Responsible government
Responsible government is a conception of a system of government that embodies the principle of parliamentary accountability, the foundation of the Westminster system of parliamentary democracy. Governments 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. If the parliament is bicameral, then the government is usually responsible first to the parliament's lower house, which is more representative than the upper house, as it usually has more members and they are always directly 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 the head 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 a motion 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 and to form and have recommendations for them to choose from, which are the ministers' formal, reasoned recommendations as to what course of action should be taken.
History in the British Empire and Commonwealth
From the middle of the 19th century, the United 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 a bicameral legislature and an executive responsible to the Lower House.Canada
Responsible government was implemented in several colonies of British North America, 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.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 with self-government than with parliamentary accountability; hence, there is the notion that the Dominion 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 a province of Canada in 1949.
Background
At first appointed governors and appointed member who filled the governors' executive councils held power. Even after the formation of elected legislative assemblies, starting with Nova Scotia in 1758, governors and their executive councils did not require the consent of elected legislators in order to carry out all their roles and govern. Only in the decades leading up to Canadian Confederation in 1867 did the governing councils of those British North American colonies become responsible to the elected representatives of the people. In the aftermath of the American Revolution, sparked by the perceived shortcomings of virtual representation, the British government became sensitive to unrest in its remaining colonies with large populations of European-descended colonists. Elected assemblies were introduced to both Upper Canada and Lower Canada with the Constitutional Act 1791. Many reformers called for these assemblies having some control over the executive power, Political unrest and tensions between the governors and assemblies in both Upper and Lower Canada grew.After the Rebellions of 1837–1838 in the 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. In his report, he recommended that 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. Elected legislators had some power to rein in the appointed executive council. But representative government was unquestionably achieved when the executive council was formed of members exclusively from the party having a majority in the representative branch of a colonial legislature, a thing achieved in different colonies starting in the late 1840s.
But Durham's views were not shared by everyone -- the Lieutenant 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."
Implementation
The first instance of responsible government in the British Empire outside of the United Kingdom itself was achieved by the colony of Nova Scotia in January and February 1848, through the efforts of Joseph Howe. Howe's push for responsible government was inspired by the work of Thomas McCulloch and Jotham Blanchard almost two decades earlier. The plaque erected by the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada in the Nova Scotia House of Assembly reads:First Responsible Government in the British Empire.
The first executive 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", became provincial 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 of New Brunswick soon followed in May 1848, when lieutenant governor Edmund 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 the Province of Canada, responsible government was introduced when the governor general, Lord Elgin, swore in the ministry of Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine and Robert Baldwin on 11 March 1848. It was put to the test in the following year, when Reformers in the legislature passed the Rebellion 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, nonetheless assented 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 in Montreal was burned to the ground in the ensuing 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 the British North America Act, 1867; the Statute of Westminster, 1931; and the patriation of the Constitution Act, 1982.
Australia and New Zealand
Prior to European colonisation, the Australian continent was inhabited by Aboriginal and Torres 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 officer James Cook sailed along the east coast of Australia and claimed it for King George III. Nearly two decades later, in 1788 the First Fleet led by Arthur Phillip established the first permanent European settlement in Australia at Port 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 the common law system.At first, the Australian colonies were run by autocratic governors. They were appointed by the British 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.
In 1808 a military coup d'état known as the Rum Rebellion deposed Governor Bligh and briefly established military rule over the Colony of New South Wales until a new Governor was appointed and sent from Britain. This did not aid in establishing responsible or representative government.
File:William_Charles_Wentworth_.jpg|thumb|William Charles Wentworth was the leading advocate for responsible government in the Australian colonies and was central in the establishment of the Parliament of New South Wales.
The early colonists, coming mostly from the United Kingdom, were familiar with the Westminster 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 the American Revolutionary War and was threatened in the Rebellions 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.
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 1854 Eureka Rebellion near Ballarat. 190 miners armed themselves, erected a stockade, and raised the Southern Cross Flag. They demanded an end to taxation 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 to Melbourne 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.
The Northern Territory was originally part of South Australia, but transferred to the Australian Commonwealth Government in 1911. It then lost responsible self-government and did not gain it back until 1974. Likewise, the Australian 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.