title: Election programmes in New Zealand politics: 1911-1996

authors: Gibbons, Matthew

abstract: This thesis examines the policies New Zealand political parties have emphasised in their key policy statements, the ideological dimensions of party competition, how the political agenda has changed over time, and whether parties have acted in ways compatible with responsible party government and pluralist theories of democracy. These central political debates are studied using all the election programmes issued by the main New Zealand political parties between 1911 and 1996.

Content analysis results for the 1911-1996 period reveal enduring differences between left and right-wing parties on economic, foreign policy and some conservative themes. While some ‘new politics’ issues such as the environment and culture have become much more important over time, the data confirms that other new politics issues such as freedom and democracy have been on New Zealand’s political agenda for most of the twentieth century. 

When charted on a left-right dimension, parties’ positions were largely as expected. The main left and right-wing parties have only crossed over once, and then only fractionally on the economic policy dimension. Contrary to theoretical expectations right-wing parties have often taken very moderate positions on the new politics-old politics dimension, although left-wing parties have usually been more supportive of new politics policies than right-wing parties. Differences between Labour and the main right-wing parties have usually been larger on economic than on new politics issues. However, between 1972 and 1990 differences between Labour and National on new politics issues were much larger than on economic themes.

In their programmes parties have usually campaigned in a manner encouraging rational voting, and have taken relatively similar positions on potentially divisive ethnic policy issues. There is one obvious case of agenda setting: the main parties have kept the most morally contentious issues out of party politics. The enduring policy differences between the main parties will have made it easier for less well informed voters to vote in a rational manner. Party movement results indicate that only during the 1980s were National’s and Labour’s manifestos a poor guide to their subsequent policy direction. 

Policy implementation results for New Zealand using Klingemann, Hofferbert and Budge’s methodology showed high implementation rates by international standards over the 1946-1994 period. Often the manifestos of opposition parties were positively associated with government expenditure trends. This shows that parties’ commitment to mandate theory has been qualified by their support for pluralist norms of interest group consultation. The results indicated that between the early 1980s and 1994 the relationship between manifesto emphases and government expenditure for transfers and health has deteriorated. In other areas policy implementation rates remained high, indicating that politicians often still behaved in ways compatible with the principles of responsible party government. The regression equations Klingemann, Hofferbert and Budge use to calculate policy implementation were also reformulated to produce better and theoretically stronger results.

text: Election programmes in New Zealand politics: 1911-1996 This thesis examines the policies New Zealand political parties have emphasised in their key policy statements, the ideological dimensions of party competition, how the political agenda has changed over time, and whether parties have acted in ways compatible with responsible party government and pluralist theories of democracy. These central political debates are studied using all the election programmes issued by the main New Zealand political parties between 1911 and 1996.

Content analysis results for the 1911-1996 period reveal enduring differences between left and right-wing parties on economic, foreign policy and some conservative themes. While some ‘new politics’ issues such as the environment and culture have become much more important over time, the data confirms that other new politics issues such as freedom and democracy have been on New Zealand’s political agenda for most of the twentieth century. 

When charted on a left-right dimension, parties’ positions were largely as expected. The main left and right-wing parties have only crossed over once, and then only fractionally on the economic policy dimension. Contrary to theoretical expectations right-wing parties have often taken very moderate positions on the new politics-old politics dimension, although left-wing parties have usually been more supportive of new politics policies than right-wing parties. Differences between Labour and the main right-wing parties have usually been larger on economic than on new politics issues. However, between 1972 and 1990 differences between Labour and National on new politics issues were much larger than on economic themes.

In their programmes parties have usually campaigned in a manner encouraging rational voting, and have taken relatively similar positions on potentially divisive ethnic policy issues. There is one obvious case of agenda setting: the main parties have kept the most morally contentious issues out of party politics. The enduring policy differences between the main parties will have made it easier for less well informed voters to vote in a rational manner. Party movement results indicate that only during the 1980s were National’s and Labour’s manifestos a poor guide to their subsequent policy direction. 

Policy implementation results for New Zealand using Klingemann, Hofferbert and Budge’s methodology showed high implementation rates by international standards over the 1946-1994 period. Often the manifestos of opposition parties were positively associated with government expenditure trends. This shows that parties’ commitment to mandate theory has been qualified by their support for pluralist norms of interest group consultation. The results indicated that between the early 1980s and 1994 the relationship between manifesto emphases and government expenditure for transfers and health has deteriorated. In other areas policy implementation rates remained high, indicating that politicians often still behaved in ways compatible with the principles of responsible party government. The regression equations Klingemann, Hofferbert and Budge use to calculate policy implementation were also reformulated to produce better and theoretically stronger results.

year: 2000

title: International Climate Change Governance: Issues of Democracy, Institutions and the Media

authors: Pandey, Chandra Lal

subjects: climate change policy

abstract: The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change was established in 1992 to stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere to prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system. The nation states of the world have attempted to arrest climate change through a state-centric large scale multilateral treaty making process. Yet, over a period of more than twenty years, little has been achieved toward that objective. The making of international climate change governance required to arrest climate change is falling short. Greenhouse gases, which scientists consider to be the main culprit of climate change, are increasing rapidly making every subsequent year’s emissions concentration a new record. 
Climate scientists say global temperatures rising above 2 degrees Celsius could be extremely dangerous. The 1992 Convention, 1997 Kyoto Protocol, 2009 Copenhagen Accord and subsequent agreements have failed to translate the goal and achieve the threshold target as no serious and viable policies are forthcoming. Instead, the United Nations’ climate conferences have become a yearly chore for diplomats. 
The complexities of climate change governance arise not only from the nature and uncertainty of its impact, but also from its embedded relationships with social, cultural, political, economic, historical and institutional dimensions. Appropriate responses to address the challenges of climate change are difficult in the absence of potential solutions in sight. The pre-requisite for any effective policy responses is that the decision making process be democratic, transparent, and inclusive so that the ultimate addressees can ‘own’ the problem and contribute to solutions.
A sizable literature focuses on the causes and reasons behind climate change and advocates radical actions to arrest it. Other research highlights economic implications, alternatives to fossil fuels, consumption and production, scientific uncertainty and challenges the perennial North-South politics in seeking to explain the lack of progress. There has been little research on why international climate change governance is making only incremental progress.  This thesis takes as its starting point the paucity of attention to working out how and why progress has not been made, drawing on insights from climate change negotiations, major climate agreements and analyses of data on media communications on the issues of international climate change negotiations for policy making. 
The research recognizes the complexity of climate change and takes a comprehensive approach in considering why has there been little progress in the making of an effective international climate change governance to prevent climate change. The thesis takes three complementary approaches in addressing the central research question. The first develops from the concept of a democratic deficit and posits that the failure of progress can be attributed to a lack of the democratic processes in grappling with the issues. The second explores the state-centric framework of UNFCCC and posits that since the environmental issues are non-territorial, the challenges postulated by climate change cannot be resolved and progress made by solely relying on a state-centric approach. The third is to do with media communications and posits the role of the media in public education as central to develop the necessary public support for addressing the issues of climate change. The Kyoto Protocol and the Copenhagen Accord, and how they were achieved are central to this research as these are the two major climate change agreements achieved internationally so far. 
This research concludes that the approaches we have adopted so far have been inadequate because of the lack of involvement of the main stakeholders in decision making processes. The common but differentiated and historical responsibilities, pertinent principles in 1992, no longer reflect current economic growth and greenhouse gas emission patterns. There is a need to review our state-centric institutional framework toward a more inclusive, participatory, and deliberative accountability whereby the public and businesses can ‘own’ the problem. The role of the media is paramount in this because it is the media that passes information from the scientists, experts and policy makers to the public. The research concludes that the media has a key role to play and needs to be more critical in advancing measures to address the problems of climate change.

text: International Climate Change Governance: Issues of Democracy, Institutions and the Media The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change was established in 1992 to stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere to prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system. The nation states of the world have attempted to arrest climate change through a state-centric large scale multilateral treaty making process. Yet, over a period of more than twenty years, little has been achieved toward that objective. The making of international climate change governance required to arrest climate change is falling short. Greenhouse gases, which scientists consider to be the main culprit of climate change, are increasing rapidly making every subsequent year’s emissions concentration a new record. 
Climate scientists say global temperatures rising above 2 degrees Celsius could be extremely dangerous. The 1992 Convention, 1997 Kyoto Protocol, 2009 Copenhagen Accord and subsequent agreements have failed to translate the goal and achieve the threshold target as no serious and viable policies are forthcoming. Instead, the United Nations’ climate conferences have become a yearly chore for diplomats. 
The complexities of climate change governance arise not only from the nature and uncertainty of its impact, but also from its embedded relationships with social, cultural, political, economic, historical and institutional dimensions. Appropriate responses to address the challenges of climate change are difficult in the absence of potential solutions in sight. The pre-requisite for any effective policy responses is that the decision making process be democratic, transparent, and inclusive so that the ultimate addressees can ‘own’ the problem and contribute to solutions.
A sizable literature focuses on the causes and reasons behind climate change and advocates radical actions to arrest it. Other research highlights economic implications, alternatives to fossil fuels, consumption and production, scientific uncertainty and challenges the perennial North-South politics in seeking to explain the lack of progress. There has been little research on why international climate change governance is making only incremental progress.  This thesis takes as its starting point the paucity of attention to working out how and why progress has not been made, drawing on insights from climate change negotiations, major climate agreements and analyses of data on media communications on the issues of international climate change negotiations for policy making. 
The research recognizes the complexity of climate change and takes a comprehensive approach in considering why has there been little progress in the making of an effective international climate change governance to prevent climate change. The thesis takes three complementary approaches in addressing the central research question. The first develops from the concept of a democratic deficit and posits that the failure of progress can be attributed to a lack of the democratic processes in grappling with the issues. The second explores the state-centric framework of UNFCCC and posits that since the environmental issues are non-territorial, the challenges postulated by climate change cannot be resolved and progress made by solely relying on a state-centric approach. The third is to do with media communications and posits the role of the media in public education as central to develop the necessary public support for addressing the issues of climate change. The Kyoto Protocol and the Copenhagen Accord, and how they were achieved are central to this research as these are the two major climate change agreements achieved internationally so far. 
This research concludes that the approaches we have adopted so far have been inadequate because of the lack of involvement of the main stakeholders in decision making processes. The common but differentiated and historical responsibilities, pertinent principles in 1992, no longer reflect current economic growth and greenhouse gas emission patterns. There is a need to review our state-centric institutional framework toward a more inclusive, participatory, and deliberative accountability whereby the public and businesses can ‘own’ the problem. The role of the media is paramount in this because it is the media that passes information from the scientists, experts and policy makers to the public. The research concludes that the media has a key role to play and needs to be more critical in advancing measures to address the problems of climate change.

year: 2014

title: Ko ngōku maumaharatanga i ahau i Te Whare Wānanga o Waikato

authors: Papesch, Te Rita

subjects: Tohu maumahara

abstract: Kua huri te rima ngahuru o ngā tau kua tū Te Whare Wānanga hei whakaruruhau mō rātou ka kuhu ki ngōna kuaha. Ko taku tāne tuatahi me taku tungāne pakeke ake i ahau ngētehi o ngā akonga tuatahi, ā, e maumahara ana ahau i tētehi wā i tae atu ahau ki reira ki te tiki i a rāua i waho tonu i te whare pukapuka. I taua wā ko A Block tērā, te wāhi e tū nei Te Puawānanga-ki-te Ao ināianei. Ko te Cowshed tonu te wāhi whakahaere i Te Whare Wānanga. Ka mīharo i tōna rerekētanga i ngēnei wā!

text: Ko ngōku maumaharatanga i ahau i Te Whare Wānanga o Waikato Kua huri te rima ngahuru o ngā tau kua tū Te Whare Wānanga hei whakaruruhau mō rātou ka kuhu ki ngōna kuaha. Ko taku tāne tuatahi me taku tungāne pakeke ake i ahau ngētehi o ngā akonga tuatahi, ā, e maumahara ana ahau i tētehi wā i tae atu ahau ki reira ki te tiki i a rāua i waho tonu i te whare pukapuka. I taua wā ko A Block tērā, te wāhi e tū nei Te Puawānanga-ki-te Ao ināianei. Ko te Cowshed tonu te wāhi whakahaere i Te Whare Wānanga. Ka mīharo i tōna rerekētanga i ngēnei wā!

year: 2016