|
...rhinoceros gold or silver. Each distinctive sub-unit or rank of the civil service also had a badge of rank in the form of a cloth chess piece embroidered, in the case of the civil hierarchy, with birds in pairs. The top rank had two stately cranes soaring above clouds. The lowest rank had a pair of earth-bound quails, pecking the grass. The military ranks wore breast patches carrying images of fierce animals such as lions, tigers, bears and panthers.
There was one distinct civil service unit with a unique system of badge identification. Western scholars, by an inaccurate analogy with the Roman administrative system, called this unit the "censorial" or "supervising" branch of government. Its role was to maintain the integrity of the mechanisms of governance. Civil officials in this branch had an embroidered breast patch, which was identical for all members of the branch, regardless of rank. It displayed a legendary animal called a Hsieh-chih which could detect good from evil and, allegedly, could smell an immoral character from a distance, whereupon the Hsieh-chih would leap upon the person and tear him or her to pieces.
The Chinese censorial system was organised as a separate branch of government to maintain surveillance over all other governmental activities and thereby enforce proper behaviour through processes of impeachment, censure and punishment. It also had the function of initiating recommendations for change of governmental policies, practices or personnel. The success of the Chinese Imperial tradition, a system of administration, manifest in its longevity, has been attributed to the power and vigilance of the censorate.
The thirteenth-century Mongol emperor Kublai Khan once said of his governmental structure: "The Secretariat is my left hand, the Bureau of Military Affairs is my right hand, and the Censorate is the means for my keeping both hands healthy."
Insofar as the Chinese system had a separation of powers, which given the overriding authority of the emperor could not be rigid, it was the censorate rather than the judicial arm of government that could be characterised as sufficiently independent to constitute such a separation. One of the means by which this independence was enforced was that censors had a right to directly address the throne by means of written memorials, without any intervening official commentary. If not independence in our sense, there was a substantial degree of institutional autonomy.
Of course, like any other branch of government the censorate was liable to develop institutional interests of its own. There is a natural tendency in any surveillanee mechanism to come to believe that the administration of government exists for the purposes of being investigated. There would naturally be times when these processes were taken too far. One Imperial Grand Secretary complained about the continued intervention of censors in matters of administration. He said they were like the "squawkings of birds and beasts".
In the 1920s, Sun Yat-sen proposed that the Republic of China adopt a five yuan or branch system of government comprised of three branches from the Western governmental tradition--executive, legislative and judicial--and two from China's past: an examination branch and a control or integrity branch. When an American constitutional lawyer recently proposed that modern constitutions should now incorporate a separate institutionalised integrity branch of government, another American scholar drew attention to the similarity between that proposal and the Chinese imperial tradition adopted by Sun Yat-sen.
I recognise that there have been a number of candidates for a "fourth branch" designation over the years. The number does not matter. The idea does. The primary basis for the recognition of an integrity branch as a distinct functional specialisation, required in all governmental structures, is the fundamental necessity to ensure that corruption, in a broad sense of that term, is eliminated from government. However, once recognised as a distinct function, for which distinct institutions are appropriate, at a level of significance which acknowledges its role as a fourth branch of government, then the idea has implications for our understanding of constitutional and legal issues of broader significance.
I will presently outline some of the many ways in which this function is performed. However, recognising "integrity" as a fundamental mechanism of governance, to the degree that it can be called a fourth branch of government, equivalent in significance to the legislative, executive or judicial branches, allows us to analyse the individual components in a different way. I put the idea of integrity forward as a useful way to conceptualise a universal governmental function, within which the body of law known as administrative law may find a place.
CONSIDERED AS a branch of government, the concept focuses on institutional integrity rather than personal integrity, although the latter, as a characteristic required of occupants of public office, has implications for the former. I use the word in its connotation of an unimpaired or uncorrupted state of affairs. This involves an idea of purity which, in the context of mechanisms of governance, will often give rise to contestable propositions. Nevertheless, in any stable polity there is a widely accepted concept of how governance should operate in practice. The role of the integrity branch is to ensure that that concept is realised, so that the performance of governmental functions is not corrupt, not merely in the narrow sense that officials do not take bribes, but in the broader sense of observing proper practice.
So understood, institutional integrity goes beyond matters of legality. However, it is not so wide as to encompass any misuse of power. Beyond issues of legality, the integrity of a governmental institution is determined by two additional considerations. First, the maintenance of fidelity to the public purposes for the pursuit of which the institution is created. Second, the application of the public values, including procedural values, which the institution was expected...
NOTE: All illustrations and photos
have been removed from this article.
More articles from Quadrant
David Day's defence mythology., November 01, 2004
Housman, Baldwin and the King.(Ryan), November 01, 2004
Laws against obesity and other sins.(Society), November 01, 2004
How Woodstock passed me by.(Devine), November 01, 2004
Why the Queen is not our head of state.(The Constitution), November 01, 2004
Looking for additional articles?
Search our database of over 3 million articles.
Looking for more in-depth information on this industry?
Search our complete database of Industry & Market reports by text, subject, publication
name or publication date.
About Goliath
Whether you're looking for sales prospects, competitive information, company
analysis or best practices in managing your organization,
Goliath can help you meet your business needs.
Our extensive business information databases empower business
professionals with both the breadth and depth of credible,
authoritative information they need to support their business
goals. Whether it be strategic planning, sales prospecting,
company research or defining management best practices -
Goliath is your leading source for accurate information.
|
%20%20&position=1)