A government policy statement is a declaration of a government's political activities, plans and intentions relating to a concrete cause or, at the assumption of office, an entire legislative session. In certain countries they are announced by the head of government or a minister of the parliament. In constitutional monarchies this function may be fulfilled by the Speech from the Throne.
In Germany and Austria the Chancellor submits a government policy statement at the beginning of the session of the Bundestag (in Austria: Nationalrat), in which he announces the intended policies of the government during the next legislative session. The statement is not legally binding, but is a significant constitutional commitment for the parliament and the government. During the legislative period the federal government, through the Chancellor and the ministers, can give statements to the parliament through the chancellor or the ministers concerning current political themes. It cannot however be obliged to give such statements.
Famous quotes containing the words government, policy and/or statement:
“We have passed the time of ... the laisser-faire [sic] school which believes that the government ought to do nothing but run a police force.”
—William Howard Taft (1857–1930)
“In the field of world policy I would dedicate this Nation to the policy of the Good Neighbor—the neighbor who resolutely respects himself and, because he does, respects the rights of others—the neighbor who respects his obligations and respects the sanctity of his agreements in and with a world of neighbors.”
—Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945)
“The force of truth that a statement imparts, then, its prominence among the hordes of recorded observations that I may optionally apply to my own life, depends, in addition to the sense that it is argumentatively defensible, on the sense that someone like me, and someone I like, whose voice is audible and who is at least notionally in the same room with me, does or can possibly hold it to be compellingly true.”
—Nicholson Baker (b. 1957)