Politics and Power Mediation in Australia
The context of political power is of concern in many countries. People or bodies that have political power are of critical importance due to the possibility of power misuse (Department of Senate, 2009, p. 127). The idea of power separation has hence been of critical importance to avoid vesting unlimited power to a given individual or body.
The office of the prime minister has evolved to have the most political powers. Prime ministers are not accounted for in the constitution. However, the office has been associated with a lot of control of the public power. According to Uhr (2001, p.4), the prime ministers have the power of political speech. This power allows the prime ministers to be the most influential political personnel. The cabinet, led by the prime minister, makes most of the critical decisions of the government and are the effective holders of the executive responsibilities in Australia (Old Parliament House). Uhr (2001, p. 5) explains that the office of the prime minister has risen to be the central political institution in Australia.
The executive power in Australia rests with the monarchy and is practiced by the governor general. The governor general is the political figure representing the political power of the monarchy. The prime minister plays a critical role in determining the activities of the governor general. Governor general’s decision are highly influenced by the prime minister (Old Parliament House).
Exercising of the power
Political power can be perceived as the ability to influence government decisions. The primary way that the prime ministers can exercise their power is through the use persuasion. Prime ministers have the power of language that they use to advocate for particular decisions by exploiting their role as advisors of the governor general. Prime ministers can influence the electorate as they are given prime focus in the media (AustralianPolitics.Com, 2015, p. 1). The focusing of the media on the prime minister is due to their position of head of government. The head of governments are required to lead the public (Uhr, 2001, p. 9).
Moreover, prime ministers are required to lead their party members. The ability to control the public forms a critical aspect in the exercising of the political power bestowed on the prime ministers. Uhr (2001, p. 15) accounts for the role of political parties in manufacturing public opinion. The prime minister leads the ruling party and hence can exploit their monopoly in influencing the sentiment of the community. The prime minister also has patronage powers through which he can influence the appointing of those in the ministerial, high court judge and the governor general.
As earlier mentioned, the office of the prime minister has risen to be an iconic political figure. The power of the office depends on the prime minister’s personal power (Uhr, 2001, p. 7). Prime minister’s personal power is exhibited through their resourcefulness to make great use of their office. Such resourcefulness is based on their visions. Uhr further explains that this degree of the resourcefulness of the prime ministers is revealed through their public speeches. Public speech is a critical component in governments where leadership is based on the representation of the popular consent. Such popular consent is the basis of legitimacy of the ruling government. Therefore, it is prudent to infer that the prime ministers exercise their power through speechcraft. Uhr (2001, p. 9) explains that speechcraft is the primary mechanism through which prime ministers exercise their political power.
According to the constitution of Australia, the executive powers are vested in the monarchy. The monarchy is represented by the governor general who exercise the executive power. However, the prime minister primarily influences the actions of the governor general (Old Parliament House). According to Uhr (2001, p. 8), this ability to the prime minister makes them the effective holders of the executive responsibilities. The governor general only acts as dignified holders of the executive responsibilities. Therefore, the prime ministers can exercise their power through the administration of the executive responsibilities.
Mediation of power
The exercising of power by the ruling government, represented by the prime minister, is subject to various checks and balancing. For instance, the presence of the Constitution, the Senate and the high court help to protect the needs of the smaller states (Russell, 2002, p. 4). The federal government was also essential in ensuring that political monopoly does not occur in the country. Under federal government, the existence of states acts to control the functioning of the prime minister. According to AustralianPolitics.Com (2015, p. 1), there is a division of responsibilities between the federal and the state governments in section 51 of the constitution. The federal government is hence required to ensure cooperation with the states. The prime minister heads the federal government. Therefore, his/her failure to ensure cooperation with the states results in political instability that may cause a vote of no confidence in them. For instance, John Gordon’s functioning as a prime minister was undermined by his poor cooperation with state leaders.
Australia is a member of the European Union. The membership to the union forms the primary mechanism through which mediation of the power of the prime minister is attained (Burge, p. 7). The union keeps the prime ministers on their toes to ensure that there are subjective to the provisions of the constitution. Moreover, the laws passed by the prime minister are of lower level compared to those of the union ensuring that they do not withdraw from it or pass laws that compromise the status of their membership.
Russell (2002, p. 5) accounts for the governor general’s role in monitoring the work of the prime minister. The governor general’s responsibilities of controlling the power of the prime minister are stipulated in section 58 and 62 of the Australian government. The Constitution reserves power that enables governor general to such as dismiss prime ministers and can decline propose laws. Governor-general may hence dismiss prime ministers as was the case in 1975’s dismissal of Gough Whitlam (AustralianPolitics.Com, 2015, p. 1). As earlier mentioned, the existence of the high court is also pertinent in controlling the powers of the prime minister (Russell, 2002, p. 4). According to AustralianPolitics.Com (2015, p. 1), the high court can thwart the goals of prime ministers. Such helps to prevent the prime ministers from exercising their power unconstitutionally as was the case in the Malaysian solution policy by Prime Minister Julia Gillard.
The existence of the Senate is also another means through which the powers of the prime minister are checked. The Senate has equal representation and has a proportional voting system that ensure that the prime minister does not use majority support to achieve their goals (AustralianPolitics.Com, 2015, p. 1). Moreover, powers of the prime ministers are checked through the existence of elections. Prime ministers are expected to ensure that their goals appeal to the electorate. Prime ministers are the leaders of their respective parties. They are expected to ensure support by their party members failure to which they may be dismissed as was the case with such as Bob Hawke, Kevin Rudd, and Julia Gillard.
These mediations of how prime ministers exercise their power has been effective in preventing them from pursuing unconstitutional goals. According to Burge (p. 9), the different methods of checking the balance of the prime minister’s powers ensure that they are accountable. They have to ensure that their relations with the various organs discussed above are in good condition. Moreover, the control also ensures collaboration of the prime minister with other executive officials in matters such as the appointment of ministers as provided by the Coalition Agreement (Bennister, 2011, p. 1).
How would you describe the nature of this power-Reason
The power of the prime minister is bureaucratic in nature (AustralianPolitics.Com, 2015, p. 1; Bennister, 2012, p. XII; Uhr, 2011, p. 17). The competitive advice of the prime minister is drawn from various leadership institutions. Such departments include such as the cabinet, the department of the prime minister and tother advisory networks (Bennister, 2012, p. XII). According to Martin et al. (1997), bureaucratic power is characterized by the existence of a hierarchy administration and labor division as evident in the federal government structuring. Moreover, the powers of the prime minister are determined by standard operating procedures as implemented by the various bodies with oversight capabilities. These characteristics are met by the existence of various leadership institutions and the constitution (Uhr, 2001, p. 17).
Bibliography
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Uhr, J., 2001. The language of leadership: prime ministers as political institutions. Made available in DSpace on 2011-01-05T08: 50: 49Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 4 No90Uhr. pdf. jpg: 777 bytes, checksum: 7619b0ec1826a81f7164353063c38779 (MD5) 1234-01.2003-04-24T01: 52: 28Z. xsh: 352 bytes, checksum: 6028aa45e8c83bb2f34d34c2987f3b8c (MD5) No90Uhr. pdf: 276285 bytes, checksum: fae9e67628712d485c4a9dac47455b0a (MD5) No90Uhr. pdf. txt: 112682 bytes, checksum: 3ad8c878ce3407f7cc620cc5e457c590 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2004-05-19T17: 36: 01Z.
