New Zealand is regarded as one of the most democratic government systems in the world, and is based on the Westminster system of a head of state (the Queen, represented by the Governor-General), a head of government (the Prime Minister), and the trio of legislature, administration and judiciary. What puts New Zealand ahead of the rest, is the development of the political system over the last century, which has allowed it to address the needs of a multicultural society, while minimising cultural biases at the same time.
New Zealand was the first country to give women the vote in 1893, but it was some time before women were elected to Parliament, and eventually to the highest offices. But even before the introduction of female suffrage, the New Zealand parliament had introduced seats especially reserved for a Maori electorate, even if their number (four) was less than what their numbers warranted. This meant that there was an obligatory Maori presence in parliament, with the possibility of Maori taking part in government as members of the governing party, or as a coalition. This Maori electorate (as opposed to the general electorate for everyone else) has survived into the current system of proportional representation, and since 1975 it has become a matter of choice which electorate a voter registers for, rather than administrative decisions on what race someone belongs to.
A striking feature of New Zealand’s parliament is that it consists of a single chamber, the House of Representatives, the upper chamber, the Legislative Council having voted itself out of existence in 1950. Upper houses such as Legislative Councils often play a role of a review chamber (such as those of the Australian states), or as a chamber of special interests (such as the American and Australian Senates, and the German Bundesrat). Since New Zealand has no constituent states, the latter role is unnecessary, and the former can be undertaken at the final instance, that of the Governor-General.
This means that the next lower level of government is that of the local councils. (Technically there is a level of “provinces” which are, however, administrative units of the central government.) This means that there is some legislative competition between local councils and the central government, with councils effectively legislating on matters of traffic control (the ubiquitous “No Engine Braking” signs on roads in and out of towns are locally legislated), alcohol-free zones, control of freedom camping, and, more controversially, on banning the display of gang insignia (e.g. in Whanganui) in addition to the usual role of local government in the supply of basic services. This development has been taken one step further by the creation of the Auckland “super city” in 2010, with a legislative status moving towards that of a German city-state (Berlin, Bremen, Hamburg). As further supercities develop (possibly Wellington next, then Christchurch), the question arises as to the equity of allowing them special rights, where people in more rural areas would continue to be dependent on the central government, e.g. for development funding. This might lead to the formation of a true intermediate level of government.
Another aspect of New Zealand politics, which is quite new for a Westminster system, is the Mixed Member Proportional representation system (MMP), which has been in place since 1996, and was affirmed by referendum in 2011. In the 1993 election both major parties between them received less than 70% of the vote, and the National Party was able to win a majority in Parliament, although more than 30% of the population was effectively disenfranchised by the electoral system of the “winner takes all” or “first past the post”. In order to allow more comprehensive representation in MMP, one-half of seats are elected directly from electorates, and the other half is distributed among the parties on the basis of the electoral result as a whole. Smaller parties either have to win seats directly, or attain more than 5% of the total vote. In effect this is the system that is in place in Germany. And, of course, the whole system runs in parallel for the general and Maori electorates.
From 1930 until the MMP election of 1996, New Zealand had been governed by either the conservative National Party, or its traditional opponent, the social democratic Labour Party; since the introduction of MMP, coalitions have been far more common, and are an intended consequence of the voting system. More parties are represented (including Greens, and a couple of parties on the right), and having to negotiate a coalition means that the party line sometimes has to be sacrificed for the privilege of participating in government.
Although political competition remains fierce (especially at election time), MMP has meant that few sections of the population are excluded from parliament and that even more radical parties can be tamed into taking on responsibility, without losing much of the stability of having two major parties.
