Suchergebnisse

Although it has just 4 million people & an economy that is almost entirely based on agriculture, New Zealand has been nominated by the UN as the world's third most advanced in e-government. That might surprise foreigners but not Kiwis, who have always had a rapid uptake of new technology. Leading the country into an electronic world is the E-Government Unit, which is charged with coordinating & integrating e-services across all government agencies. Some of the solutions are original but New Zealand has not hesitated to scour the world for best-of-practices solutions & modify them to its own environment. Adapted from the source document. COPIES ARE AVAILABLE FROM: HAWORTH DOCUMENT DELIVERY CENTER, The Haworth Press, Inc., 10 Alice Street, Binghamton, NY 13904-1580

This article contributes to an increased understanding of how parties apply the new information & communication technology by presenting an analysis of the character of party websites at the New Zealand general election in 2005. The hypothesis is that the application of the new information & communication technology varies among the major & minor parties represented in Parliament as it does in relation to other, traditional media, whereas parties not represented in Parliament have a slight advantage when compared to the represented parties, thus testing a combination of the two competing hypotheses within the field, the "normalization" & "levelling of the playing field" hypotheses, respectively. Analysis of the participation encouragement, information provision & resource mobilization on New Zealand party websites provides some support for the combination of the two hypotheses. Both in regard to participation encouragement & information provision, the major parties are on average scoring higher than the minor parties who are, in turn, scoring higher than parties not represented in Parliament. However, the latter parties are not as far behind as might be expected if assessed by electoral support or resources. In regard to resource generation, the difference between parties seems to pertain more to parliamentary representation than to size. Nevertheless, the averages conceal variation within the three groups of parties. Both major parties & minor parties not represented in Parliament are among the high scorers on each dimension. This could point more towards support for the hypothesis of "levelling the playing field" -- or at least for providing new positions for the parties within the playing field.

Mãori, the indigenous people of Aotearoa, represent 17%1 of the 4.3 million population. Mãori cultural identity is strong despite the fact that most Mãori live in urban centres. The gap between Mãori and non-Mãori is pervasive: Mãori life expectancy is almost 10 years less than non-Mãori; household income is 72% of the national average; half of Mãori males leave secondary school with no qualifications and 50% of the prison population is Mãori. There are two versions of the Treaty of Waitangi, an English-language version and a Maori-language version. The Treaty was signed between the British and Mãori in 1840. It granted right of governance to the British, promised that Mãori would retain sovereignty over their lands, resources and other treasures and conferred the rights of British citizens on Mãori. The Treaty has, however, limited legal status in the courts and Parliament; accordingly, protection of Mãori rights is largely dependent upon political will and the ad hoc recognition of the Treaty. The current National government endorsed the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in 2010.