Re:Federal Government Begins First Shutdown In 17 Years
by caf on Tuesday October 01, 2013 @01:48AM
(#6474370)
It is worth remembering that the framers of the Australian Constitution were informed by, among other things, the United States' century of experience with their Constitution. They had a chance to fix some of the bugs.
Re:Federal Government Begins First Shutdown In 17 Years
by nknighthb on Tuesday October 01, 2013 @01:45AM
(#6474359)
The Westminster conventions your Constitution derived from are younger than the US Constitution (and your Constitution is about half the age of ours), and your Constitution was not written by a generation that had just fought a war to free itself from a monarchy. The Presidency was deliberately neutered, and the concept of blocking supply as a tool to thwart already-passed laws was not well-established.
Re:Federal Government Begins First Shutdown In 17 Years
by vacri on Tuesday October 01, 2013 @01:31AM
(#6474302)
It seems odd that the writers of the constitution didn't recognise the problem.
There had only been a couple of similar republics before - there wasn't a lot of [codified] experience in the area. The Holy Roman Empire and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth had some similar power structures, for example, but I imagine that their process of obtaining and distributing funds was fairly different.
Similar problems happen all around the world where there is a minority government or an upper house blocking supply bills. The unusual thing with the US is the lack of constitutional mechanisms to resolve the problem before the government has to shut down. It seems odd that the writers of the constitution didn't recognise the problem.