英美文化概况

英美文化概况

1.Emancipists: The emancipists are ex-convicts who were

fully or conditionally pardoned for conduct or service. They

became successful farmers,lawyers, architects and government

administrators. They contributed a lot to the development of

Australian society. By the 1820s, a third of the richest men in the

colony were emancipists, among them were Mary Reiby and

James Ruse.

2.Wakefield Scheme: Wakefield Scheme was devised by

Edward Wakefield, a convict and theorist on colonization, to solve

the problems of labour shortage in colonial Australia. His

proposal on the development of colonial Australia was that land

should not be freely and cheaply available. It should be sold at

sufficient price to ensure that only men of capital could afford it.

The money earned from selling land should be used to assist

selected free migrants to Australia.

3.The “Washminster” form of polity: The “Washminster”

form of polity is adopted by the Australia government. It is a

mixture of the US Washington system of government and the

British Westminster system. This means that the political

structure of the government is based on a Federation of States

with a three-tier system of government. However, the thief

executive is a Prime Minister, instead of a President as in the US

system.

4.The advantages of the pluralist form of government: The

advantages of the pluralist form of government are : it enables

the citizens to exercise their political right to choose their own

government; it secures transparency and accountability of the

government; it provides for an alternative government which can competently take over the state affairs should any government

collapse; the citizens can exert their power through major interest

groups.

5.Multiculturalism: Multiculturalism was adopted in 1973. It

was comprised of policy: Cultural Identity, which means the right

to express and share one’s cultural heritage; Social Justice, to

right to equal treatment and opportunity; and Economic

Efficiency, the need to maintain and develop the skills of all

Australia regardless of their backgrounds

6.The Write Australia Policy: The White Australia Policy was

officially adopted by the Commonwealth of Australia in 1901, in

the Immigration Restriction Art. It was made to stop Chinese and

other non-British migrants form entering and setting down in

Australia. This was mainly achieved through a diction test in a

European language. The White Australia Policy was officially

abolished in 1973.

7.The Resource Management Act：The Resource

Management Act reflects New Zealander s’ environmental

awareness. Under the Act, laws governing land, air and water

resources are combined together to ensure the sustainable

management of natural resources. It focuses on the effects of

human activities on the whole environment as well. The Act came

into force in 1991. With it, New Zealand leads the World in

environmental legislation.

8.MMPR：MMPR stands for Mixed Member Proportional

Representation. Under this new election system, each voter has

two votes, the first one for a candidate in their electorate, the

second for a political party. The second vote, when counted

nation-wide, decides the number of seats each party will take in

Parliament. 9.Structures of government：Canada’s system o f

government is based on the British system of parliamentary

democracy. Like Britain, Canada is a monarchy. The official head

of state is the Queen, but she is represented by an official called

a Governor General as she doesn’t live in Canada. Canada is a

federation with ten provinces and three territories. The gov

ernment of the country is referred to as “the federal

government”, to distinguish it from

the lower level government of each province. The Canadian

parliament is divided into the House of Commons and the Senate.

The members of the House of Commons are elected, whereas the

senators are appointed by the Governor General, who acts upon

the recommendation of the Prime Minister. The party that wins

the most seats in the House of Commons forms the Government

and the party leader becomes Prime Minister. The cabinet,

chosen by the Prime Minister, is made up of senior MPs from the

governing party.

10.Immigration policy of Canada: Canada’s immigration

policy is mainly based on practical economic considerations.

Immigration meant importing labour, even today immigration

policy is based on who the country needs to help it prosper.

Another characteristic is that it accepts more readily groups who

will more easily fit into the Canadian society. These make Canada

look hard-headed rather than humanization. There have been