Executive power and the head of state: issues arising from proposals to establish a republic

Authors

  • Dennis Rose

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.26686/pq.v5i1.4281

Keywords:

republic, Westminster democracy, appointed governor-general, appointed or elected president, constitutional framework, Constitution Act, semi-presidentialism, Treaty of Waitangi

Abstract

In New Zealand executive power is concentrated in the hands of the prime minister and ministers, all being members of an elected parliament upon whose continuing support they depend. This substantive power relationship is embedded in a constitutional structure in which an appointed governor-general acts as head of state, as representative of the monarch, who is also the monarch of the United Kingdom. By convention and law the head of state acts on the advice of the prime minister and ministers in all but exceptional circumstances.

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Published

2009-02-01