Monday, July 20, 2009

Technocracy and the President

The last piece of the jigsaw regarding the cabinet of experts and its implementation in the current Irish system is the role of the President. I have hinted upon a few changes to this role in the previous posts and here I shall fully explain them.
Firstly one must realized that with an apolitical Taoiseach the president's role must expand. The President would be no longer apolitical, but rather seen as the last line of defense for the citizens, should the cabinet of experts fail on an issue. Thus the President must take a much more proactive role in the politics, and be allowed to fully criticize the government, should he/she feel that the cabinet is abusing its powers, for example. This proactive role means that the President is no longer apolitical, but an active member of the political scene and requires indeed for the constitution to be changed, as right now the President must ask for the approval of the government to make a statement to the public about the political situation in the country.
Secondly the requirement of the Council of State to meet when the President is considering vetoing a law should be abolished. The President must be a person that must know the laws of the country and calling for the Council of State to present its opinions on a proposed bill does not already alter the President's opinion. Furthermore, the President should also act as the last defence for the citizens, so even if a proposed bill should be in accordance with the constitution but the President sees it is against the interest of citizens he/she should act accordingly. This is a second mechanism of control for the apolitical government, should they abuse their powers.
(this second point, however, is purely my own wish and the technocratic government can be work without it)
When the President does reject a bill, it comes back to the Dáil, where it is debated again. To prohibit the bill to be simply passed again there is a requirement that the bill must win 2/3 majority. This is considerably higher than the usual 50% and makes sure that some amendments and changes were made to the bill. This also allows for control of the President, even. With the 2/3 majority, it is clear that the Dáil supports the proposed bill and, assuming the TDs represent the interest of the people, the bill is not against the citizens either. This bill, approved of by the 2/3 majority, would have to be signed by the President then, as the President's veto has been 'overvoted'.
Of course the President has a vital role when appointing the Taoiseach, as proposed by the Dáil majority. If there are doubts about the nominee, it is the duty of the President to refuse appointing the nominee for the office of the Taoiseach, even if approved of by the Dáil.

That concludes the series of posts regarding the Technocracy and the difference it makes to the institutions that already exist. I the next few days I will bring forward a few extra points regarding Technocracy that simply didn't fit into any other post and after that I shall try to answer any criticism of Technocracy.

2 comments:

  1. Problem being that whichever party is popular enough to be elected to the government, will be likely to be popular enough to have their president elected. Such a president will be unlikely to go against theirt party much.

    Secondly, allowing the President to act against the Constitution "when it is in the citizen's interests effectively gives them a blank check.

    As a member of the defence forces, I am uneasy about having a politicised commander in chief.

    The reason countries like Ireland and England have an apolitical head of state is that we need a rallying figure and embodiment of the nation. Allowing them to be villified as partisan (like the US president) takes away from this.

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  2. I would not advocate for the President to have powers as big as the US President. Even today we vote our president in on the basis of which political party supports them.

    What I would say is that seeing that under technocracy the Taoiseach is apolitical, the President must be able to act in a way to stop the government should it abuse its powers.

    Thanks for pointing out the fact that the President is the commander in chief of the defense force, I have completely forgotten then. I will think more on this and will address this.

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