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Responsible government is a conception of asystem of government that embodies the principle of parliamentaryaccountability, the foundation of theWestminster system ofparliamentary democracy.[1] Governments (the equivalent of theexecutive branch) in Westminster democracies are responsible to parliament rather than to the monarch, or, in a colonial context, to the imperial government, and in a republican context, to the president, eitherin full orin part. If the parliament isbicameral, then the government is usually responsible first to the parliament'slower house, which is more representative than theupper house, as it usually has more members and they are alwaysdirectly elected.
Responsible government and the principle of parliamentary accountability manifests itself in several ways. Firstly,ministers must account to parliament for their decisions and for the performance of their departments. This requirement to make announcements and to answer questions in parliament means that ministers must have the privileges of the floor, which are only granted to those who are members of parliament. Secondly, and most importantly, although ministers are officially appointed by the authority of thehead of state and can theoretically be dismissed at the pleasure of the sovereign, they concurrently retain their office subject to their holding the confidence of the lower house of parliament. When the lower house has passed amotion of no confidence in the government, the government must ordinarily immediately resign or submit itself to the electorate in a new general election.
Lastly, the head of state is in turn required to effectuate their executive power only through these responsible ministers. They must never attempt to set up a shadow government of executives or advisors and attempt to use them as instruments of government, or to rely upon their unofficial advice. They generally are not permitted to take any action under the color of their executive power without that action being as a result of the counsel and advisement of their responsible ministers. Common exceptions to this rule include emergency or wartime acts of necessity and the granting of certain state honours. Their ministers are required to counsel them (i.e., explain to them and be sure they understand any issue that they will be called upon to decide) and to form and have recommendations for them (i.e., theiradvice or advisement) to choose from, which are the ministers' formal, reasoned recommendations as to what course of action should be taken.
From the middle of the 19th century, theUnited Kingdom began to introduce systems of responsible government to the colonial governments of its settler colonies including in Canada, Newfoundland, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. These systems were strongly based upon the system that had historically developed in the United Kingdom, with abicameral legislature and an executive responsible to the Lower House.
Responsible government was implemented in several colonies ofBritish North America (present dayCanada), between 1848 and 1850, with the executive council formulating policy with the assistance of the legislative branch, which voted approval or disapproval, and the appointed governor enacting those policies that the legislature had approved. This replaced the previous system, whereby the governor took advice from an executive council and used the legislature chiefly to raise money.[2]
Under responsible government, the executive is also a part of the legislature. The Executive branch must consist of MPs.Responsible government was a major element of Canada's gradual development toward independence. The concept of responsible government is associated in Canada more withself-government than with parliamentary accountability; hence, there is the notion that theDominion of Newfoundland "gave up responsible government" when it suspended its self-governing status in 1933, as a result of financial problems. It did not regain responsible government until it became aprovince of Canada in 1949.[3]
Following the formation of elected legislative assemblies, starting withNova Scotia in 1758, governors and their executive councils did not require the consent of elected legislators in order to carry out all their roles. It was only in the decades leading up toCanadian Confederation in 1867 that the governing councils of those British North American colonies became responsible to the elected representatives of the people.[4] In the aftermath of theAmerican Revolution, sparked by the perceived shortcomings ofvirtual representation, the British government became more sensitive to unrest in its remaining colonies with large populations of European-descended colonists. Elected assemblies were introduced to bothUpper Canada andLower Canada with theConstitutional Act 1791. Many reformers thought that these assemblies should have some control over the executive power, leading to political unrest between the governors and assemblies in both Upper and Lower Canada. TheLieutenant Governor of Upper Canada,Sir Francis Bond Head, wrote in one dispatch to London that, if responsible government were implemented, "democracy, in the worst possible form, will prevail in our colonies."[5]
After theRebellions of 1837–1838 inthe Canadas,the Earl of Durham was appointed governor general of British North America, with the task of examining the issues and determining how to defuse tensions. Inhis report, one of his recommendations was colonies that were developed enough should be granted "responsible government". This term specifically meant the policy that British-appointed governors should bow to the will of elected colonial assemblies.
The first instance of responsible government in theBritish Empire outside of the United Kingdom itself was achieved by the colony ofNova Scotia in January and February 1848, through the efforts ofJoseph Howe. Howe's push for responsible government was inspired by the work ofThomas McCulloch andJotham Blanchard almost two decades earlier.[6][7] Theplaque erected by theHistoric Sites and Monuments Board of Canada in the Nova Scotia House of Assembly reads:
First Responsible Government in the British Empire.
The firstexecutive council chosen exclusively from the party having a majority in the representative branch of a colonial legislature was formed in Nova Scotia on 2 February 1848. Following a vote of want of confidence in the preceding council,James Boyle Uniacke, who had moved the resolution, became attorney general and leader of the government. Joseph Howe, the long-time campaigner for this "peaceable revolution", becameprovincial secretary. Other members of the council were Hugh Bell, Wm.F. Desbarres, Lawrence O.C. Doyle, Herbert Huntingdon, James McNab, Michael Tobin, and George R. Young.
The colony ofNew Brunswick soon followed in May 1848,[8] when lieutenant governorEdmund Walker Head brought in a more balanced representation of members of the Legislative Assembly to the Executive Council and ceded more powers to that body.
In theProvince of Canada, responsible government was introduced when the governor general,Lord Elgin, swore in the ministry ofLouis-Hippolyte Lafontaine andRobert Baldwin on 11 March 1848. It was put to the test in the following year, when Reformers in the legislature passed theRebellion Losses Bill, which provided compensation to French-Canadians who suffered losses during the Rebellions of 1837–1838. Elgin had serious misgivings about the bill, but, nonethelessassented to it, despite demands from the Tories that he refuse to do so. Elgin was physically assaulted by an English-speaking mob for this and the parliament building inMontreal was burned to the ground in theensuing riots. Nonetheless, the Rebellion Losses Bill helped entrench responsible government into Canadian politics.
In time, the granting of responsible government became the first step on the road to complete independence. Canada gradually gained greater autonomy through inter imperial and Commonwealth diplomacy, including theBritish North America Act, 1867; theStatute of Westminster, 1931; and the patriation of theConstitution Act, 1982.
Prior to European colonisation, theAustralian continent was inhabited byAboriginal andTorres Strait Island peoples, who had their own traditional forms of self-government. They were divided into various nations and clans and, in some cases, large alliances between several nations. In 1770,Royal Navy officerJames Cook sailed along the east coast of Australia and claimed it for KingGeorge III. Nearly two decades later, in 1788 theFirst Fleet led byArthur Phillip established the first permanent European settlement in Australia atPort Jackson. The settlers gradually expanded across the continent, displacing the indigenous population, until they had established six colonies; the legal system of these colonies were based on thecommon law system.[citation needed]
At first, the Australian colonies were run by autocratic governors. They were appointed by theBritish monarch, but in practice the governors exercised vast executive and legislative powers with very little oversight. Several factors influenced this: most of these early colonies were penal colonies, they were at a great distance from the United Kingdom and communication was slow. In addition the continent was of enormous size and the Australian colonies were largely unexplored by Europeans and sparsely settled by them.[citation needed]
In 1808 a militarycoup d'état known as theRum Rebellion deposedGovernor Bligh and briefly established military rule over theColony of New South Wales until a new Governor (Lachlan Macquarie) was appointed and sent from Britain. This did not aid in establishing responsible or representative government.
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The early colonists, coming mostly from the United Kingdom (which by 1801 included Ireland), were familiar with theWestminster system and made efforts to reform local government in order to increase the opportunity for ordinary men to participate. The Governors and London therefore set in motion a gradual process of establishing a Westminster system in the colonies. They did not want to get ahead of population or economic growth, nor be so slow as to provoke clamouring for revolutionary change as had happened in theAmerican Revolutionary War and was threatened in theRebellions of 1837–1838 in Canada. The government first established appointed or partially elected Legislative Councils.William Wentworth among other prominent colonists in this time advocated for the introduction of responsible government in the Australian colonies.[10]
Violence erupted in the Colony of Victoria during the 1850s, where there was growing political discontent and civil disobedience among the common men, especially in the inland gold fields areas. This culminated in the 1854Eureka Rebellion nearBallarat. 190 miners armed themselves, erected astockade, and raised the Southern Cross Flag. They demanded an end to taxation (via an expensive miner's license) without representation, the right to vote in colonial elections, and colonial maintenance and upkeep of the area's roads.
The British colonial forces overran the stockade, capturing or killing dozens of miners and bringing many toMelbourne for trial. However, mass public support led to the miners' release. Within a year, most of their demands had been met, including responsible self-government and universal male suffrage for the Colony of Victoria.
The Eureka Rebellion and events in Victoria resonated around the Australian colonies, which had their own regional agitators for change. South Australia was quick to pass universal male suffrage, and Victoria and New South Wales followed soon after. By the end of the 1850s, all the Australian colonies and New Zealand had achieved responsible self-government. Only Western Australia took until 1890 to achieve this.
TheNorthern Territory was originally part of South Australia, but transferred to the Australian Commonwealth Government in 1911. It thenlost responsible self-government (although residents could still vote in federal elections) and did not gain it back until 1974. Likewise, theAustralian Capital Territory was originally part of New South Wales. It was transferred to the Commonwealth Government in 1911 and lost responsible self-government until 1989.
White female suffrage was gained from the 1890s to the 1910s in Australia and New Zealand (1893), allowing the other half of the ethnic European population to participate in responsible representative government.
In New Zealand,the indigenous Maori became British subjects following the 1840Treaty of Waitangi.
In Australia during the colonial period, some Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people may have theoretically had the right to vote in colonial elections. But, in practice they were usually unable to exercise this right: they lived traditional lifestyles in remote areasuncontacted by the colony, or affected by the disruption of theFrontier Wars. In addition, they often were excluded from voting by racial discrimination in practices or by property requirements.
After federation, theCommonwealth Franchise Act of 1902 barred Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people from voting in federal elections unless they were already eligible to vote in their state. Queensland explicitly barred Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people from voting until the 1960s, while Western Australia barred Aboriginal people unless they successfully applied to become citizens. As a result, most[citation needed] Aboriginal people across the country were prevented from voting, including those who in theory had the right. Later, the 1962 Commonwealth Electoral Act gave all Aboriginal people the option to enroll to vote, but still most were not able to exercise their rights.
After passage of the1967 Australian referendum, the federal government was allowed to count Indigenous Australians in the census, and to ensure that their voting rights were respected across the country.
TheCape Colony, in Southern Africa, was under responsible self-government from 1872 until 1910 when it became theCape Province of the newUnion of South Africa.[11]
Under its previous system ofrepresentative government, the Ministers of the Cape Government reported directly to theBritish Imperial Governor, and not to the locally elected representatives in theCape Parliament. Among Cape citizens of all races, growing anger at their powerlessness in influencing unpopular imperial decisions had repeatedly led to protests and rowdy political meetings – especially during the early "Convict Crisis" of 1849 to 1850.
A popular political movement for responsible government soon emerged, under local leaderJohn Molteno. A protracted struggle was then conducted over the ensuing years as the movement (known informally as "the responsibles") grew increasingly powerful, and used their parliamentary majority to put pressure on the British Governor, withholding public finances from him, and conducting public agitations. Not everyone favoured responsible government though, and pro-imperial press outlets even accused the movement of constituting "crafts and assaults of the devil".[12]
Supporters believed that the most effective means of instituting responsible government was simply to change the section of the constitution which prevented government officials from being elected to parliament or members of parliament from serving in executive positions. The conflict therefore centred on the changing of this specific section. "Although responsible government merely required an amendment to s.79 of the constitution, it transpired only after nearly twenty years in 1872 when the so-called 'responsibles' under Molteno were able to command sufficient support in both houses to secure the passage of the necessary bill."[13] Finally, with a parliamentary majority and with the Colonial Office and new GovernorHenry Barkly won over, Molteno instituted responsible government, making the Ministers directly responsible to the Cape Parliament, and becoming the Cape's firstPrime Minister.[14]
The ensuing period saw an economic recovery, a massive growth in exports and an expansion of the colony's frontiers. Despite political complications that arose from time to time (such as an ill-fated scheme by theBritish Colonial Office to enforce aconfederation in Southern Africa in 1878, and tensions with theAfrikaner-dominatedGovernment of Transvaal over trade and railroad construction), economic and social progress in theCape Colony continued at a steady pace until a renewed attempt to extend British control over the hinterland caused the outbreak of theAnglo-Boer Wars in 1899.[15]
An important feature of theCape Colony under responsible government was that it was the only state in southern Africa (and one of very few in the world at the time) to have anon-racial system of voting.[16][17]Later however – following theSouth Africa Act 1909 to form theUnion of South Africa – thismulti-racial universal suffrage was steadily eroded, and eventually abolished by theApartheid government in 1948.
The following is a list of British colonies, and the year when responsible government was established in the territory:
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In the early 1860s, thePrussian Prime MinisterOtto von Bismarck was involved in a bitter dispute with the Liberals, who sought to institute a system of responsible government modeled on that of Britain. Bismarck, who strongly opposed that demand, managed to deflect the pressure by embarking energetically and successfully on theunification of Germany. The Liberals, who were also strong German nationalists, backed Bismarck's unification efforts and tacitly accepted that the Constitution of Imperial Germany, crafted by Bismarck, did not include a responsible government – the Chancellor being accountable solely to the emperor and needing no parliamentary confidence. Germany gained a responsible government only with theWeimar Republic and more securely with the creation of theFederal Republic of Germany. Historians account the lack of responsible government in the formative decades of united Germany as one of the factors contributing to the prolonged weakness of German democratic institutions, lasting also after such a government was finally instituted.
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