The Chameleon Crown

The Chameleon Crown
Author: Anne Twomey
Publisher: Federation Press
Total Pages: 328
Release: 2006
Genre: History
ISBN: 9781862876293

Using previously secret government documents, The Chameleon Crown re-writes the history of Australia's relationship with the United Kingdom and the Crown. It makes clear that the Australian States remained colonial dependencies of the British Crown until 1986 when the Australia Act was passed. It was the 'Queen of the United Kingdom', not the 'Queen of Australia' who reigned over them. For many decades historians, lawyers and politicians believed that the British Government's role in advising the Queen on State matters was simply a formality and that the British merely provided the 'channel of communication' for State advice. This book reveals for the first time the true extent of the independent role played by the British Government in State affairs as well as the significant role of the Queen. The Chameleon Crown takes the reader behind the scenes into the confidential negotiations between the States, the Commonwealth, the British Government and Buckingham Palace on the termination of the colonial links between the States and the United Kingdom. This was a battle of high politics, played by the likes of Whitlam, Murphy, Bjelke-Petersen, Wran, Fraser, Hawke, in which the sovereignty of the States was at stake. It is essential reading for those interested in Australian politics, history and the monarchy. A NSW Sesquicentenary of Responsible Government publication.

The Crown and Canadian Federalism

The Crown and Canadian Federalism
Author: D. Michael Jackson
Publisher: Dundurn
Total Pages: 337
Release: 2013-08-31
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1459709896

Following Queen Elizabeth II's historic Diamond Jubilee in 2012, there is renewed interest in the institution of the Crown in Canada and the roles of the queen, governor general, and lieutenant governor. Author D. Michael Jackson traces the story of the monarchy and the Crown and shows how they are integral to Canada's parliamentary democracy.

The Queen's Other Realms

The Queen's Other Realms
Author: Peter John Boyce
Publisher: Federation Press
Total Pages: 316
Release: 2008
Genre: History
ISBN: 9781862877009

Canada, Australia and New Zealand inherited and adapted a monarchical framework of government, even in the absence of a resident monarch. Although steady transfer of the royal prerogative to a popularly elected executive has enabled these three former dominions to be sometimes described as "crowned republics" or "disguised republics", there was no popular drive to abandon monarchy until the 1990s, and even then the republican cause was based largely on issues of symbolism and national identity than on perceived core weaknesses in the political system. This book traces the long and sometimes subtle process of localising monarchy in the vice-regal office from the mid-twentieth century onwards, and compares the powers and functions of the Queen's surrogates with each other and with those of the monarch herself, including their recourse to the so-called "reserve powers". Among the key questions posed in this comparative study are: Can the current monarchical system be refined to the point of countering republican sentiment? Why has the republican argument gained more momentum in Australia than in Canada or New Zealand? Can a republican model retain residual monarchic elements? What is likely to be the lasting legacy of the Crown in these three strikingly similar political cultures? The author's underlying loyalties are neither firmly monarchist nor firmly republican. He is convinced, however, that the combined effects of a strong sense of national identity and an increasingly presidential style of political leadership within these three Westminster-derived systems make it difficult for contemporary governors-general (or their state and provincial colleagues)to fulfil two of their key roles-to unite and inspire the people on the one hand and to be a credible constitutional watchdog on the other.

Monarchy and the End of Empire

Monarchy and the End of Empire
Author: Philip Murphy
Publisher: OUP Oxford
Total Pages: 255
Release: 2013-12-05
Genre: History
ISBN: 0191662186

This unique and meticulously-researched study examines the triangular relationship between the British government, the Palace, and the modern Commonwealth since 1945. It has two principal areas of focus: the monarch's role as sovereign of a series of Commonwealth Realms, and quite separately as head of the Commonwealth. It traces how, in the early part of the twentieth century, the British government promoted the Crown as a counterbalance to the centrifugal forces that were drawing the Empire apart. Ultimately, however, with newly-independent India's determination to become a republic in the late 1940s, Britain had to accept that allegiance to the Crown could no longer be the common factor binding the Commonwealth together. It therefore devised the notion of the headship of the Commonwealth as a means of enabling a republican India 'to continue to give the monarchy a pivotal symbolic role and therefore to remain in the Commonwealth.' In the years of rapid decolonization which followed 1945, it became clear that this elaborate constitutional infrastructure posed significant problems for British foreign policy. The system of Commonwealth Realms was a recipe for confusion and misunderstanding. Policy makers in the UK increasingly saw it as a liability in terms of Britain's relations with its former colonies, so much so that by the early 1960s they actively sought to persuade African nationalist leaders to adopt republican constitutions on independence. The headship of the Commonwealth also became a cause for concern, partly because it offered opportunities for the monarch to act without ministerial advice, and partly because it tended to tie the British government to what many within the UK had begun to regard as a largely redundant institution. Philip Murphy employs a large amount of previously-unpublished documentary evidence to argue that the monarchy's relationship with the Commonwealth, which was initially promoted by the UK as a means of strengthening Imperial ties, increasingly became an source of frustration for British foreign policy makers.

Canada's Deep Crown

Canada's Deep Crown
Author: David E. Smith
Publisher: University of Toronto Press
Total Pages: 231
Release: 2022
Genre: Federal government
ISBN: 1487540760

Canada's Deep Crown looks at the role of the Sovereign from the perspective of political science, history, and law to assess its role and influence in respect to how Canadians govern themselves.

Saskatchewan Politics

Saskatchewan Politics
Author: Howard A. Leeson
Publisher: University of Regina Press
Total Pages: 508
Release: 2009
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 9780889772342

In his 2001 volume on politics in Saskatchewan, Howard Leeson observed that vast changes were underway in the Saskatchewan polity, and he predicted that the familiar politics of the past would soon look jarringly antiquated. The contributors to this new volume--Saskatchewan Politics: Crowding the Centre--come to the conclusion that this process of change is now largely complete. As its subtitle makes clear, this new study suggests that political parties in the province have crowded closer and closer to the ideological centre. Without the fulcrum of ideological division, politics in the province appears to be more and more about personal and administrative clashes and less and less about substantive differences as to how the economy and society should be organized. In short, left and right are increasingly being left out of provincial politics. Includes a dvd of the 2006-08 Throne and budget debates between NDP leader Lorne Calvert and Saskatchewan Party leader Brad Wall.

The Future of Australian Federalism

The Future of Australian Federalism
Author: Gabrielle Appleby
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 505
Release: 2012-03-08
Genre: Law
ISBN: 1107006376

This volume explains and evaluates Australia's federal system and the options for reform from various comparative and disciplinary perspectives.

Crowns and colonies

Crowns and colonies
Author: Robert Aldrich
Publisher: Manchester University Press
Total Pages: 462
Release: 2016-08-25
Genre: History
ISBN: 1526100894

Queen Victoria, who also bore the title of Empress of India, had a real and abiding interest in the British Empire, but other European monarchs also ruled over possessions 'beyond the seas'. This collection of original essays explores the connections between monarchy and colonialism, from the old regime empires down to the Commonwealth of today. With case studies drawn from Britain, France, the Netherlands, Germany and Italy, the chapters analyse constitutional questions about the role of the crown in overseas empires, the pomp and pageantry of the monarchy as it transferred to the colonies, and the fate of indigenous sovereigns under European colonial control. The volume, with chapters on North America, Asia, Africa and Australasia, provides new perspectives on colonial history, the governance of empire, and the transnational history of monarchies in modern Europe.

The Constitution of Australia

The Constitution of Australia
Author: Cheryl Saunders
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 183
Release: 2010-11-30
Genre: Law
ISBN: 1847317405

Consistently with the aims of the series, the book canvasses the Australian constitutional system in a way that explains its form and operation, provides a critical evaluation of it and conveys a sense of the contemporary national debate. The chapters deal with the foundations of Australian constitutionalism, its history from the time of European settlement, the nature of the Australian Constitutions, the framework for judicial review, the legislative, executive and judicial branches of government, federalism and multi-level government and rights protection. Running through all chapters is the story of the gradual evolution of Australian constitutionalism within the lean but almost unchanging framework of the formal, written, national Constitution. A second theme traces the way in which the present, distinctive, constitutional arrangements in Australia emerged from creative tension between the British and United States constitutional traditions on which the Australian Constitution originally drew and which continues to manifest itself in various ways. One of these, which is likely to be of particular interest, is Australian reliance on institutional arrangements for the purpose of the protection of rights. The book is written in a clear and accessible style for readers in both Australia and countries around the world. Each chapter is followed by additional references to enable particular issues to be pursued further by readers who seek to do so. 'The Constitution of Australia' has already been cited in a High Court of Australia case: Momcilovic v The Queen [2011] HCA 34 (8 September 2011)