Restraining Elective Dictatorship: The Upper House Solution?
by Nicholas Aroney, Scott Prasser and JR Nethercote
ISBN: 978 1921401 091
RRP: $29.95
The ideas of 21 leading international scholars and politicians create provocative debate in a new book that examines how Western nations living under ‘elective dictatorships’ can possibly hold their governments accountable.
Released this month by the University of Western Australia Press (Imprint: UWA Press), Restraining Elective Dictatorship: The Upper House Solution? evolved from a 2006 conference, which assessed whether the reintroduction of an Upper House in Queensland was needed and viable.
Series authors and political experts, Nicholas Aroney, Scott Prasser and JR Nethercote propose that modern democracies, dominated as they are by tight party discipline and increasingly politicised public service, have become ‘elective dictatorships’.
Restraining Elective Dictatorship argues that the potential antidote to ‘elective dictatorships’ is the operation of a vibrant Upper House to improve accountability and act as a break on executive government dominance.
To test this view, the book analyses the operations of Upper Houses across Australian state and federal jurisdictions, as well as the United Kingdom, USA and Canada. No other book tackles such a broad range of disciplinary backgrounds, geographic origins and political perspectives.
About the authors
Nicholas Aroney is Associate Professor and Reader in Law at the University of Queensland’s TC Beirne School of Law. He is the author of Freedom of Speech in the Constitution and The Constitution of a Federal Commonwealth.
Scott Prasser is Senior Lecturer in Management in the Faculty of Business at the University of the Sunshine Coast. He has published extensively, including Royal Commissions and Public Inquiries in Australia, Business-Government Relations: Concepts and Issues, The Menzies Era, Policy Making in Volatile Times, Corruption and Reform: The Fitzgerald Vision and National Parks: Private Sector’s Role.
JR Nethercote is Resident Research Counsellor at The Menzies Research Centre. A Fellow of the Institute of Public Administration Australia, he has held various appointments in the public and parliamentary services. He has jointly edited many books including Parliament and Bureaucracy, The Menzies Era and Business-Government Relations in Australia.
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