New Zealand

New Zealand is an island off the coast of Australia. This land mass is cut in half, North Island and South Island are what the two halves are known as. New Zealand has two languages, Maori and English. New Zealand's ethnic groups are European, Maori, Asian, Pacific Islander, and mixed. New Zealand has a population of 4,076,140 people. The two main political parties are the Labour party and the National party. New Zealand thrived in the 20th century to become a major economic country on the world spectrum and continues to play a major role in world politics (Turner 135).

In 1901, New Zealand turned down the idea of joining in the Commonwealth of Australia. Instead, New Zealand decided to become a dominion under British rule. By becoming a dominion, New Zealand was equal in status to Australia and Canada. Over the course of the 20th century New Zealand suffers a fairly severe depression, along with majority of the world. New Zealand will go on to set up a more stable and more dependent government. The major parties battle it out for the majority control of the government. New Zealand will see many different faces ruling the country during the 20th century. New Zealand emerges as a world leader for having the heads of government controlled by a majority of women.

New Zealand is represented by a governor general within the commonwealth . New Zealand is also a democratic parliamentary monarchy and is governed by a House of Representatives with 120 elected members of parliament . These members are chosen from six different political parties (Culture Grams 476).

In 1935 the first response to the Great Depression was the forming of the Labour Party (Drexel 664). This was under the Prime Minister M.J. Savage. This party introduced public works programs, aid to farmers as well as health care and social security enhancements to minimize the deficit from the Depression (Drexel 662). In 1936 the National Party was made because New Zealand needed another party to contest the Labour Party. Through 1949 the Labour party held the majority and won almost all of the elections that were held. The National Party started to win some elections starting after 1949.(Drexel 664). The two parties battled it out for the majority until 1975 when the National Party was voted into power because New Zealand started to experience some economic instability. The economy was not growing any stronger and the voters voted the National Party into power (Ember 1596). The Labour Party did not return to power until 1984, when David Lange became Prime Minister. He opposed antinuclear defenses. This was when New Zealand cut off the alliance with the United States because they would not let the U.S. into their ports with any nuclear- powered vessels. New Zealand's relations with the U.S. did not improve until 1987 when the National Party was put back into office and supported a bipartisan non-nuclear policy (Ember 1596). The head of government is Helen Clark. She controls the majority party in the nation's 120- seat unicameral Parliament.(Culture Grams 476).

New Zealand has gone through a vast amount of struggles with political parties and Prime Ministers. I explained the two major parties in New Zealand and how they have changed the course of New Zealand. New Zealand has come a long way and even with some down falls, they still remain to have a successful government.

The United States and New Zealand have several things in common that most people would never have guessed. People generally associate Australia and New Zealand together as one general culture. In many ways that is true the cultures are alike but that culture is very similar to that of Americans. New Zealand and the United States are not completely different.