Westminster Legacies: Democracy and Responsible Government in Asia and the Pacific

(Paperback)

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Westminster Legacies examines the ways in which the Westminster system has influenced the shaping of responsible government and democracy across Asia, Australasia and the Pacific. The book includes chapters on each of India, Pakistan, Nepal, Singapore, Malaysia, Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and the smaller Pacific island nations, and considers how Westminster remains important for understanding political institutions and practices in these countries. It also examines the ways the Westminster system has been adapted in these different countries in the light of local practices and traditions. ""Westminster Legacies"" explores the way Westminster understandings of the executive, bureaucracy, parliament and responsible government have been influential in these countries with diverse histories, cultures and traditions. It also looks at the conditions under which Westminster legacies have taken root and endured, and those conditions that have eroded or significantly changed its influence. Some of the Westminster-derived states in this survey have teetered on the brink of becoming 'failed states' (especially in terms of legitimate democracies), while others remain robust adversarial democracies. This is the first comparative analysis of the transplanted Westminster systems throughout Asia and the Pacific - even though the region is littered with diverse Westminster-derived systems.

Author Bio

Haig Patapan is Senior Lecturer in School of Politics and Public Policy at Griffith University, Brisbane, and author of Judging Democracy: The New Politics of the High Court in Australia (CUP, 2000). John Wanna is the ANZSOG Foundation Professor for the Sir John Bunting Chair of Public Administration at the ANU, and was previously Professor of Politics at Griffith University in Brisbane. Wanna is well known as a media commentator on Australian political events and has written several textbooks on politics and public management in Australia. He co-edited the recent UNSW Press title, Yes, Premier. Professor Patrick Weller is Director of the Centre for Australian Public Sector Management at Griffith University and the author of many books, including the very successful trade title Don't Tell the Prime Minister (Scribe, 2003).