Government and Laws. The Government has played a role in making the country a utopia, and even the government system is in itself Utopian. The New Zealand’s Head of State is the Queen Elizabeth II of New Zealand who is represented by the Governor General (Inkson, 2004). The country does not a single written constitution or any regulations that are supreme to the Acts of Parliament (New Zealand Parliament, 2010). The Government of New Zealand democratically elected through the House of Representatives in a general election that takes place after every three years (Coates, 1975). The power is distributed through the three arms of government, the judiciary, the parliament and the executive. They three arms check on each other creating a democracy that is important in a utopia (Coates, 2000). The Parliament is made up of the Sovereign and the House of Representatives. The House of Representatives will pass the bills but which must receive assent from the Sovereign, the Queen. The Ministers are elected members of parliament. In 2005, New Zealand was the only country whose top government positions, the Queen, the Governor General (Silvia Cartwright), the Speaker (Margaret Wilson (and the Prime Minister (Helen Clark), had been held by women at the same time, (New Zealand Parliament, 2005).
Political Philosophy (Individualism, Communism, Isolationism)
There are several political parties in New Zealand such as the Labour party, the Green party, the Maori Party among several others (Inkson, 2004). Every Member of Parliament has to join a political party and everyone has a choice to join any party (Kenneth, 1962).
It was the beauty of the country that attracted the earlier settlers the Maori and the colonialists from the European countries. The perception of New Zealand as a Utopia started a long time ago, first with the Maori and later by European colonialists. The colonialists thought of New Zealand as a place where they would create their own Utopia as seen in these words by Lord George William Lyttelton ” What we wish is to plant a community to include all that is good in our society at home; to exclude as far as possible all that is evil”, (Sargent, 2001). They were led by an individual desire to get a better life from their home countries. The community was to be created in Canterbury which was to be part of the Church of England, where no one would be so poor or so rich, thus the beginning of communism in the country. John Bull described New Zealand as having the same of everything as England, the only difference being these things were better in New Zealand. Those who moved to New Zealand had left England in search for a better life with less aristocracy and they found in New Zealand where each was his own master, as long as one worked for it, (Sargent, 2001).