364 THE BRITISH APPROACH TO POLITICS

Westminster and certain minor alterations, they are still governed.

The States enjoy greater independence than do the Canadian

Provinces. The Commonwealth Government has control of

armed forces, marriage laws, immigration, tariff policy, and

some other economic matters expressly mentioned in the Act;

but the States have "residual powers". As in the United States,

the courts, particularly the Federal Supreme Court, will uphold

the rights of States, and declare unconstitutional any law of the

Commonwealth Parliament which infringes them. Consequently,

many experiments in social policy have been made by the States

—as also by the Commonwealth as a whole. There are at present

six States enjoying these rights, and two others, Central and

Northern Australia, which, like the Territories of Canada, are;

controlled by the Federal Government. Despite the building of

the impressive Federal. Capital at Canberra, it has not been easy

to keep the States together, because of their different economic

interests, and the vast size of the Continent. Western Australia

has made a request to be separated from the Commonwealth.

To alter the Constitution, an Act must first be passed through
both Houses of Parliament, and then submitted to the vote of
the whole people; if it secures a majority, both in each State, and
in the Commonwealth as a whole, it becomes law. This device
of submitting a proposed law to popular vote is known as the
Referendum. It serves to keep elected assemblies subject to the
electors* will. If extensively used, it has the drawback of weaken-
ing the Government; but when restricted to laws altering a
Federal Constitution, it is a valuable safeguard of the rights of
the Federal States. The Swiss Confederation makes use of it
both for Constitutional and other laws.

The Federal Government is in the hands of the Governor-
General and a Federal Executive Council, whose members must
sit in one or other of the two Houses of the Legislature—the
Senate and the House of Representatives. Both these Houses are
directly elected by the people, but while the former contains an
equal number from each State, the total membership of the