POL S101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Proportional Representation, Consociationalism, Procedural Justice
7 Jun 2018
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2018-06-05
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CHAPTER 8
Key Elements of the State:
Laws, Constitutions, and Federalism
Law and Politics
•“Law-boundedness” is a major feature of the modern state
•Ruler’s decisions written down (codified) and published to limit the use of arbitrary power
•The state was not always the source of law; religion or clan groups have been as well
•Western model was in some cases radically contrary to existing forms of governance
Indigenous Governance Models
in Canada
•Governance depends on the active participation of individuals
•Governance balances many layers of equal power
•Governance is dispersed
•Governance is situational
•Governance is non-coercive
•Governance respects diversity (Alfred, 2009)
Legal Positivism
•Western conception that law is what the state says it is
•State has a monopoly on the legislative activity
•Exemplified in the principle of secularism in which the state takes legislative precedence
over religious authority
The Rule of Law
•Almost all states have legislatures (law-making bodies)
•Law determines criminal behaviour, punishments for criminals, and provides impartial rules
for the adjudication of disputes
•Everyone in society is expected to obey the law and is considered equal before it
Conditions for Just Law
•General in scope
•Public
•Prospective rather than retroactive
•Clear
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Law as a Check on Power
•Legal system can restrain abuse of power by the executive
•Courts must be independent of the state so that judges can determine the merits of legal
cases despite political implications
Constitutions
•Two uses:
1. Denotes the overall structure of a state’s political system; the political culture of a state
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