Rules or Discretion? Officials and Government Formation Under MMP¹

1 The article is taken from work currently in progress on a PhD which is assessing the impact of multi-party government on the development and implementation of public policy. It is based upon data drawn from a series of interviews undertaken between June 1998 and March 1999 with a range of senior politicians and officials, and from both primary and secondary documentary sources. Some data from an earlier research project involving interviews completed between May 1996 and July 1996 is also used. The nature of the data provided by the research participants, and the proximity of the next election, are such that, with two exceptions, the identity of those interviewed remains protected. However, I would like to thank each of those public servants and politicians who gave generously of their time to the project. I would also like to acknowledge the comments made on an earlier draft of the paper by two anonymous referees.

Abstract

Relatively little academic attention has thus far been paid to the experiences of the public service under New Zealand’s new proportional representation electoral system. This article focuses on the role of officials during periods of caretaker government, and in particular, on the contributions made by public servants to the formation of governments under MMP. The article reviews the history behind and operation of the arrangements which governed contact between coalition negotiators and officials immediately following the 1996 general election. The extent to which those procedures both protected the traditional impartiality of the public service and added value to the policy content of the Coalition Agreement is discussed, and in that context the merits and weaknesses of the protocols are assessed. Subsequent modifications to those arrangements are outlined, and the article concludes with an evaluation of the degree to which the changes announced by Cabinet in December 1998 will remedy the shortcomings of the 1996 arrangements.

• caretaker conventions
• public service
• mixed member proportional
• coalition
• public policy

Notes

1 The article is taken from work currently in progress on a PhD which is assessing the impact of multi-party government on the development and implementation of public policy. It is based upon data drawn from a series of interviews undertaken between June 1998 and March 1999 with a range of senior politicians and officials, and from both primary and secondary documentary sources. Some data from an earlier research project involving interviews completed between May 1996 and July 1996 is also used. The nature of the data provided by the research participants, and the proximity of the next election, are such that, with two exceptions, the identity of those interviewed remains protected. However, I would like to thank each of those public servants and politicians who gave generously of their time to the project. I would also like to acknowledge the comments made on an earlier draft of the paper by two anonymous referees.