RUSSIAN POLITICAL SYSTEM
The constitution of 1993 provides
strong powers for the President. The President has broad authority to issue
decrees and directives that have the force of law without legislative review,
although the constitution notes that they must not contravene that document or
other laws. Russia's strong presidency is sometimes compared with that of
Charles de Gaulle in the French Fifth Republic (1958-69).
The Prime Minister is appointed by
the President with the approval of the Duma and is first-in-line to the
presidency in the case of the President's death or resignation. Historically
the role of Prime Minister has been very much subservient to that of the
President. However, this situation changed in March 2008 when Vladimir Putin
stepped down as President - as he was constitutionally required to do - and
became Prime Minister while the First Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev
stepped up to the Presidency. In May 2012, Putin returned to the Presidency and
former President Medvedev became Prime Minister in an exchange of roles.
The lower house in the Russian
Federal Assembly is the State Duma. It is the more powerful house, so all
bills, even those proposed by the Federation Council, must first be considered
by the Duma. However, the Duma's power to force the resignation of the
Government is severely limited. It may express a vote of no confidence in the
Government by a majority vote of all members of the Duma, but the President is
allowed to disregard this vote.
The Duma has 450 members who are
known as deputies. Originally seats in the Duma were elected half by
proportional representation (with at least 5% of the vote to qualify for seats)
and half by single member districts. However, President Putin passed a decree
that from the November 2007 election all seats were to be elected by
proportional representation with at least 7% of the vote to qualify for seats.
This 7% threshold was one of the highest in Europe and, by introducing this;
Putin eliminated independents and made it effectively impossible for small
parties to be elected to the Duma.
The upper house in the Russian
Federal Assembly is the Federation Council. The Council has 170 members who are
known as senators. Each of the 85 federal subjects of Russia sends two members
to the Council.
The federal subjects are the 47
oblasts (provinces), the eight krais (various large territories with the same
legal status as oblasts)), the two federal cities (Moscow and St Petersburg),
the 21 republics (areas of non-Russian ethnicity), the four autonomous okrugs
(various regions) and one autonomous oblast (the Jewish Autonomous Oblast),
each category of which has different powers. In 2014, Sevastopol and the
Republic of Crimea became the 84th and 85th federal subjects of Russia,
although the two most recently added subjects are internationally recognized as
part of Ukraine. One senator is elected by the provincial legislature and the
other is nominated by the provincial governor and confirmed by the legislature.
For the fact that the territorial
nature of the upper house, terms to the Council are not nationally fixed, but
instead are determined according to the regional bodies the senators represent.
The Council holds its sessions within the Main Building on Bolshaya Dmitrovka
Street in Moscow, the former home of the Soviet State Building Agency
(Gosstroi).
The main political party is called
United Russia and is led by Dmitry Medvedev. It was founded in April 2001 as a
result of a merger between several political parties. It describes itself as
centrist, but it is essentially a creation of Vladimir Putin and supports him
in the Duma and the Federation Council. In the Duma election of December 2011,
even with the alleged voting irregularities, United Russia's share of the vote
fell by 15% to just over 49% and the number of its deputies fell by 77 to 238.
However, in the election of September 2016, the party - while winning 54% of
the vote - increased its number of seats by 105 to 343.
The main opposition party is the
Communist Party of the Russian Federation led by Gennady Zyuganov. In the
election of 2011, it won 19% of the vote and took 92 seats. At the last Duma
election in 2016, its share of the vote fell to 13% its seat count fell by 50
to 42. The other parties in the Duma are the Ultra-nationalist Liberal
Democratic Party of Russia (led by Vladimir Zhirinovsky) with 39 seats (down by
17) and the fake opposition party A Just Russia (led by Sergey Mironov) with 23
seats (down by 41).
The Constitutional Court of the
Russian Federation consists of 19 judges, one being the Chairman and another
one being Deputy Chairman. Judges are appointed by the President with the
consent of the Federation Council. The Constitutional Court is a court of
limited subject matter jurisdiction. The 1993 constitution empowers the
Constitutional Court to arbitrate disputes between the executive and
legislative branches and between Moscow and the regional and local governments.
The court also is authorized to rule on violations of constitutional rights, to
examine appeals from various bodies, and to participate in impeachment
proceedings against the President.
THE POLITICAL SYTEM OF THE UNITED KINGDOM
Ø
Britain has no Written constitution
example of other nation that has the same unwritten constitution are the Israel
and New Zealand.
Ø
Their political system is not
logical or neat, democratic and efficient.
Ø
They have gradual change, pragmatic
and building a solid foundation on consensus.
Ø
The British attitude is separate
from Europe and other people or cultures to that extend they are not interested
in new or different ideas and this was the major factor behind the Brexit
decision of 23rd June 2016.
Note: a referendum – a vote in which everyone (or nearly everyone)
of a voting age can take part – was held on Thursday 23 June 2016, to decide
whether the UK should leave or remain in the European Union. Whether to leave,
won by 51.9% to 48.1%, the referendum turnout was 71.8%, with more than 30
million people voting (http://www.bbc.com.news.uk-politic...).The UK is due to
leave the EU on 29th March 2019 at 11pm. UK time, when the
period for negotiating a withdrawal agreement will end unless an extension is
agreed. The UK joined the European Communities (EC) in 1973, with membership
confirmed by a referendum in 1975 (http://enwikipedia.org>wiki>Brexit).Brexit is
abbreviations for British exit; referring to the UK’s decision in a June 23,
2016 referendum to leave the European Union.
The
British political system is headed by a monarch but essentially the powers of
the monarch as head of state - currently Queen Elizabeth II - are ceremonial.
The most important practical power is the choice of the Member of Parliament to
form a government, but the monarch follows the convention that this opportunity
is granted to the leader of the political party with the most number of seats
in the House of Commons or who stands the best chance of
commanding a majority in a vote of confidence in the Commons. The senior royals
notably the Queen and her eldest son the Prince of Wales have to be consulted
about legislation that might affect their private interests and given the
opportunity to have such legislation amended. Traditionally the choice of
monarch has been determined on the hereditary and primogeniture principle which
means that the oldest male child of a monarch was the next in line to the
throne. Under the terms of the Act of Settlement of 1701, the
monarch and the monarch's spouse could not be Catholics because the UK monarch is
also the Head of the Church of England. In 2015, the primogeniture
principle was abolished, so that the next in line can now be a female
eldest child, and the monarch can marry a Catholic but not him or her to be
one.
1.
The executive - the Ministers who run the country and propose
new laws
2.
The legislature - the elected body
that passes new laws
3.
The judiciary - the judges and the
courts who ensure that everyone obeys the laws.
In the political system of the United States, the
constitution provides that there must be a strict division of powers of these
three arms of the state, so that no individual can be a member of more than
one. So, for example, the President is not and cannot be a member of the
Congress. This concept is called 'separation of powers', a term coined by the
French political, enlightenment thinker Montesquieu. This is
not the case in the UK where all Ministers in the government are members of the
legislature and one individual, the Lord Chancellor, is actually a member of
all three arms.
THE
UK PARLIAMENT
The
British Parliament is often called Westminster because it is
housed in a distinguished building in central London called the Palace of
Westminster which stands out because of the clock tower at the south end (the
Elizabeth Tower and it houses Big Ben) and the tower with a flag at the other
end (the Victoria Tower). The British Parliament - like that of larger
countries is bicameral, that is there are two houses or chambers;
the House of Commons and House of Lords. We can find
unicameral legislatures in smaller nations such as: Denmark, Sweden, Finland,
Greece, Israel and New Zealand, although China and Iran are two larger nations
with a single legislative chamber (but neither of these countries practices
democracy).
The
House of Commons
This
is the lower chamber but the one with the most authority. The Commons is
chaired by the Speaker. Unlike the Speaker in the US House of Representatives,
the post is non-political but by convention, the political parties do not
contest the Parliamentary constituency held by the Speaker. The House of
Commons currently comprises 650 Members of Parliament or MPs
(the number varies slightly from time to time to reflect population change). This
is a large legislature by international standards. For instance, the House of
Representatives in the USA has 435 seats but, whereas, each of the 50 US states
has its own legislature. The Coalition Government of 2010-2015 passed
legislation to reduce the number from 650 to 600, as part of a wider change to
the number and size of constituencies, but Parliament blocked the process of
redrawing boundaries that is necessary before an General Election can be held
with fewer seats.
Rather
oddly (but deliberately), there is insufficient seating capacity in the chamber
of the House of Commons for all the MPs. Members do not sit at desks (like most
legislatures) but on long, green-covered benches and there is only seating
capacity for 437 MPs out of the total of 650. The origin of this strange
arrangement is that the Commons first home was the medieval St Stephen's Chapel
in the Palace of Westminster which could only fit around 400 Members.
Every
citizen aged 18 or over can vote once in the constituency in which they live.
Voting is not compulsory (as it is in Australia). In the last General Election
of May 2015, 66.1% of the electorate actually voted. Most democratic countries
use a method of election called proportional representation (PR) which means
that there is a reasonable correlation between the percentage of votes cast for
a particular political party and the number of seats or representatives won by
that party.
The
House of Lords
This
is the upper chamber but the one with less authority. Its main roles are to
revise legislation and keep a check on Government by scrutinising its
activities. Since 1911, its power to block "money bills" is limited
to one month and its power to block other bills is limited to one session, so
ultimately it cannot block the will of the House of Commons. Furthermore, since
1945, there has been the Salisbury Convention that the House of Lords will not
oppose a measure that was specifically mentioned in the last election manifesto
of the political party forming the Government.
The
House of Lords is an utterly bizarre institution that has no parallel anywhere
in the democratic world. The explanation for the unusual nature of the Lords
goes back to the beginning of this essay: the British political system has
evolved very slowly and peacefully and it is not totally logical or democratic.
House
of Lords reform is unfinished business. The Parliament Act of 1911 first raised
the prospect of an elected upper house but it has still not happened. There is
a cross-party consensus that it should become a mainly elected body, although
there is as yet no agreement on the details of the next stage of reform.
THE
LEGISLATIVE PROCESS
In
the British political system, almost all legislation is proposed by the
Government and much of it comes from promises made in the manifesto of the relevant
political party at the election. At the beginning of each annual session of the
Parliament, the main Bills to be considered are announced by the Queen in a
speech opening that year's session of Parliament.
All
legislation has to be approved by both Houses of Parliament.
In
each House of Parliament, a proposed piece of legislation - called a Bill -
goes through the following stages:
Ø First Reading - the Bill is introduced with simply a reading
by a Minister of the long title of the Bill
Ø
Second Reading - the general
principles of the Bill are debated by all the members of the House and a formal
vote is taken
Ø
Committee Stage - each clause and
schedule of the Bill, plus amendments to them and any new clauses or schedules,
is examined in detail, in the Commons by a small, specially chosen group of
members meeting as Public Bill Committee or in the Lords by the members as a
whole on the floor of the House
Ø
Report Stage - the changes made to
the Bill in the Committee are reported to and debated by the whole House which
is invited to consider the Bill as a whole, approve the changes by the
Committee, and consider any further proposed changes that might be suggested
Ø
Third Reading - the final version of
the Bill is considered by the whole House in a short debate (in the Commons
without the facility for further amendments)
Ø
Royal Assent - the Crown gives
assent to the Bill which then becomes an Act, the provisions becoming law
either immediately or at a date specified in the Act or at a date specified by
what is called a Commencement Order
Several points are
worth noting about the legislative process:
Ø
Under normal circumstances, all
these stages must be completed in both Houses in one session of Parliament;
otherwise the process must begin all over again.
Ø
Debates on most Bills are timetabled
through a programme motion (when Government and Opposition agree) or an
allocation of time motion which is popularly known as a 'guillotine' motion
(when Government and Opposition do not agree).
Ø
As well as almost all legislation
coming from the Government, almost all successful amendments originate from the
Government.
Ø
Ultimately, exactly the same text of
a Bill must be approved by both Houses of Parliament. If the House of Lords
approves an amendment to a Bill from the House of Commons, then the Bill
returns to the Commons for further consideration. Usually the Lords amendment
is not accepted by the Commons which is, after all, the elected chamber with
the the democratic mandate. If the Lords insists on passing the amendment - or
something like it - again, then the process of the Bill passing back and forth
between the two Houses is known colloquially as "ping-pong".
Ø
The House of Lords has much more
limited legislative powers than the House of Commons. Money Bills can only be
initiated in the Commons and the Lords can only reject legislation from the
Commons for one year. Furthermore there is a convention - called the Salisbury
Convention - that the Lords do not block legislation in fulfillment of the
election manifesto of the elected Government.
This process of enacting legislation applies to what is
called primary legislation which starts as a Bill and finally become an Act.
Another type of legislation is called secondary (or delegated) legislation
which is usually more detailed. The power to make specific pieces of secondary
legislation comes from specific pieces of primary legislation. A piece of
secondary legislation - formally called an Order-in-Council - is not even debated
unless it is particularly controversial and then it cannot be amended but
simply approved or opposed. In practice, the last time Parliament rejected a
piece of secondary legislation was in 1979.
Recently,
the number of Bills passed by Parliament has remained broadly constant at
around 50 a year. However, these Bills have become longer and, in the past few
years, about 3,000 pages of primary legislation, as well as around 13,000 pages
of secondary legislation, have been processed by Parliament. The reality,
therefore, is that Parliament provides increasingly less scrutiny of a lot of
legislation. This situation could become even worse as Parliament attempts to
deal with all the legislation needed to take the UK out of the European Union
(Brexit).
POLITICAL
PARTIES
The
idea of political parties first took form in Britain and the Conservative Party
claims to be the oldest political party in the world. Political parties began
to form during the English civil wars of the 1640s and 1650s. First, there were
Royalists and Parliamentarians; then Tories and Whigs. Whereas the Whigs wanted
to curtail the power of the monarch, the Tories - today the Conservatives -
were seen as the patriotic party.
Today
there are four major political parties in the British parliamentary system:
Ø
The Conservative Party (frequently
called the Tories) - the centre-Right party, currently led by Theresa May,
which since 2010 has been in Government either in coalition (2010-2015) or
alone (since 2015)
Ø
The Labour Party - the centre-Left
party, led by Jeremy Corbyn, which was last in Government from 1997 to 2010
Ø
The Scottish National Party - the
party supporting Scottish independence, which is led by Nicola Sturgeon
Ø
The Liberal Democrat Party (known as
the Lib Dems) - the centrist, libertarian party, led by Vince Cable, which was
the junior member of the Coalition Government of 2010-2015
In recent years, Britain has seen the rise of the UK
Independence Party (UKIP) led by Nigel Farage until May 2015, which was formed
in 1993 but achieved some spectacular performances in local and European
elections in May 2014. In the general election of May 2015, it won 12.6% of the
vote but, in the general election of June 2017, its vote collapsed to a mere
1.8%.
In
addition to these five parties, there are some much smaller UK parties (notably
the Green Party) and some parties which operate specifically in Wales (Plaid
Cymru) or Northern Ireland (such as the Democratic Unionist Party for the
loyalist sand Sinn Fein for the nationalists).
Each
political party chooses its leader in a different way, but all involve all the
Members of Parliament of the party and all the individual members of that
party. By convention, the leader of the political party with the largest number
of members in the House of Commons becomes the Prime Minster (formally at the
invitation of the Queen).
The UK has a devolved system of government, but this is categorically not a system of federal government such as in the United States or Australia, partly because less than a fifth of the citizens of the UK are covered the three bodies in question and partly because the three bodies themselves have different powers from one another.
The
three devolved administrations are:
1. The Scottish Parliament
This
came into operation in May 1999 and covers the 5Million citizens of Scotland.
It has 129 members elected by a system of proportional representation known as
the mixed member system. As a result, 73 members represent individual
geographical constituencies elected by the 'first past the post' (FPTP) system,
with a further 56 members returned from eight additional member regions, each
electing seven members. All members are elected for four-year terms. The
Scottish Parliament meets in Holyrood, Edinburgh. It has legislative powers
over those matters not reserved to the UK Parliament and it has limited
tax-raising powers. In the election of May 2011, for the first time a single
political party gained an overall majority of the seats in the Scottish
Parliament. That party was the Scottish National Party and its victory enabled
it to require the UK Government to permit the holding of a referendum on
Scottish independence. The referendum was held on 18 September 2014 and, on an
astonishing turnout of 85%, the 'no' vote won a decisive victory by 55% to 45%.
However, in the final week of the two-year referendum campaign, the three major
parties in the UK Parliament agreed that, if the Scots voted 'no', there would
be an early transfer of substantial extra powers to the Scottish Parliament.
This is now the subject of fierce political debate because of the implications
for the other nations in the UK and for the UK Parliament itself.
2. The Welsh Assembly
This
came into operation in May 1999 and covers the 3Million citizens of Wales. It
has 60 members elected by a system of proportional representation known as the
mixed member system. As a result, 40 members represent individual geographical
constituencies elected by the 'first past the post' (FPTP) system, with a
further 20 members returned from five additional member regions, each electing
four members. All members are elected for four-year terms. When first created,
the Assembly had no powers to initiate primary legislation. However, since
2006, the Assembly has powers to legislate in some areas, though still subject
to the veto of the Westminster Parliament. The Assembly has no tax-varying
powers. The Welsh Assembly, therefore, has less power than either the Scottish
Parliament or the Northern Ireland Assembly because unlike Scotland and Northern
Ireland Wales does not have a separate legal system from England.
3. The Northern Ireland Assembly
The present version of the Assembly came into operation in May 2007 and covers the 1.5Million citizens of Northern Ireland. It has 108 members, six from each of the 18 Westminster constituencies elected by a system of proportional representation known as the single transferable vote (STV). It meets in the Parliament Building, Belfast. It has legislative powers over those matters not reserved to the UK Parliament, but it has no tax-raising powers. A First Minister and a Deputy First Minister are elected to lead the Executive Committee of Ministers. As a result of the sectarian division in Northern Ireland, the two must stand for election jointly and to be elected they must have cross-community support by the parallel consent formula, which means that a majority of both the Members who have designated themselves Nationalists and those who have designated themselves Unionists and a majority of the whole Assembly, must vote in favour. The First Minister and Deputy First Minister head the Executive Committee of Ministers and, acting jointly, determine the total number of Ministers in the Executive.
LECTURER: OGENYI, M. N.
POLITICAL SCIENCE DEPARTMENT
FED. COLLEGE OF EDUCATION EHA-AMUFU
Good one
ReplyDelete