Comments on: Should Auckland declare independence?

By: Pacific Empire » Blog Archive » Fragmentation watch

Pacific Empire » Blog Archive » Fragmentation watch — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 06:15:28 +0000

[...] of fragmentation is one of the most important trends in world politics. And it will come to New Zealand eventually. We have already, in recent months, seen the police dismantle an armed network [...]

By: Pacific Empire » Blog Archive » September update, and request for feedback

Mon, 02 Oct 2006 02:52:45 +0000

[...] Some posts triggered great discussions, especially “Should Auckland declare independence?”, which was linked to by John Robb and Chirol of Coming Anarchy, and also resulted in our top Google keyword being “south island independence.” [...]

By: Phil

Phil — Sat, 23 Sep 2006 03:12:48 +0000

Thanks, Newt. Good to hear some support for my speculations.

By: Newt

Newt — Sat, 23 Sep 2006 01:56:15 +0000

Federalism is a good idea, and probably an inevitable part of New Zealand’s future. We had Provincial Governments once, and perhaps we will have them again. The idea of Auckland as a city-state may attract wide appeal both within greater Auckland and without. Many Aucklanders feel that civilisation ends at the Bombay Hills; much of the rest of the country agrees with them .
There is a degree of devolutionary sentiment in the South Island, particularly in Otago and Southland. I don’t believe that anyone wants to stop being a New Zealander, but local control over local issues is going to become more important to more people as time goes on and values change along with changing demographics.
Good blog, by the way.

By: Phil

Phil — Mon, 18 Sep 2006 06:49:57 +0000

Chirol, I am honoured.

Lewis, the provincial system of government in early NZ seems to me to fit with my link between federal/devolved systems and transnational structures: ie, when NZ and Australia were part of the British Empire, Australia was made up of independent colonies and NZ had provincial rule. Do you have any more info about how it worked, and whether it was effective? I’d be interesed to hear your opinions.

My ideal would be for NZ to devolve power while reducing the size of government overall – both central and local government would give up many of their functions. But it might be a pipe dream… NZ has a small population but there are many states with smaller, some with just tens of thousands of citizens, so I don’t agree that population alone determines viability.

By: Lewis

Lewis — Sun, 17 Sep 2006 00:41:37 +0000

I think the main reason federalism isn’t on the agenda is that we’re simply too small to support an intermediate layer of government.

That said, I don’t think federalism is all bad, although I would note that the last time we had it (i.e. when New Zealand was divided into Provinces 1853 – 1876) it didn’t work that well.

By: Chirol

Chirol — Sat, 16 Sep 2006 12:06:14 +0000

You’ve picked up a new regular reader.

By: Phil

Phil — Sat, 16 Sep 2006 04:48:35 +0000

Thanks Chirol. I have fixed the link

Devolution or federalism is rarely discussed or considered here in NZ, but it’s possible to see the signs that such a trend could occur, or see parallels between regional differences here and those that have sparked separatism overseas. It’s still not likely in the short term, though.

By: Chirol

Chirol — Fri, 15 Sep 2006 18:26:42 +0000

I’m glad you’ve enjoyed my posts on microstates and devolution. Your discussion of NZ was especially interesting and most of all surprising.

On a side note, there is almost no question about Serbia and Kosovo. Kosovo will get independence, Serbia gave up all claim there by trying to wipe out the Albanians.

And lastly, the first link you have to us is to .org instead of cominganarchy.com