I interviewed political experts in several countries that Freedom House — a major independent watchdog that assesses political and civil liberties all over the world — places roughly in Canada’s league. Those familiar with the Conservative government’s behaviour regard Canada’s political climate with incredulity and grave concern. Only one expert could name a comparable democracy in which a government so publicly disparaged independent public officials. We’ll get to that country in a minute. (Hint: it’s really cold too.)
But first: Sweden. Sweden reminds liberal Canadians of what, on its best days, we imagine our country to be. Egalitarian! Civilized! Full of lovely parks! But Ulf Bjereld, political science professor at Sweden’s University of Gothenburg, can’t recall a government-led rampage of vitriol ever stampeding through public offices in the Nordic nation.
“In Sweden it is extremely unusual that leading politicians criticize independent public officials,” says Bjereld. “If a politician makes such a public critical statement, he or she meets immediate criticism.”
While some Canadians aspire to be more Swedish, our unwieldy landmass, our commonwealth membership and our troubled history with Aboriginal peoples put us closer to Australia. But Canada’s doppleganger down under regards this behavior as outlandish. Andrew Banfield, political science lecturer at Australian National University, only remembers one Australian politician implicitly criticizing an independent official — and hastily apologizing.
As for whether Australian political leaders ever impugn public officials explicitly or without rapid retractions: “The answer is no,” Banfield says. “Punishment would be swift and severe for a politician who would try it.”
Australia’s neighbour would be just as repulsed by Harper-like attacks.
“If there is government dissatisfaction with independent public officials it is invariably dealt with discretely and with minimum fuss,” says Alan Simpson, senior lecturer of political science and public policy at New Zealand’s University of Waikato. “It would be seen as bad management by government to make it public.”
Simpson can’t even fathom a government takedown.
“It is not really part of the New Zealand way of tackling disagreements and disputes.” He concludes nearly apologetically: “It does sound as though you are on your own in Canada having to confront this situation.”
If anyone would know whether Canada is indeed on its own, it is Freedom House’s vice president of research, Arch Puddington.
“I can’t say that I can remember any case in European Union countries where you would have a controversy of this sort … where the head of state (or government) would have attacked the head of the electoral commission or the head of the court,” Puddington says.
Most damningly, Puddington states unequivocally that the government’s behaviour would be outrageous even in the United States, known as much for its divisive politics as its fabled democratic origins.
“For a president to attack an individual member of an independent government institution like, for example the Supreme Court, is unheard of. I say that within the context where presidents, and certainly many other elected officials, frequently criticize Supreme Court decisions, and even criticize them in pretty strong terms,” Puddington explains. “There are just certain boundaries, even under conditions of extreme polarization, that our public officials tend not to cross, and that would be one of them.”
Most democracies have similar boundaries — including the sole democracy I could find in which a government publicly and remorselessly disparaged independent officials.
Iceland’s inexperienced prime minister has made Harper-style attacks, calling the Central Bank director short-sighted, says Stefanía Óskarsdóttir, political science assistant professor at the University of Iceland. But most interestingly, Canada’s prime minister and Iceland’s share a similar temperament and ideology: Iceland’s prime minister is “overly sensitive to criticism” and responds harshly, Óskarsdóttir says, but he may also exploit populist distrust of elite public officials.
We can only hope Harper’s attacks aren’t as effective as they are petty. Michael MacKenzie, postdoctoral fellow with Harvard’s Ash Center and a friend, says the Canadian government is playing uncommonly “vindictive politics, with possibly grave consequences.” The consequences he fears cut to the core of every democratic system.
“You have to have independent actors entrusted to do their job without political interference. It kind of goes without saying. It gets into the basic concept of a democracy,” says Raj Chari, political science associate professor at Ireland’s Trinity College Dublin.
By publicly assailing independent officials with insults and accusatory innuendo, the Conservative government is violating democratic norms ensconced not only in Canada, but throughout the world. Harper is a global exception for all the wrong reasons.
Original Article
Source: canada.com/
Author: Shannon Gormley
No comments:
Post a Comment