What is Responsible Government?

IT seems to us that at the bottom of the failure of the authors of the joint Report to provide for the initiation of immediate responsible government even in the Provinces lies a misconception as to the meaning of “responsible government.” “We understand this phrase to mean,” they say, “that the members of the Executive Government should be responsible to, because capable of being changed by, their constituents; and, secondly, that these constituents should exercise their power through the agency of their representatives in the assembly.” This is not the meaning the average man understands. To him it means, the responsibility of the Executive Government to the legislature, and its responsibility through the legislature to the people who elect the legislature.

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