Let's talk a little about why national elections are so important in New Zealand, from a constitutional perspective.

#nzelection

New Zealand has a distinctive constitutional structure among developed nations. We have an 'unwritten constitution'. There is some controversy about what that means precisely, but I like to think of it like this.

There is no clear conception of constitutional authority that is superior to the actual operation of government. In other words, there is no higher authority that can set clear rules to restrain the government in a constitutional sense.

So the sorts of protections that we might see in other countries that prevent abuse of power aren't apparent in New Zealand. There is no constitutional restrain in the sense that might be enforced by the courts. There are no obvious restrictions on what Parliament legislates.

We also have a unitary state where political power is concentrated, rather than dispersed like it would be under a federalist model, and the Westminster concept of the Parliamentary ministry means that executive and legislative power are aligned rather than separated.

Given that constitutional structure, what protections are there from the abuse of government power? Well, there are many subtle ones, but the most obvious is the ability to elect the government - both Members of Parliament and (indirectly) Ministers.

Our system gives the government of the day a lot of power, but on the understanding that every 3 years the voting public can take that power away if it wants to. Elections matter, from a constitutional perspective, because they are the key way to hold the government to account.

I won't bang on about this too much, but our constitutional system implicitly recognises this. We have a short electoral cycle (3 years), and we have a proportional representation system of voting which helps ensure MPs reflect closely the diversity of the voting public.

So the upcoming election isn't just a political contest. It's a constitutional opportunity to let politicians in power (or wanting power) know that you are watching and will vote them out if necessary. Make sure to take advantage of that opportunity.

ends.