The 1990 Poll Tax and the First Employment Contract 2006 - Essay Example

The Role of Public Opinion in the Downfall of Policies - The 1990 Poll Tax and the First Employment Contract 2006: Introduction: Policies in electioncampaigns radically altered in the late 90's into the 21st Century, due to the demise of the Conservative Party after a series of policy blunders of which the proposed Poll Tax in the 1990s caused. This discussion will illustrate how public opinion and reaction is essential to the success of the government; as well as the primary factor in the failure of a policy being instituted. This discussion will also consider the new political agenda that governments must follow, because there has been a move away from left and right public policies to a middle ground. It is due to the Conservative Party's ignorance of the new public movements that caused the downfall of the Poll Tax being instituted, which is similar to the French approach earlier this year with the First Employment Contract 2006. The following discussion will explore the theory behind the rights assertion of citizens in reaction to unfair laws and policy reforms of the government, which is becoming very important to the validation of public policy. It is then going to consider the problems that the Conservative Government experienced with the Poll Tax in the 1990s and the French Government in respect to the First Employment Contract 2006. In this section it will illustrate how public opinion doomed these policies to the scrapheap. Power of Public Opinion and Pressure Groups on Public Policy - Literature Review: Carney has proposed that pressure groups have embarked on using the legal system for alternative methods than just setting precedent or using judicial review for ulterior motives than questioning the rule of law. This has occurred because the present legal system does not provide sufficient protection for the environment and he considers three theories of how pressure groups use the legal system which are; as a surrogate political process (Sax); adjunct to the political process; and rights assertion (Dworkin and Rawls). The following section will consider; each of these theories; the application that Carney proposes; and whether the theories of empowerment and grassroots movements provides any insight into providing environmental rights as sufficient access to justice against unfair public policy. The Surrogate Political Process theory argues that courts are completely independent from the political and as Sax argues that it is the only method of social reform that is not possible in the political arena of lobbying and the competing of interests.1 This is the radical form of the argument; however there is a more traditional line of argument as illustrated by Carney: The ability to operate as a surrogate political process the courts must have values which promote a different agenda to that which is being promoted by the traditional political process, and have the ability to ensure that these values are ultimately accepted in the traditional political process.2 The problem with this argument for the political/legal process is that it is not viable in the English Legal System, because of parliamentary sovereignty and the unwritten constitution because the English courts do not have the power to quash laws that are inconsistent with the constitution. In France, however, this is a possibility therefore extreme public reaction as to the First Employment Contract 2006 can result in the laws being quashed by the Courts. Therefore the government before losing in the courts in jurisdictions, such as France, will retract their public policy because of the ultimate failure of the policy due to the unfairness to the public. Adjunct to Political Process: This thesis recognizes the limitations of the court's ability to effect significant social change by itself - rather litigation is seen as another campaign tool - or in the words of David Robinson3 an arrow in the quiver. As a campaign tool litigation can serve a number of purposes. It may if successful legitimize the goal [of the Pressure Group] It may mobilize support for the [Pressure Group]... It may publicize the cause [of the Pressure Group] It may give the [Pressure Group] derivative bargaining power.4 This process is much more in line with the acts of the Pressure Groups in the UK, because of the unwritten constitution and parliamentary sovereignty. In the UK these groups have to delay policies and projects that are not in the interest of protecting social interests. Also it gives the groups greater backing and therefore a greater influence in the lobbying process and if a significant proportion of voters are in favor of social protection then the political process becomes interested, because of future interests of gaining or staying in power. The problem with this process is that the law does not change by quashing a law but over years of education; therefore a very re-active form of action and not as impacting on the legal system as Sax's theory. Rights Assertion is when 'litigation is used not to pursue policy changes in the political sphere, but to protect rights which have been breached'.5 This therefore returns back to the notion of rights and incorporating further rights for sufficient social protection. In the case of Pressure Groups there are certain rights that allow them to protest and possibly even civil disobedience due to the rights promised in participation rights with in a liberal democratic political system6. This form of process is limited to the type of rights that an individual holds within the legal system, one of the methods that Pressure Groups have used to ensure private property rights is to purchase land for wildlife reserves7, but is limited to the principles of the neighbor and the statutes contained within private law: The strength of property rights has been used substantially by the League Against Cruel Sports as a campaign tool. It has bought up land bordering hunts as wildlife sanctuaries and threatens trespass actions or brings trespass actions against hunts that enter these sanctuaries. For pure Pressure Group like Greenpeace use of property rights to protect the environment are beset with problemspurchasing land was considered to be outside what supporters had given their subscriptions for, and because of the uncertain timescale with civil actions would be incapable of being accommodated into the rest of the campaign.8 Hence creating a block to social groups in respect to civil law; however there is a possibility to bring private prosecution, which is primarily used by the RSPCA - however there is a restriction of funding imposed on the group, therefore no prosecution will be forthcoming unless the evidence was sound enough to secure a conviction.9 In order to efficiently use such a theory for social protection rights need to be broadened and therefore pressure groups can efficiently police the actions of the government. In respect to the First Employment Contract 2006 and the Poll Tax there was a mixture of different avenues of that were take; however primarily Rights Assertion and Protest was the avenue taken. This in addition to the different legal avenues taken by organized social groups, in respect to France Sax's Approach was taken; whilst in the UK the lobbying avenue of the political process was taken. Yet, the most powerful tool was the media, extreme public reaction and protest. It is through this that public opinion was gauged. It is also such reactions that the Labor Government in 1997 learnt to gauge in order to determine the best social policies to adopt. "Our continuing success depends on our continuing to pursue a new Labour agenda as a modern progressive party. We will focus on three crucial areas: the economy, modernising public services, tackling crime and asylum; building on what we have achieved to make Britain better since coming to office in 1997.10" Poll Tax 1990 & First Employment Contract 2006 - Facts and Background: In 1990 Thatcher decided that the best economic avenue for the British Economy was to bring in the poll tax. This was met by extreme resistance from the Middle and Working Classes in the UK because it would increase the tax burden for them by fixing the property and council tax paid as the percentage system in place today. It was a way to give tax breaks to the rich and companies, a good economic stance but unfair socially. This public policy caused uprisings from the British Public because it was considered unfair that a person living in a squalid flat had to pay the same rate on their property, per person, as a single person a penthouse flat. 18 million UK residents refused to pay the tax, mass protests happened including 200,000 protestors in Trafalgar Square on the 31st March 1990 which resulted in a poll tax riot. An anti-poll tax rally in central London has erupted into the worst riots seen in the city for a century.11 The refusal to pay poll tax was supported by the Labour opposition and even a Labour MP Terry Fields was imprisioned for 60 days for the refusal to pay.12 The Poll Tax debacle caused the downfall of the Thatcher and on 22nd November 1990 she resigned with all contenders for the position of Tory leader and Prime Minister pledging to abandon the tax, which successor John Major did. The main factor to the downfall of Thatcher and her policy was extreme social reaction, the use of the media, courts and protests to illustrate that public opinion is the key factor to their power in government.13 A similar reaction of the public through protest against unfair rightist policies happened in respect to the First Employment Contract 2006. This law seemed to take France back 100 years by allowing children to leave school as young as 14 to work, night work for 15 year olds and suspension of welfare for families if children are truant. It seemed to bring in extreme rightist policies without understanding the need for a proper balance of economics and the social needs of the citizen. This brought in the student movement as a group of protestors; as well as child welfare groups. Yet it is not this factor caused the main problem for the French government in public opinion, rather it was the relaxation of employee protection by changing the burden of proof in tribunals to the employee. This caused all the Trade Unions to mobilize in protest; as well as the general public and resulted in mass strikes and protests in France.14 This resulted in the government proposing changes on the 31st March 2006; however the public was not interested and this caused further enraged protests where 2000 students disrupted Chirac's Speech to the Nation and 6000 protestors gathered throughout the capital and kept protesting through to the 1st April 2006. The government upheld its changes but protests continued and in the end the government conceded defeat on 10th April 2006 the policy was revoked. Therefore these rightist policies which are not to a benefit to mass public are not met easily in the modern era of human rights; hence there needs to be an approach that understands what the public wants and needs. This is where the Labour Party in the UK has been successful in respect to balancing social and economic needs, which is in line with public policy. Conclusion - The Need to Gauge Public Opinion: The Third Way tries to amalgamate the two theories of capitalism and socialism illustrating that factors of both theoretical viewpoints are not necessarily mutually exclusive. Therefore the protection of society and culture, as well as the welfare of the masses is possible at the same time that individual human rights are upheld in a competitive market. This theory allows for a limited amount of interference of the state to provide an adequate social system without completely eliminating the rights of the individual in both area of property, opportunity and human rights. The new political groups, such as New Labour in the UK, that are groups that are traditionally socialist and have used the ideology of the Third Way to use capitalist politics. The rightist policies such as Conservative Government's Poll Tax and the French Government's First Employment Contract 2006 were doomed to fail because they failed to gauge modern public opinion, the new centralized political standpoint of individuals, the willingness of the public to assert their rights and the need for fairness and transparency in modern governance. The Labour Government in the UK illustrates the perfect model to follow in social policy and their adoption of gauging public opinion. This stance and the progression towards understanding the wants and needs of public opinion has definitely contributed to its success at election time and its advancement and evolution along these lines is what breeds the hope in the citizenry that social needs are maximized at the lowest cost, i.e. efficiency and accountability: "New Labour is as much as anything a socio-political coalition which seeks to consolidate a solid centre-ground - socially, economically, politically, culturally - by excluding both the radical left and its natural constituencies and the radical right and its... More money is spent on education, but progressive educational agendas are treated with even more contempt than under the Tories. The most feckless and destructive element of finance capital - the currency markets - are threatened with being brought to heel by our joining the Euro, but beyond that the city is allowed to behave much as it ever did. So what of those who, like Anthony Giddens, will argue that this is all simply a rational and creative response to a changing world15" In recent years the Labour Party has made blunders in respect to its failure to adequately gauge public opinion on its role in the Iraq War, asylum and terrorism issues; hence this has resulted in the imminent downfall of Tony Blair as Labour Leader. Therefore the most important factor to illustrate is that it is important to properly gauge public opinion and the voter; otherwise it can mean the end to political power or jeopardize the stability of the government as it did with the public policy catastrophes of the Conservative Government's Poll Tax, the French First Employment Contract 2006 and the Labour Government's approval of sending troops to Iraq. 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