POL214Y1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Responsible Government, The The, Speech From The Throne
Document Summary
The ability to influence what happens: not restricted only to government. Three reasons or faces of power: coercion (force), influence (persuasion), authority (legitimate) Democracies rely mainly on influence and authority. The constitution (part 1: purpose of a constitution, canada"s constitution (written and unwritten) Constitutions may be written or codified or unwritten. A constitution deals with two sets of relations: the relationship between citizens and the state. It identifies individual freedoms and rights an sometimes group rights, that the state cannot infringe: the distribution of functions and powers among the different parts of the state, which can be analyzed under tree main functional headings. In federal state, such as canada, the constitution also divides law-making powers among a national government and regional government. Canada"s constitution is not one document, but a series of laws passes between. In reference re secession of quebec (1998), the supreme court of canada identifies the following basic.
