Rules or Discretion? Officials and Government Formation Under MMP

Abstract

Relatively little academic attention has thus far been paid to the experiences of the public service under New Zealand's new proportional representation electoral system. This article focuses on the role of officials during periods of caretaker government, and in particular, on the contributions made by public servants to the formation of governments under MMP. The article reviews the history behind and operation of the arrangements which governed contact between coalition negotiators and officials immediately following the 1996 general election. The extent to which those procedures both protected the traditional impartiality of the public service and added value to the policy content of the Coalition Agreement is discussed, and in that context the merits and weaknesses of the protocols are assessed. Subsequent modifications to those arrangements are outlined, and the article concludes with an evaluation of the degree to which the changes announced by Cabinet in December 1998 will remedy the shortcomings of the 1996 arrangements.