Jon Johansson is a New Zealand political scientist and the former chief of staff for New Zealand First. [1] His academic specialties are New Zealand and American politics, as well as political leadership. He lectured these subjects at Victoria University of Wellington. [2]
Johansson earned his BA (Psychology/Political Science), BA(Hons), and PhD at Victoria University of Wellington. As an undergraduate, he was awarded the K. J. Scott Memorial Prize for best political science or international relations BA student in 1996 (joint) and the Alan Robinson Memorial Prize for best political science or international relations honours student in 1996 (joint). [3] His PhD dissertation "seeks to extend our theoretical understanding of political leadership by constructing an Integrated Political Leadership Model, one that introduces a diverse range of essential leadership ideas into the New Zealand literature." [4] For this thesis Johansson was awarded the Sir Desmond Todd Memorial Prize. [3] He went on to become a senior lecturer in comparative politics at Victoria University. In 2009, he spent the fall semester in Washington, D.C. as a Fulbright Visiting Scholar to Georgetown University.
Johansson also appeared as television political analyst, most especially during Election Day coverage of both New Zealand and the United States. A 2012 column by Thomas Friedman, Elephants Down Under featured Johansson's political musings. [5]
Following the 2017 New Zealand general election it was announced that Johansson would serve as the chief of staff for New Zealand First, succeeding David Broome. This announcement was met with surprise, including from political commentator Bryce Edwards and Sir Bob Jones. [6] [7] New Zealand First was defeated in the 2020 election and Johansson became a communications consultant and newspaper columnist. He returned to politics after the 2023 election when New Zealand First was re-elected, taking a position as a special advisor on foreign affairs to New Zealand First leader and foreign affairs minister Winston Peters. [8]
Johansson published a criticism of the Orewa Speech, which was delivered by Don Brash, the then-Leader of the Opposition: "Whether intended or not, the Orewa speech reinforced the ignorant and racist stereotype that Māori were 'savages' before the 'gift' of European civilisation was visited upon them." [9]
Johansson published The Politics of Possibility: Leadership in Changing Times in 2009. [10] In this monograph, Johansson attempts to discern if there are cycles in New Zealand politics. Drawing on the scholarship of Arthur Schlesinger Jr. and Erwin C. Hargrove, Johansson articulates three types of periods in New Zealand politics: preparation, achievement and consolidation. Johansson categorised the Prime Ministers of New Zealand:
| Preparation | Achievement | Consolidation |
|---|---|---|
| Robert Muldoon | ||
| David Lange | Geoffrey Palmer | |
| Jim Bolger (1990–1993) | Jim Bolger (1996–1998) | |
| Jim Bolger (1993–1996) | Jenny Shipley | |
| John Key | Helen Clark |
Johansson also argued that there have been four transformative epochs in New Zealand political history. The first was the centralisation of government under Julius Vogel. The second was the emergence of an "active and fair state" under the Liberal administration of John Ballance and Richard Seddon. The third was the establishment of a comprehensive welfare state under the First Labour Government. The fourth was the monumental economic reforms under the Fourth Labour Government.
Victoria University of Wellington is a public research university in Wellington, New Zealand. It was established in 1897 by Act of Parliament, and was a constituent college of the University of New Zealand.
Winston Raymond Peters is a New Zealand politician who has been the leader of New Zealand First since it was founded in 1993. He was re-elected for a fifteenth time at the 2023 general election, having previously been a member of Parliament (MP) from 1979 to 1981, 1984 to 2008 and 2011 to 2020. Peters has served as the 13th deputy prime minister of New Zealand and 25th minister of foreign affairs since November 2023.
New Zealand First, commonly abbreviated to NZ First, is a populist and nationalist political party in New Zealand. The party formed in 1993 following the resignation of its leader and founder, Winston Peters, from the National Party. Peters had been the Member of Parliament for Tauranga since 1984 and it was the base for New Zealand First until defeats to National Party candidates in 2005 and 2008. The party has formed coalition governments with both major political parties in New Zealand: with the National Party from 1996 to 1998 and 2023 to present, and with the Labour Party from 2005 to 2008 and 2017 to 2020. New Zealand First currently serves in a coalition government with both National and ACT as part of the Sixth National government.
Donald Thomas Brash is a former New Zealand politician who was Leader of the Opposition and leader of the New Zealand National Party from October 2003 to November 2006, and leader of the ACT New Zealand party for seven months from April to November 2011.
The 1984 New Zealand general election was a nationwide vote to determine the composition of the 41st New Zealand Parliament. It marked the beginning of the Fourth Labour Government, with David Lange's Labour Party defeating the long-serving Prime Minister, Robert Muldoon, of the National Party. It was also the last election in which the Social Credit Party won seats as an independent entity. The election was also the only one in which the New Zealand Party, a protest party, played any substantial role.
The Values Party was a New Zealand political party. It is considered the world's first national-level environmentalist party, pre-dating the use of "Green" as a political label. It was established in May 1972 at Victoria University of Wellington. Its first leader was Tony Brunt, and Geoff Neill, the party's candidate in the Dunedin North electorate, became the Deputy Leader.
Derek Francis Quigley is a New Zealand former politician. He was a prominent member of the National Party during the late 1970s and early 1980s, and was known for his support of free-market economics and trade liberalisation. Quigley left the National Party after clashing with its leadership, and later co-founded the ACT New Zealand party.
The Orewa Speech was a speech delivered by the then-leader of the New Zealand National Party Don Brash to the Orewa Rotary Club on 27 January 2004. It addressed the theme of race relations in New Zealand and in particular the status of Māori people. Brash approached the subject by advocating 'one rule for all' and ending equitable measures and affirmative action for Māori, which he described controversially as "special privileges".
Raymond Tau Henare is a former New Zealand Māori parliamentarian. In representing three different political parties in parliament—New Zealand First, Mauri Pacific and the National Party—Henare served as a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1993 to 1999 and from 2005 to 2014.
Christopher Francis Finlayson is a New Zealand lawyer and former Member of Parliament, representing the National Party.
The China–New Zealand relations, sometimes known as Sino–New Zealand relations, are the relations between China and New Zealand. New Zealand recognised the Republic of China after it lost the Chinese Civil War and retreated to Taiwan in 1949, but switched recognition to the People's Republic of China on 22 December 1972. Since then, economic, cultural, and political relations between the two countries have grown over the past four decades. China is New Zealand's largest trading partner in goods and second largest trading partner in services. In 2008, New Zealand became the first developed country to enter into a free trade agreement with China. In recent years, New Zealand's extensive economic relations with China have been complicated by its security ties to the United States.
Steven Leonard Joyce is a New Zealand former politician, who entered the New Zealand House of Representatives in 2008 as a member of the New Zealand National Party. As a broadcasting entrepreneur with RadioWorks, he was a millionaire before he entered politics. In 2008 he became Minister of Transport and Minister for Communications and Information Technology. He later became Minister of Science and Innovation, and then served as Minister of Finance and Minister for Infrastructure.
Eleanor Catton is a New Zealand novelist and screenwriter. Born in Canada, Catton moved to New Zealand as a child and grew up in Christchurch. She completed a master's degree in creative writing at the International Institute of Modern Letters. Her award-winning debut novel, The Rehearsal, written as her Master's thesis, was published in 2008, and has been adapted into a 2016 film of the same name. Her second novel, The Luminaries, won the 2013 Booker Prize, making Catton the youngest author ever to win the prize and only the second New Zealander. It was subsequently adapted into a television miniseries, with Catton as screenwriter. In 2023, she was named on the Granta Best of Young British Novelists list.
Darroch Leicester Ball is a New Zealand politician of the New Zealand First party.
Rebecca Katherine Priestley is a New Zealand academic, science historian, and writer. She is Professor in Science in Society at Victoria University of Wellington.
Nicola Valentine Willis is Deputy Leader of the National Party and Minister of Finance in a Coalition Government with ACT and New Zealand First. Willis entered the New Zealand Parliament in 2018, when she inherited Steven Joyce's seat in Parliament as the next on the party list after his retirement from politics.
Mary McCallum is a publisher, author and journalist from New Zealand.
Elizabeth McLeay is a New Zealand political scientist. She is currently an Emeritus Professor at Victoria University of Wellington.
Laurence Fearnley is a New Zealand short-story writer, novelist and non-fiction writer. Several of her books have been shortlisted for or have won awards, both in New Zealand and overseas, including The Hut Builder, which won the fiction category of the 2011 NZ Post Book Awards. She has also been the recipient of a number of writing awards and residencies including the Robert Burns Fellowship, the Janet Frame Memorial Award and the Artists to Antarctica Programme.
During the 1990s New Zealand saw a growth in populism, a political trend whose advocates claim to work for "the people" rather than for the "elite". The rise of populism in the country has been attributed to the introduction of the mixed-member proportional electoral system, as well as to the populist nature of election campaigns, such as that of the Labour Party in the lead-up to the 1999 election. The New Zealand First party, which has historically taken a nationalist standpoint, has been described as a populist party.