New Zealand Democrats for Social Credit

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New Zealand Democrats for Social Credit
Party leader Stephnie de Ruyter
Deputy Chairman Chris Leitch
Emergence From the political movement of the Social Credit came
founding 1953
Place of foundation Wellington
Headquarters Invercargill
Alignment Left
Colours) green
Parliament seats 0
Website www.democrats.org.nz

The New Zealand Democratic Party for Social Credit is a left-wing party in New Zealand . She represents the economic theory of social credit , which was developed in the 1920s by Clifford Hugh Douglas . Originally founded in 1953 as the Social Credit Political League , it became the first major challenge to the established two-party system in New Zealand. Shortened Social Credit known, reached the party in 1966, 1978 and 1981 significant agreement and in 1981 a vote share of nearly 21% in the parliamentary elections.

history

The movement that grew out of Douglas' theories in English-speaking countries around the world had spread to New Zealand when the Social Credit Association was founded in the 1930s . While there were still discussions in 1943 as to whether the movement should form a party, the step towards a party was taken in March 1953 at the latest with the establishment of the Social Credit Political League .

The first party chairman was Wilfrid Owen , a businessman from Christchurch , who led the newly founded party in 1954 with candidates from 79 constituencies in the parliamentary elections. Under Owen's leadership, the party advocated the establishment of a monetary authority to ensure a balance between production and income. Reducing bureaucracy, promoting agriculture and improving the health system were also on the agenda. Due to the majority electoral system at that time, the League could not reach any of the parliamentary seats by direct election despite a considerable electoral success with 11.1% of the votes.

In May 1960, PH Matthews took over the leadership of the party and, in addition to a Bill of Rights , u. a. limit the power of the state. After two unsuccessful elections, Vern Cracknell finally won the former constituency of Hobson in 1966 and thus prevailed against the candidate of the National Party .

In 1972 Bruce Beetham , a charismatic young man from New Plymouth , became chairman of the party and, with a reorientation, managed to raise the vote in the general election in 1978 to double digits and to win a direct mandate. Beetham positioned his League politically between the Labor Party and the National Party , addressing the right fringes of Labor and the left fringes of National and giving the party more liberal traits. The high point of his success and that of his party came in 1981. 20.7% of the votes and two direct mandates marked the success of the party, which was now the third largest force in the country after votes, but also made it clear how unfair the majority electoral system in New Zealand was to this Time was. According to the proportional representation system, the Social Credit Political League would actually have granted 19 seats out of the 92 seats in the House of Representatives , but would only have received two seats through the direct election of the candidates. Perhaps this also explains how the party fell three years later to 7.6%, but perhaps the party's renaming also played a part in this.

In 1982 the name of the party was changed from Social Credit Political League to Social Credit Party and only three years later in 1985 to New Zealand Democratic Party . Shortly before the general election in 2005, the party changed its name again and has been called New Zealand Democrats for Social Credit, or Democrats for Social Credit for short .

The party has not won any seats in the parliamentary elections since 1987 and in 2014 was far behind in the elections with only 1,730 votes and a share of 0.07% of the 15 participating parties in 12th place.

Parliamentary elections

Participation in parliamentary elections as the Social Credit Political League
General Election Share of votes Seats
1954 11.1% 0
1957 7.2% 0
1960 8.6% 0
1963 7.9% 0
1966 14.5% 1
1969 9.1% 0
1972 6.7% 0
1975 7.4% 0
1978 16.1% 1
1981 20.7% 2
1984 7.6% 2

Source: Electoral Commission New Zealand

See also

literature

  • Janine Hayward (Ed.): New Zealand Government and Politics . 6th edition. Oxford University Press , Melbourne 2015, ISBN 978-0-19-558525-4 (English).
  • David Calderwood : Not a Fair Go: A history and Analysis of Social Credit's Struggle for Success in New Zealands's Electoral System . The University of Waikato , Waikato 2010 (English, thesis ).
  • Raymond K. Miller : Social Credit, an Analysis of New Zealands's Perennial Third Party . University of Auckland , Auckland June 1987 (English, dissertation).
  • John Sidney Gully : Political Parties - Social Credit Political League . In: Alexander Hare McLintock (Ed.): An Encyclopaedia of New Zealand . Wellington 1966 ( online [accessed December 15, 2015]).

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Bryce Edwards : 4.6 The MicroParties . In: New Zealand Government and Politics . 2015, p.  265 .
  2. ^ Bryce Edwards : 4.6 The MicroParties . In: New Zealand Government and Politics . 2015, p.  23 .
  3. ^ A b c Jennifer Curtin, Raymond Miller : Political parties - Challenging the two-party system . Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand , July 13, 2012, accessed May 26, 2015 .
  4. ^ Gully : Political Parties - Social Credit Political League . In: An Encyclopaedia of New Zealand . 1966.
  5. ^ Raymond K. Miller : Social Credit, an Analysis of New Zealands's Perennial Third Party . 1987, p.  279 .
  6. ^ Raymond K. Miller : Social Credit, an Analysis of New Zealands's Perennial Third Party . 1987, p.  288 .
  7. ^ David Calderwood : Not a Fair Go: A history and Analysis of Social Credit's Struggle for Success in New Zealands's Electoral System . 2010, p.  111 f .
  8. ↑ Amir Abedi : Anti-Political Establishment Parties . A Comparative Analysis . Routledge , London 2003, ISBN 0-415-31961-7 , pp.  63 (English).
  9. ^ The New Zealand Democratic Party for Social Credit . (No longer available online.) Yahoo News , July 10, 2014, archived from the original on May 26, 2015 ; accessed on May 5, 2019 (English, original website no longer available).
  10. ↑ Official Count Results - Overall Status . Electoral Commission New Zealand , accessed May 26, 2015 .
  11. ↑ General elections 1890-1993 . Electoral Commission New Zealand , accessed May 26, 2015 .