowledge, all of the other Parties
allow their members to what is referred to as "cross the floor" when their conscience just won't allow them to support their
respective Party's point of view.
As mentioned earlier, every Member of the House of Representatives and of the Senate, when elected, obtains a PERSONAL mandate
from their constituents based on the policies and promises put to the electorate by their respective Parties. As such, each and
every Parliamentarian, when elected, has an obligation to their consitiuents to adhere to those policies and promises which were
made and, if appropriate, to defy their Party room if the decisions of the Party room deviate markedly from those on which they
were elected.
A Party's philosophy and ideology are the "constitution" within which all Party policies and promises should be made and,
subsequently acted upon. Anyone voting for a particular Party should know what that Party stands for from observing how it reacts
to different issues inside and outside the Parliament and the two need to be consistent. If the Government, as its title suggests,
has the majority in the "Lower House" and the Opposition has the majority in the "Upper House" (ie Senate) then I would expect the
Opposition to fulfil "its" mandate and at least critically review the Government's legislative program and ideally make appropriate
amendments to it to keep within "their" mandate that they obtained from their consituents.
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Community Consultation
All Governments, Oppositions and other bodies "claim", at times, to enlist the assistance of the public via "community consultation".
However, this comes down to several concepts:
- Listening: concentrate on hearing something; heed or pay attention to.
- Hearing: perceive (a sound) by ear; listen to; learn or be informed
- Political filtering: (Personal view) to listen to what someone tells you and then adapt it to fit in with a particular
political philosophy or idealogy. That is, a politician or member of some other "special interest group" (SIG), only hear
what they want to hear and then only if it is in line with their Party or SIG's political philosophy or idealogy.
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Conclusions
In conclusion then, I do not believe that a Governemnt has a mandate to have its legislative program automatically passed by the
Parliament without being properly reviewed and, if appropriate, amended by the Senate or "House of Review". In line with the notion
of a mandate is the comment which all new and re-elected Australian Prime Ministers have been saying on election night over past
years. That is, "I intend to govern for all Australians". I put it to the reader that this statement is philosophically impossible
when one looks at the spread of votes over the political spectrum. Even in a one-party State, the dictator can't govern "for all" of
the population of the country.
Politicians only hear and subsequently act on what they want to hear, when at community forums, etc, in line with their own
political philosophy and idealogy.
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Should Voting Be Compulsory or Not?
A Personal View
Note that voting is compulsory in all Australian elections - Federal, State/Territory and Local (ie Council & Shire)
The following will be explored:
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Definitions
- Responsibility: a particular burden of obligation upon one who is responsible:
the responsibilities of authority.
- Privilege: any of the rights common to all citizens under a modern constitutional government:
We enjoy the privileges of a free people.
- Obligation: something by which a person is bound or obliged to do certain things, and which arises out of a
sense of duty or results from custom, law, etc.
- Right: a just claim or title, whether legal, prescriptive, or moral: You have a right to say what you please.
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General Comments
It is my personal belief that voters have to be ALL of these things and in a perfect world voting shouldn't need to be
made compulsory via legislation with penalties for not voting unless a valid, legislatively authorised, exemption
has been granted on formal application to the relevant authority, as all citizens of voting age would recognise
that they have an obligation to exercise their right to vote at all elections, referenda and plebisites. However, we
do not live in a perfect world and that is why I support Australia's electoral laws in this regard.
Anyone convicted of a crime and given a gaol sentence with a term greater than the term of Government, under normal
circumstances (in Australia that might be 3 years for Federal elections or 4 years for most State/Territory elections),
sometimes also referred to as "the electoral cycle", would loose their right to vote at any and all elections until they
are released.
If I had to prioritise the four words that I've defined above, my list would probably be as follows:
- Privilege (ie those sentence to gaol for longer than the electoral cycle loose this privilege)
- Obligation
- Responsibility
- Right
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Conclusions
If people won't accept their "responsibility" to vote in elections, then they should be made to via compulsory voting with small
but effectve monetary penalties or fines. In Australia the fine for not voting in an election (Federal, State or Territory and
Local) is currently (as at Wed, 2012-09-19) $50.
I would like to close with the following quotes that I have found elsewhere on the web:
- "You get who you vote for. When folks stay home and don't vote this is what happens" --- Anon
- "In a democracy, you get who you vote for. So if the people elect an airhead to the presidency,
what does it say about their intelligence and perceptions of what makes a good leader?"
--- From "What’s wrong with the system?" at "http://www.gocool.org/?p=210"
- "The people have spoken but we don't know what they've said." - attributed to former Liberal Democrat Leader Paddy Ashdown,
but apparently sometimes attributed to former US President Bill Clinton by some people
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