Consensus government

Consensus government

Consensus government is a non-partisan, democratic system of government in use in two Canadian territories.

This system exists in the Northwest Territories and Nunavut, territories with relatively large aboriginal populations, and was accordingly inspired by traditional aboriginal systems of governance. Members of the legislature are elected as independents from single member districts by simple plurality voting. As in other Westminster system parliaments the legislature selects the premier, the speaker and the cabinet from amongst themselves, and the government is dependent on retaining the confidence of the legislature. However due to the absence of political parties there is no formal opposition and instead of party caucuses members regularly participate in a caucus of all members of the legislature. [cite web
title=Some Thoughts on Consensus Government in Nunavut
author=Kevin O'Brien
url=http://www.parl.gc.ca/Infoparl/english/issue.htm?param=60&art=26
date=2003
accessdate=2008-08-31|]

While consensus models of discourse often require that a true consensus be reached, in consensus government policies advanced by the government are decided upon by majority vote; the government must therefore support policies that please a majority of the entire legislature if it wants them to pass. Notions of party discipline are not relevant to such deliberations.

List of consensus governments

* Northwest Territories
* Nunavut

References

External links

* [http://www.assembly.gov.nt.ca/visitorinfo/factsheets/index.html "Consensus government" (Legislative Assembly of the NWT)]
* [http://www.gov.nu.ca/Nunavut/English/about/cg.pdf "About Consensus Government" (Gov't of Nunavut)] (PDF file, 51.4 KB)


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужна курсовая?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Consensus government in Canada — Consensus government is a form of consensus democracy government in Canada in the Northwest Territories, Nunavut, as well as Nunatsiavut, an autonomous area in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador. The population of these jurisdictions are… …   Wikipedia

  • Democracies: Patterns of Majoritarian & Consensus Government in Twenty-one Countries — is a work of comparative politics by Arend Lijphart. References Categories: Political books …   Wikipedia

  • Consensus decision-making — is a group decision making process that seeks the consent, not necessarily the agreement, of participants and the resolution of objections. Consensus is defined by Merriam Webster as, first, general agreement, and second, group solidarity of… …   Wikipedia

  • Consensus democracy — Part of the Politics series Democracy History · Var …   Wikipedia

  • Consensus — has two common meanings. One is a general among the members of a given group or community, each of which exercises some discretion in decision making and follow up action. The other is as a theory and practice of getting such agreements (for… …   Wikipedia

  • Consensus based assessment — expands on the common practice of consensus decision making and the theoretical observation that expertise can be closely approximated by large numbers of novices or journeymen. It creates a method for determining measurement standards for very… …   Wikipedia

  • Consensus-based assessment — expands on the common practice of consensus decision making and the theoretical observation that expertise can be closely approximated by large numbers of novices or journeymen. It creates a method for determining measurement standards for very… …   Wikipedia

  • consensus politics —    Consensus implies a wide measure of agreement. In political life, it refers to a circumstance where a large proportion of the population and of the political community broadly accept certain values, even if there is some disagreement on… …   Glossary of UK Government and Politics

  • Government-business relations in Japan — Government business relations are conducted in many ways and through numerous channels in Japan. The most important conduits in the postwar period are the economic ministries: the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Economy, Trade and… …   Wikipedia

  • Consensus audit guidelines — The Twenty Critical Security Controls for Effective Cyber Defense (commonly called the Consensus Audit Guidelines or CAG) is a publication of best practice guidelines for computer security. The project was initiated early in 2008 as a response to …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
… Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”