POL 212 LESSON NOTE FOR YR2 POLITICAL SCIENCE STUDENTS NCE FCEE

 

POL 212 COMPARATIVE POLITICS

Comparative politics is a field in political science, characterized by an empirical approach based on the comparative method. In other words, comparative politics is the study of the domestic politics, political institutions, and conflicts of countries. It often involves comparisons among countries and through time within single countries, emphasizing key patterns of similarity and difference. Arend Lijphart argues that comparative politics does not have a substantive focus in itself, but rather a methodological one: it focuses on “the how? but does not specify the what? of the analysis.” In other words, comparative politics is not defined by the object of its study, but rather by the method it applies to study political phenomena.

 Peter Mair and Richard Rose advance a slightly different definition, arguing that comparative politics is defined by a combination of a substantive focus on the study of countries' political systems and a method of identifying and explaining similarities and differences between these countries using common concepts.  Rose states that, on his definition: "The focus is explicitly or implicitly upon more than one country, thus following familiar political science usage in excluding within-nation comparison. Methodologically, comparison is distinguished by its use of concepts that are applicable in more than one country.

When applied to specific fields of study, comparative politics may be referred to by other names, such as for example comparative government (the comparative study of forms of government) or comparative foreign policy (comparing the foreign policies of different States in order to establish general empirical connections between the characteristics of the State and the characteristics of its foreign policy).

Comparative politics studies diverse political systems and organizations and the various components that comprise and inform the formulation of governments. Comparative politics also takes a closer look at how political groups outside formal government systems influence or have an effect on formal government policies and actions.

Greek thinker Aristotle (circa 384 BCE to circa 322 BCE, is often cited as the father of comparative politics and political science. Aristotle compared the different political organizations he encountered in Athens, as well as those operating in other Greek city-states. In his analysis of these systems, he sought to discover what was good in a government and what was bad in a government so that what was learned could be used to improve the political process.

 

Sometimes, especially in the United States, the term "comparative politics" is used to refer to "the politics of foreign countries." This usage of the term, however, is often considered incorrect. "Comparative political science" as a general term for an area of study, as opposed to a methodology of study, can be seen as redundant. The political only shows as political when either an overt or tacit comparison is being made. The highest award in the discipline of Comparative Politics is the Karl Deutsch award, awarded by the International Political Science Association. So far, it has been given to Juan Linz (2003), Charles Tilly (2006), Giovanni Sartori (2009),  Alfred Stepan (2012) and Pippa Noris (2014).

 

 

CHINESE, RUSSIA AND UNITED KINGDOM'S POLITICAL SYSTEM

 

CHINESE POLITICAL SYSTEM

The Chinese Communist Party is almost schizophrenic in its economic policies. China still maintains a communist society but, on the other hand, its economy is more capitalist than most European countries. Chinese country is the largest in the world by population and it is a nation of growing economic and political importance in global affairs, it is a political system rivaled in its opacity by the government of North Korea. Ever since the end of the civil war in 1949, the Communist Party of China (CPC) has ruled the country. The Party is over 89-million membership which makes it the biggest political party in the world.

 

THE CONSTITUTION

The Constitution of the People's Republic of China is amendable document. The first Constitution was adopted in 1954. After the two intervening versions, the constitution enacted in 1975 and 1978, the current Constitution was declared in 1982. There were significant differences between each of these versions, and the 1982 Constitution has subsequently been amended not less than four times (1988, 1993, 1999, and 2004). Furthermore, changing Constitutional conventions have led to significant changes in the structure of Chinese government in the absence of changes in the actual text of the Constitution.

They have no special organization tasked with the enforcement of the Chinese Constitution. , More so, under the legal system of the People's Republic of China (PRC), courts lack the general power of judicial review and cannot invalidate a statute on the grounds that it violates the Constitution.

 

THE POLITBURO

These are the main group of people in a communist government who make decisions about policy. Most significant decision affecting China is first discussed and approved by a handful of men who sit on the party's Political Bureau or Politburo which is the nexus of all power in their nation of 1.3 billion. 25-member Politburo is elected by the party's Central Committee. New Politburo members are chosen only after rigorous discussion and investigation of their backgrounds, experience and views. To reach the top, people need a strong record of achievement working for the party, to have the right patrons, to have dodged controversy, and to have avoided making powerful enemies.

 

China's most senior decision-making body is the seven-member Standing Committee of the Politburo which works as a kind of inner cabinet and groups together with the country's most influential leaders. The current members are Xi Jinping (the President), Han Zheng, Wang Huning, Li Zhanshu, Li Keqiang (the Prime Minister), Wang Yang, and Zhao Liji. Members are elected to serve for a term of five years. How the Standing Committee operates is secret and unclear, but its meetings are thought to be regular and frequent, often characterized by blunt speaking and disagreement. Although policy disagreements and factional fighting are widely believed to take place in private, it is extremely rare for these to break into the public domain.

Members of the Standing Committee also share out the posts of party General Secretary, Premier, Chairman of the National People's Congress, and Head of the Discipline Inspection Commission. The Politburo controls three other important bodies and ensures the party line is upheld through these bodies. These are:

Ø     the National People's Congress or parliament

Ø     the State Council, the government's administrative arm

Ø     the Military Affairs Commission which controls the armed forces

 

The President of China is the head of state. He is currently Xi Jinping who was appointed at the end of 2012 in the expectation that he would serve for 10 years. The president is widely regarded as having acquired more power and as behaving in a more paranoid fashion than any other leader since Mao Zedong, having abandoned the Communist Party's once hallowed tradition of 'collective leadership' in favour of strongman rule by himself. While he is genuinely opposed to corruption among party officials, he has used his anti-corruption campaign to remove rivals and consolidate power.

 

 

THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE

The Central Committee is elected once every five years by the National Congress of the Communist Party of China although in fact almost all of these people are approved in advance. This Central Committee has 205 full members and 171 lower-ranking or "alternate" members". It meets every couple of months. The Central Committee is, formally, the "party's highest organ of authority" when the National People's Congress is not in session. According to the Party Constitution, it is vested with the power to elect the General Secretary and the members of the Politburo, its Standing Committee, and the Military Affairs Commission, and to endorse the composition of the Discipline Inspection Commission. It also oversees work of various powerful national organs of the party.

 

THE NATIONAL PEOPLE'S CONGRESS

Under China's 1982 constitution, the most powerful organ of state is meant to be the National People's Congress (NPC), China's unicameral legislature. However, the reality is that this is little more than a rubber stamp for party decisions. The Congress is made up of 2,270 delegates elected by China's provinces, autonomous regions, municipalities and the armed forces. Delegates hold office for five years. The full Congress is convened for one session in March of each year and lasts a mere two weeks. This means that China has the largest legislature in the world which meets for the least time in the world.

 

 

The NPC has shown some signs of growing independence over the past decade. For instance, in a notable incident in 1999, it delayed passing a law bringing in an unpopular fuel tax. It has also been given greater leeway drafting laws in areas like human rights. The formal position is that Congress "elects" the country's highest leaders, including the State President and Vice-President, the Chairman of the government's own Military Affairs Commission, and the President of the Supreme People's Court.

 

THE STATE COUNCIL

The State Council is the cabinet which oversees China's vast government machine. It sits at the top of a complex bureaucracy of commissions and ministries and is responsible for making sure party policy is implemented from the national to the local level. In theory, the State Council answers to the National People's Congress, but more often the State Council submits legislation and measures which the NPC then approves.

The State Council's most important roles are to draft and manage the national economic plan and the state budget, giving it decision-making powers over almost every aspect of people's lives. It is also responsible for law and order. The full council meets once a month, but the more influential Standing Committee comes together more often, sometimes twice a week. This committee is made up of the country's premier, four vice-premiers, state councillors and the secretary-general.

 

THE MILITARY AFFAIRS COMMISSION

China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) - currently 2.25 million strong - has always defended the party as much as national borders. During the early years of communist rule, most of the country's leaders owed their positions to their military success during the civil war, and links between them and the PLA remained very close. However, as this generation has died off and reforms have been introduced to make the armed forces more professional, the relationship has shifted subtly.

This Commission has the final say on all decisions relating to the PLA, including senior appointments, troop deployments and arms spending. PLA officers are also party members and there is a separate party machine inside the military to make sure rank and file stay in line with party thinking. The Military Affairs Commission also controls the paramilitary People's Armed Police (1.5 million strong), which has the politically sensitive role of guarding key government buildings, including the main leadership compound of Zhongnanhai in Beijing.

 

THE DISCIPLINE INSPECTION COMMISSION

Party members suspected of corruption, bad management or breaking with the party line are liable to be brought before the Discipline Inspection Commission, set up to deal with internal party discipline and to monitor abuses. Indeed, as economic reforms have gathered pace, corruption has become probably the single most damaging issue for the party's standing.

President has launched an assault on inefficiency and corruption. The targets of the anti-corruption campaign have included the former head of security Zhou Yongkang, the country's highest-ranking official to be prosecuted in more than three decades, and Ling Jihua, a top aide to the former president Hu Jintao. Of course, such actions, as well as combating corruption, serve to eliminate opponents and consolidate power.

 

THE COURTS

Unlike in democratic countries, the China's court system is in no sense independent. Both main legal organs answer to the National People's Congress. The Supreme People's Procuratorate is the highest legal supervisory body, charged with safeguarding the constitution, laws and people's rights. The Supreme People's Court sits at the top of a pyramid of people's courts going down to the local level. Public security organs are in charge of the investigation, detention and preparatory examination of criminal cases.

 

THE PROVINCES

China is governed as 23 provinces,  the 23 Provinces are: Anhui, Fujian, Gansu, Guangdong, Guizhou, Hainan, Hebei, Heilongjiang, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangsu,  Jiangxi, Jilin, Liaoning, Qinghai, Shaanxi, Shandong, Shanxi ,Sichuan, Yunnan,  Zhejiang, and Taiwan five "autonomous" regions: Ningxia Hui, Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang Uygur, Tibet and Guangxi Zhuang. four municipalities - considered so important they are under central government control (Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin and Chongqing) - and two special administrative regions namely Hong Kong and Macao (Macau). The people in charge of these bodies have a group of about 7,000 senior party and government leaders - are all appointed by the party's organization department.

S/n	Area	Provinces
1	Central South	Honan, Hunan, Hupeh, Kiangsi, Kwangsi, Kwangtunt
2	East China	Anhwei, Chekiang, Fukieeennn, Kiangsu, Shantung
3	Inner Mongolia	Northern Chahar, Suiyuan
4	North China	Southern Chahar, Hopeh, Shansi
5	North East China	Antung, Heilungkiang, Jehol, Kirin, Liaohsi
6	North West China	Kansu, Ningsia, Shensi, Sinkiang, Tsinghai
7	South West China	Kweichow, Sikang, Szechuan, Yunnan

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Though, many are powerful individuals - the governor of Sichuan province ruled over 80 million people - their ability to deviate from the party line is limited because they know their next career move would be at stake. Nevertheless, most analysts agreed that the centre has lost some control to the regions in the past two decades, especially in the economic field.

 

RUSSIAN POLITICAL SYSTEM

 

The Russian political system is one of the more recent to embrace democracy but remains deeply flawed in terms of its democratic credentials, overwhelmingly tainted by corruption, and massively influenced by the power and personality of one man, Vladimir Putin. The Russian Federation was the largest nation to emerge from the breakup of the Soviet Union in December 1991. Following the constitutional crisis of 1993, Russia adopted a new constitution in a referendum of December 1993. Essentially the country is described as a federal presidential republic.

 

 

THE PRESIDENT

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 first President of the new Russia was Boris Yelsin who was elected in June 1991. He was followed by his hand-picked successor Vladimir Putin. After a term as Acting President, he was elected for his first term in May 2000 and for a second term in March 2004. In accordance with the constitution, he stepped down in March 2008 and was succeeded by his nominated successor Dmitry Medvedev (previously a First Deputy Prime Minister). In March 2012, Putin was re-elected as President on the first ballot in a widely criticized election in which the opposition candidates were weak, the media was compliant, and there were many electoral irregularities. He took office in May 2012 and will serve for six years. Constitutionally Putin could seek one further term and, if elected, would therefore be President until 2024 when he would be 71. The next presidential election is in March 2018, Putin will definitely stand, and he will certainly be elected.

 

THE EXECUTIVE

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 STATE DUMA

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.

 

Recently Duma is elected on a single day for a term of five years, with parallel voting that was used between 1993 and 2003. Therefore, half of the 450 seats are elected by proportional representation from closed party lists with a 5% electoral threshold with the whole country as a single constituency. The other 225 seats are elected in single-member constituencies using the first-past-the-post system. Under the original 1993 constitution, elections were held every four years but, in November 2008, the constitution was amended to make the Duma's term five years. A Duma election was held in December 2011 (when turnout was only 60%). So a Duma election should have been on 4 December 2016 but was brought forward to 18 September 2016 (when turnover fell to a record low of just 48%). The next election will be due on 2021. The Duma is headquartered in central Moscow, a few steps from Manege Square.

 

 

THE FEDERATION COUNCIL

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).

 

POLITICAL PARTIES

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 JUDICIARY

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.

 

Although in theory the judiciary is independent, most observers believe that major elements of the judiciary - together with the police and prosecution authorities - are under the political control of the Kremlin and more specifically Vladimir Putin. The world describes the current state of the Russian political system as "managed democracy" or "sovereign democracy" or simply as "Putinism". The three political parties not in government are called the "systemic opposition". The dismissal of Russia's powerful prosecutor-general Yuri Skuratov in 1999, the indictment of Russia's richest oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky in 2003 and again in 2010, the unexplained murder of investigative journalist Anna Plitkovskaya in 2006, the death in prison of the lawyer Sergei Magnitsky in 2009, the imprisonment of the three Pussy Riot members Maria Alyokhina, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova & Yekaterina Samutsevich in 2012, the expulsion from the Duma of opposition deputy Gennady Gudkov in 2012, the conviction of opposition leader Alexei Navalny in 2013, and the assassination of leader of the opposition Boris Nemtsov in 2015, are but the most dramatic examples of the iron grip on political power exercised by Putin and his allies.

THE POLITICAL SYTEM OF THE UNITED KINGDOM

 

Political system of every nation is shaped by history. The fundamental continuity could be said to be the important nature of understanding the British political system. The nation has not been invaded or occupied by any substantial territory rather they were the one that invade and occupy other territories. For the first time in history it was only in 1066 that England was invaded by the Normans. So getting to 1000 years they have not been invaded or occupied by any nation.

 

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 23^rd 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 29^th 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 political history of the British has been a struggle to shift power and accountability from the king that claimed his right to rule is from God. With the power tussle democracy here was trying to survive and there has been increasing representatives of ordinary people and accountable to ordinary people. In 1215 their King John was forced to sign the Magna Carta which has to do with the sharing of power with the Barons. This was regarded as the first statement of citizens’ rights in the world of which the Hungarians enjoyed the Golden Bull for seven years. The first Representative Assembly was called Model Parliament that was concluded by King Edward I in 1295.  The British Parliament is Bicameral in nature of which the House of Commons and Lords emerged in 1341, having served as a template in very many other parliamentary systems. The 1689 bill lays down limits on the powers of the crown and sets out the rights of Parliament and the parliamentary rules, freedom of speech, Parliamentary regular election requirement and that the monarch can be petitioned without fear of retribution.

 

Further Reform Acts followed in 1867 and 1884. It was in1918 before the country achieved a near universal franchise and 1970 before the last extension of the franchise (to 18-21 years). Another important feature of British political history is that three parts of the United Kingdom; Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have a special status and have local administrations with a wide range of responsibilities. However, England which represents about 84% of the total UK population of around 65 million does not have a clear and strong sense of regionalism. So the British political system does not have anything equivalent to the federal system of the 50 states in the USA. The nature of   the United Kingdom took on a new form in the General Election of May 2015 of which the Scottish National Party won 56 out of 59 seats in Scotland.

 

The final important part of British political history is that, since 1973, the UK has been a member of what is now called the European Union (EU). Recently the EU have 28 Member States covering most of the continent of Europe. Therefore the UK Government and Parliament are limited in some respects by what they can do because certain areas of policy or decision-making are a matter for the EU which operates through a European Commission appointed by the member governments and a European Parliament elected by the citizens of the member states  The year 2015 was a special year for the British Parliament as it was the 750th anniversary of the de Montfort Parliament (the first gathering in England that can be called a parliament in the dictionary sense of the word), along with the 800th anniversary of the Magna Carta, the document that set the scene for the later 1265 de Montfort Parliament.

 

THREE ARMS OF THE STATE

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.

 

In classical political theory, there are three arms of the state:

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).

 

DEVOLVED GOVERNMENT

 

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 covered the three bodies in question and partly because the three bodies themselves have different powers from one another.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The three devolved administrations are:

 

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.

 

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.

 

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.

 

AMERICAN POLITICAL SYSTEM

The United States is by size of electorate the second largest democracy on the universe or globe while India is the second largest and Indonesia comes third. America is the most powerful nation on earth, politically, economically and militarily, but its political system is in many important respected, unlike any other in the world. To understand any country's political system, it is helpful to know something of the history of the nation and the background to the creation of the (latest) constitution. But this is a fundamental necessity in the case of the American political system. This is because the Constitution of the United States is so different from those of other nations and because that Constitution is, in all material respects, the same document as it was over two centuries ago.

There were four main factors in the minds of the 'founding fathers' who drafted the US Constitution:

1. The United States had just fought and won a bloody War of Independence from Britain and it was determined to create a political system that was totally different from the British system in which considerable authority still resided in a hereditary King (George III at the time) or Queen and in which Parliament was increasingly assertive in the exercise of its growing powers. Therefore the new constitution deliberately spread power between the three arms of government - executive, legislature and judiciary - and ensured that each arm was able to limit the exercise of power by the other arms.

 

2. The United States was already a large country with problems of communications and a population of varied background and education. Therefore, for all the intentions to be a new democracy, it was seen as important to limit the influence of swings in public opinion. So the election of the president was placed in the hands of an Electoral College, rather than the subject of direct election, and the terms of office of the president and the two chambers of the legislature were all set at different lengths.

 

3.      The United States was the creation of 13 individual states, each of which valued its traditions and powers, and so the overarching federal government was deliberately limited in its powers compared to the position of the central government in other nations. Arguably the later Civil War was about states' rights more than it was about slavery and there is still a real tension today between the states and federal government.

 

4. The original 13 states of the USA were of very different size in terms of population and from the beginning there was a determination by the smaller states that political power should not be excessively in the hands of the larger states. Therefore the Constitution is built on a 'Great Compromise' between the Virginia plan (representation by population) and the New Jersey plan (equal representation for all states) which resulted in the House of Representatives being constructed on the basis of population and the Senate being composed of an equal number of representatives regardless of population. This is why today six states have only one member in the House of Representatives but two members in the Senate.

Whatever the 'founding fathers' intended, the sheer longevity of the Constitution and the profound changes in America since its drafting means that today the balance of power is not necessarily what the drafters of the Constitution had in mind. So originally the legislature was seen as the most powerful arm of government (it is described first in the Constitution) but, over time, both the Presidency (starting with the time of Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War) and the Supreme Court (especially on social issues like desegregation, marriage and abortion) have assumed more power.

THE CONSTITUTION

 The American political system is clearly defined by basic documents. The Declaration of Independence of 1776 and the Constitution of 1789 form the foundations of the United States federal government. The Declaration of Independence establishes the United States as an independent political entity, while the Constitution creates the basic structure of the federal government. Both documents are on display in the National Archives and Records Administration Building in Washington, D.C.  Further information on the thinking expressed in the Constitution can be found in the Federalist Papers which are a series of 85 articles and essays published in 1787-1788 promoting the ratification of the Constitution.

The United States Constitution is both the longest-lasting in the world, being over two centuries old, and the shortest in the world, having just seven articles and 27 amendments. As well as its age and brevity, the US Constitution is notable for being a remarkably stable document. The first 10 amendments were all carried in 1789 - the same year as the original constitution - and are collectively known as the Bill of Rights. If one accepts that these first 10 amendments were in effect part of the original constitutional settlement, there have only been 17 amendments in over 200 years (the last substantive one - reduction of the voting age to 18 - in 1971).

THE PRESIDENCY

The President is the head of the executive branch of the federal government of the United State, the position has always been held by a man. He is both the head of state and the head of government, as well as the military commander-in-chief and chief diplomat.

The President presides over the executive branch of the government, a vast organization numbering about four million people, including one million active-duty military personnel. The Hatch Act of 1939 forbids anyone in the executive branch - except the President or Vice-President - from using his or her official position to engage in political activity.

 

Eligibility to become a President of USA

To be President, one has to:

• be a natural-born citizen of the United States
• be at least 35 years old
• have lived in the US for at least 14 years

Election of a President

The President is elected for a fixed term of four years and may serve a maximum of two terms. Originally there was no constitutional limit on the number of terms that a President could serve in office and the first President George Washington set the precedent of serving simply two terms. Following the election of Franklin D Roosevelt to a record four terms, it was decided to limit terms to two and the relevant constitutional change - the 22nd Amendment - was enacted in 1951. Elections are always held on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November to coincide with Congressional elections. So the last election was held on 8 November 2016 and the next election will be held on 3 November 2020.

The President is not elected directly by the voters but by an Electoral College representing each state on the basis of a combination of the number of members in the Senate (two for each state regardless of size) and the number of members in the House of Representatives (roughly proportional to population). The states with the largest number of votes are California (55), Texas (38) and New York (29). The states with the smallest number of votes - there are seven of them - have only three votes. The District of Columbia, which has no voting representation in Congress, has three Electoral College votes. In effect, therefore, the Presidential election is not one election but 51.

The total Electoral College vote is 538. This means that, to become President, a candidate has to win at least 270 electoral votes. The voting system awards the Electoral College votes from each state to delegates committed to vote for a certain candidate in a "winner take all" system, with the exception of Maine and Nebraska (which award their Electoral College votes according to Congressional Districts rather than for the state as a whole). In practice, most states are firmly Democrat - for instance, California and New York - or firmly Republican - for instance, Texas and Tennessee. Therefore, candidates concentrate their appearances and resources on the so-called "battleground states", those that might go to either party. The three largest battleground or swing states are Florida (29 votes), Pennsylvania (20) and Ohio (18). Others include North Carolina (15), Virginia (13), Wisconsin (10), Colorado (9), Iowa (6) and Nevada (6).

This system of election means that a candidate can win the largest number of votes nationwide but fail to win the largest number of votes in the Electoral College and therefore fail to become President. In practice, this has happened four times in US history: 1876, 1888, 2000 and 2016. On the last occasion, the losing candidate (Hillary Clinton) actually secured 2.9 million more votes than the winning candidate (Donald Trump). If this seems strange (at least to non-Americans), the explanation is that the 'founding fathers' who drafted the American Constitution did not wish to give too much power to the people and so devised a system that gives the ultimate power of electing the President to members of the Electoral College. The same Constitution, however, enables each state to determine how its members in the Electoral College are chosen and since the 1820s states have chosen their electors by a direct vote of the people. The United States is the only example in the world of an indirectly elected executive president.

The powers of the President

1.       Within the executive branch, the President has broad constitutional powers to manage national affairs and the workings of the federal government.

 

2. The President may issue executive orders to affect internal policies. The use of executive orders has varied enormously between presidents and is often a controversial matter since, in effect; it is bypassing the Congress to achieve what would otherwise require legislation. Very few such orders were issued until the time of Abraham Lincoln (the Emancipation Declaration was such an order); use of executive orders was considerable and peaked during the terms of the seven presidents from Theodore Roosevelt to Franklin D Roosevelt (1901-1945); but, since the Second World War, use has been more modest with Democrats tending to issue them a bit more than Republicans. Barack Obama has made very sparing use of this power, notably to reform immigration law and to tighten gun controls. Executive orders can be overturned by a succeeding President.

 

3. The President has the power to recommend measures to Congress and may sign or veto legislation passed by Congress. The Congress may override a presidential veto but only by a two-thirds majority in each house.

 

4.       The President has the authority to appoint Cabinet members, Supreme Court justices. Federal judges, and ambassadors but only with the 'advice and consent' of the Senate which can be problematic especially when the Senate is controlled by a different political party to that of the President.

 

 

5. The President has the power to pardon criminals convicted of offences against the federal government and most controversially President Gerald Ford used this power to pardon his predecessor Richard Nixon.

 

6. The President has the power to make treaties with the 'advice and consent' of the Senate.

 

7. The President can declare war for 60 days but then has to have the approval of Congress (although it can be difficult to withdraw troops once they have been committed).

Besides the formal powers of the President, there are informal means of exercising influence. Most notably, Teddy Roosvelt introduced the notion of 'the bully pulpit': the ability of the President to use his standing to influence public opinion. Over time, the changing nature of media - newspapers, radio, television, the Internet, social media - has presented a variety of instruments for the White House to use to 'push' Congress or other political players or indeed communicate directly with the electorate. Currently Donald Trump uses his personal Twitter account to issue several messages a day to (as at summer 2017) some 32.4 million

Other interesting facts about the Presidency

• Although the 'founding fathers' wanted to avoid a political system that in any way reflected the monarchical system then prevalent in Britain and for a long time the Presidency was relatively weak, the vast expansion of the federal bureaucracy and the military in the 20th century has in current practice given a greater role and more power to the President than is the case for any single individual in most political systems.
• The President may be impeached which means that he is removed from the office. The House of Representatives has the sole power of impeaching, while the Senate has the sole power to try all such impeachments. Two U.S. Presidents have been impeached by the House of Representatives but acquitted at the trials held by the Senate: Andrew Johnson (1868) and Bill Clinton (1999). Richard Nixon resigned before he would certainly have been impeached (1974).
• Although the President heads the executive branch of government, the day-to-day enforcement and administration of federal laws is in the hands of the various federal executive departments, created by Congress to deal with specific areas of national and international affairs. The heads of the 15 departments, chosen by the President and approved with the 'advice and consent' of the Senate, form a council of advisors generally known as the President's "Cabinet". This is not a cabinet in the British political sense: it does not meet so often and does not act so collectively.
• In fact, the President has powers of patronage that extend way beyond appointment of Cabinet members. In all, the President appoints roughly 4,000 individuals to positions in the federal government, of which around 1,200 require the confirmation of the Senate. As the divisions in American politics have deepened, so the confirmation process has become more fractious and prolonged - when first elected, Barack Obama had to wait ten months before all his nominees were in their jobs.
• The first United States President was George Washington, who served from 1789-1797, so that the current President Donald Trump is the 44th to hold the office. However, there have been 45 presidencies. Grover Cleveland was the 22nd and 24th President and therefore was the only US president to serve two non-consecutive terms (1885-1889 and 1893-1897) and to be counted twice in the numbering of the presidents.
• So far, every US President has been male. All but one President has been Protestant (the exception was John Kennedy who was a Catholic) and all but one President has been white (the exception is Barack Obama). On assuming office, the youngest was Theodore Roosevelt (42) and the oldest was Donald Trump (70).
• Four sitting Presidents have been assassinated: Abraham Lincoln in 1865, James A. Garfield in 1881, William McKinley in 1901, and John F. Kennedy in 1963. A further eight Presidents were subject to near misses in assassination attempts.
• The President is sometimes referred to as POTUS (President of The United States) and the Presidency is often referred to by the media as variously the White House, the West Wing, and the Oval Office.
• Such is the respect for the Presidency that, even having left office, a President is referred to by the title for the remainder of his life.

The position of Vice-President is elected on the same ticket as that of the President and has the same four-year term of office. The Vice-President is often described as 'a heartbeat away from the Presidency' since, in the event of the death or incapacity of the President, the Vice-President assumes the office.

In practice, however, a Vice-Presidential candidate is chosen (by the Presidential candidate) to 'balance the ticket' in the Presidential election (that is, represent a different geographical or gender or ethnic constituency) and, for all practical purposes, the position only carries the power accorded to it by the President - which is usually very little (a major exception has been Dick Cheney under George W Bush). The official duties of the Vice-President are to sit as a member of the "Cabinet" and as a member of the National Security Council and to act as ex-officio President of the Senate.

THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

The House of Representatives is the lower chamber in the bicameral legislature known collectively as Congress. The founders of the United States intended the House to be the politically dominant entity in the federal system and, in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, the House served as the primary forum for political debate. However, subsequently the Senate has been the dominant body.

Eligibility to become a member of the House

To be a member of the House, one has to:

• be at least 25 years old
• have been a US citizen for at least seven years
• live in the state which one represents (but not the actual district

 How to choose a member of the House

The House consists of 435 members (set in 1911), each of whom represents a congressional district and serves for a two-year term. House seats are apportioned among the states by population according to each decennial (every 10 years) census, but every state must have at least one member and in fact seven states have only one Representative each (Alaska, Delaware, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont and Wyoming). Typically a House constituency would represent around 700,000 people.

Once House seats are reapportioned to the states, it is state legislatures that must redraw the physical boundaries of Congressional districts. Although the states are bound by limits established by Congress and the Supreme Court, there is scope for gerry-mandering to ensure electoral advantage for the dominant political party in the state. Such reapportionment of members of the House takes effect three years after the decennial census so, as the next census will take place in 2020, reapportionment will take effect for the 118th Congress (2023-2025).

Members of the House are elected by first-past-the-post voting in every state except Louisiana and Washington, which have run-offs if no candidate secures more than 50% of the vote. Elections are always held on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November in even numbered years. Voting in congressional elections - especially to the House - is generally much lower than levels in other liberal democracies. In a year when there is a Presidential election, turnout is typically around 50%; in years when there is no Presidential election (known as mid-terms), it usually falls to around one third of the electorate.

In the event that a member of the House of Representatives dies or resigns before the end of the two-year term, a special election is held to fill the vacancy.

The House has five non-voting delegates from the District of Columbia (1971), Guam (1972) the Virgin Islands (1976), American Samoa (1981) and the Northern Mariana Islands (2008) and one resident commissioner for Puerto Rico (1976), bringing the total formal membership to 441. Non-voting delegates are not allowed floor votes, but can vote in any committees to which they are assigned.

 The powers of the House

• The House of Representatives is one of the two chambers that can initiate and pass legislation, although to become law any legislation has to be approved by the Senate as well.
• Each chamber of Congress has particular exclusive powers. The House must introduce any bills for the purpose of raising revenue.
• If the Electoral College is tied, the choice of President is made by the House of Representatives.
• The House has a key role in any impeachment proceedings against the President or Vice-President. It lays the charges which are then passed to the Senate for a trial.
• The House (and the Senate) have the power to declare war - although the last time this happened was in 1941.

THE SENATE

The Senate is the upper chamber in the bicameral legislature known collectively as Congress. The original intention of the authors of the US Constitution was that the Senate should be a regulatory group, less politically dominant than the House. However, since the mid 19th century, the Senate has been the dominant chamber and indeed today it is perhaps the most powerful upper house of any legislative body in the world.

The Eligibility to become a Member of the Senate

To be a member of the Senate, one has to:

• be at least 30 years old
• have been a US citizen for at least nine years
• live in the state which one represents

How to choose a Member of the Senate

The Senate consists of 100 members, each of whom represents a state and serves for a six-year term (one third of the Senate stands for election every two years). Each state has two Senators, regardless of population, and, since there are 50 states, then there are 100 senators. This equality of Senate seats between states has the effect of producing huge variations in constituency population (the two senators from Wyoming represent less than half a million electors, while the two senators from California represent 34 million people) with gross over-representation of the smaller states and serious under-representation of racial and ethnic minorities.

For a long time, Senators were elected by the individual state legislatures. However, since the 17th Amendment to the Constitution in 1913, members of the Senate are elected by first-past-the-post voting in every state except Louisiana and Washington, which have run-offs. Elections are always held on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November in even numbered years.

Each Senator is known as the senior or junior Senator for his or her state, based on length of service.

In the event that a member of the Senate dies or resigns before the end of the six-year term, a special election is not normally held at that time (this is the case for 46 states). Instead the Governor of the state that the Senator represented nominates someone to serve until the next set of Congressional elections when the special election is held to fill the vacancy.

What are the powers of the Senate?

• The Senate is one of the two chambers that can initiate and pass legislation, although to become law any legislation has to be approved by the House of Representatives as well.
• Each chamber of Congress has particular exclusive powers. The Senate must give 'advice and consent' to many important Presidential appointments including Cabinet members, Supreme Court justices. federal judges, and ambassadors.
• The Senate has the responsibility of ratifying treaties.
• If the Electoral College is tied, the choice of Vice-President is made by the Senate.
• The Senate has a key role in any impeachment proceedings against the President or Vice-President. Once the House of Representatives has laid the charges, the Senate then conducts a trial on these charges. The Supreme Court Chief Justice presides over such a trial. A two-thirds majority of the Senate is required to uphold impeachment charges.
• The Senate (and the House) have the power to declare war - although the last time this happened was in 1941.

Other interesting facts about the Senate

• The most powerful position in the Senate is the Majority Leader but he or she does not have the same control over the upper chamber as the control that the Speaker of the House has over the lower chamber, since the 'whipping' system is weaker in the Senate.
• Currently the Majority Leader in the Senate is the Republican Mitch McConnell, while the Minority leader is Democrat Chuck Schummer.
• Much of the work of the Senate is done through 16 standing committees and around 40 sub-committees which perform both legislative functions (drafting Bills) and investigatory functions (holding enquiries). Most of the committees are focused on an area of government activity such as homeland security, foreign relations, health, energy, or transport, but others are more cross-cutting such as those on the budget and rules.
• Activity in the Senate tends to be less partisan and more individualistic than in the House of Representatives. Senate rules permit what is called a filibuster when a Senator, or a series of Senators, can speak for as long as they wish and on any topic they choose, unless a supermajority of three-fifths of the Senate (60 Senators, if all 100 seats are filled) brings debate to a close by invoking what is called cloture (taken from the French term for closure).
• The Senate has met in its chamber in the north wing of the Capitol in Washington DC since 1859.
• Offices of members of the Senate are located in three buildings on the north side of the Capitol along Constitution Avenue: the Russell, Dirksen, and Hart Buildings.
• The Senate and House are often referred to by the media as Capitol Hill or simply the Capitol or the Hill.

THE SUPREME COURT

What is the Supreme Court?

The Supreme Court is the highest court in the land. Originally it had five members but over time this number has increased. Since 1869, it has consisted of nine Justices: the Chief Justice of the United States and eight Associate Justices. They have equal weight when voting on a case and the Chief Justice has no casting vote or power to instruct colleagues. Decisions are made by a simple majority.

Below the Supreme Court, there is a system of Courts of Appeal, and, below these courts, there are District Courts. Together, these three levels of courts represent the federal judicial system.

Who is eligible to become a member of the Court?

The Constitution does not specify qualifications for Justices such as age, education, profession, or native-born citizenship. A Justice does not have to be a lawyer or a law school graduate, but all Justices have been trained in the law. Many of the 18th and 19th century Justices studied law under a mentor because there were few law schools in the country.

The last Justice to be appointed who did not attend any law school was James F. Byrnes (1941-1942). He did not graduate from high school and taught himself law, passing the bar at the age of 23.

All Supreme Court judges are appointed for life.

How is a member of the Court chosen?

The Justices are nominated by the President and confirmed with the 'advice and consent' of the Senate. As federal judges, the Justices serve during "good behavior", meaning essentially that they serve for life and can be removed only by resignation or by impeachment and subsequent conviction.

Since the Supreme Court makes so many 'political' decisions and its members are appointed so rarely, the appointment of Justices by the President is often a very charged and controversial matter. Since Justices serve for life and therefore usually beyond the term of office of the appointing President, such appointment are often regarded as an important part of any particular President's legacy.

What are the powers of the Court?

The Supreme Court is the highest court in the United States. The court deals with matters pertaining to the federal government, disputes between states, and interpretation of the Constitution.

It can declare legislation or executive action made at any level of the government as unconstitutional, nullifying the law and creating precedent for future law and decisions.

However, the Supreme Court can only rule on a lower court decision so it cannot take the initiative to consider a matter.

There are three ways that a matter can come to the Supreme Court:

1. A federal authority makes a decision that is challenged as unconstitutional which goes straight to the Supreme Court which is not obliged to take it
2. A state makes a decision which someone believes is unconstitutional but the matter would have to have previously been heard by a Federal Court of Appeal (there are 11 circuits covering the 50 states)
3. There is a conflict between states that needs to be resolved (if the two or more states are in the same circuit, the matter would first have to go to the appropriate Federal Court of Appeal)

Other interesting facts about the Court

• Each year, around 8,000 petitions are made to the Supreme Court seeking a judgement, but each term the number of cases determined is only about 100.
• When a case is considered in public by the Court, each side of the case only has half-an-hour to state its position. All the detail is set out in documents and all the rest of the time of the public hearing is taken up by questions from the Justices.
• Decisions of the Supreme Court are taken in private conference, following discussion and debate. No Justice speaks for a second time until every Justice has spoken once.
• Given how difficult it is to change the US Constitution through the formal method, one has seen informal changes to the Constitution through various decisions of the Supreme Court which have given specific meanings to some of the general phases in the Constitution. It is one of the many ironies of the American political system that an unelected and unaccountable body like the Supreme Court can in practice exercise so much political power in a system which proclaims itself as so democractic.
• The Supreme Court in practice therefore has a much more 'political' role than the highest courts of European democracies. In the 1960s, the court played a major role in bringing about desegregation. The scope of abortion in the USA is effectively set by the Supreme Court whereas, in other countries, it would be set by legislation. Indeed in 2000, it made the most political decision imaginable by determining - by seven votes to two - the outcome of that year's presidential election. It decided that George W Bush had beaten Al Gore, although Gore won the most votes overall.
• A recent and momentous instance of this exercise of political power was the Supreme Court decision in the case of the challenge to Barack Obama's signature piece of legislation, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, often dubbed Obamacare. No less than 26 states challenged the legality of these health reforms under a clause in the constitution governing interstate commerce. In the end, the Court ruled by five to four that, while the individual mandate provision in the Act is not itself a tax, the penalties imposed for not buying health insurance do represent taxes and therefore the entire requirement falls within the remit of Congress's right to impose taxes.
• William Howard Taft (1857-1930) was the 27th President of the United States (1909-1913) and later the tenth Chief Justice of the United States (1921-1930). He is the only person to have served in both of these offices.
• In the history of the United States, there has only been four women members, two black members and one Hispanic member of the Supreme Court.
• The present membership of the Supreme Court includes three women members and one black member. Of the nine members, five are Catholic and three are Jewish while one - Neil Gorsuch - was raised as a Catholic but attends a Protestant church.
• Following the appointment by President Trump of Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court, there is now a five to four conservative-liberal majority on the court. All the conservative members were appointed by Republican presidents, while all the liberals were appointed by Democratic presidents.
• A special feature of the American political system in respect of the judiciary is that, although federal judges are appointed, nationwide 87% of all state court judges are elected and 39 states elect at least some of their judges. Outside of the United States, there are only two nations that have judicial elections and then only in limited fashion. Smaller Swiss cantons elect judges and appointed justices on the Japanese Supreme Court must sometimes face retention elections (although those elections are a formality).

 

POLITICAL PARTIES & ELECTIONS

 The American political system is dominated by two political parties: the Democratic Party and the Republican Party (often known as the 'Grand Old Party' or GOP). These are very old and very stable parties - the Democrats go back to 1824 and the Republicans were founded in 1854.

In illustrations and promotional material, the Democratic Party is often represented as a donkey, while the Republican Party is featured as an elephant. The origin of these symbols is the political cartoonist Thomas Nast who came up with them in 1870 and 1874 respectively.

The main reason for the dominance of these two parties is that - like most other Anglo-Saxon countries (notably Britain) - the electoral system is 'first past the post' or simple majority which, combined with the large voter size of the constituencies in the House and (even more) the Senate, ensures that effectively only two parties can play. The other key factor is the huge influence of money in the American electoral system. Since effectively a candidate can spend any amount he can raise (not allowed in many other countries) and since one can buy broadcasting time (again not allowed in many countries), the US can only 'afford' two parties or, to put it another way, candidates of any other party face a formidable financial barrier to entry.

Some people tend to view the division between the Democratic Party and the Republican Party in the United States as the same as that between Labour and Conservative in Britain or between Social Democrats and Christian Democrats in Germany. The comparison is valid in the sense that, in each country, one political party is characterized as Centre-Left and the other as Centre-Right or, to put it another way, one party is more economically interventionist and socially radical than the other. However, the analogy has many weaknesses.

1. The Centre in American politics is considerably to the Right of the Centre in most European states including Britain, Germany, France, Italy and (even more especially) the Scandinavian countries. So, for instance, most members of the Conservative Party in the UK would support a national health service, whereas many members of the Democratic Party in the US would not.
2. As a consequence of the enormous geographical size of the United States and the different histories of the different states (exemplified by the Civil War), geography is a factor in ideological positioning to a much greater extent than in other democratic countries. For instance, a Northern Republican could be more liberal than a Southern Democract. Conversely there is a group of Democratic Congressmen that are fiscally very conservative - they are known as "blue dog" Democrats or even DINO (Democrats In Name Only).
3. In the United States, divisions over social matters - such as abortion, capital punishment, same-sex relationships and stem cell research - matter and follow party lines in a way which is not true of most European countries. In Britain, for instance, these sort of issues would be regarded as matters of personal conscience and would not feature prominently in election debates between candidates and parties.
4. In the USA, religion is a factor in politics in a way unique in western democracies. Candidates openly proclaim their faith in a manner which would be regarded as bizarre elswhere (even in a Catholic country like France) and religious groupings - such as the Christian Coalition of America - exert a significiant political influence in a manner which would be regarded as improper in most European countries (Poland is an exception here).
5. In the United States, the 'whipping system' - that is the instructions to members of the House and the Senate on how to vote - is not as strict or effective as it is in most European countries. As a consequence, members of Congress are less constrained by party affiliation and freer to act individually.
6. In the USA, political parties are much weaker institutions than they are in other democracies. Between the selection of candidates, they are less active than their counterparts in other countries and, during elections, they are less influential in campaigning, with individual politicians and their campaigns having much more influence.
7. The cost of elections is much greater in the US than in other democracies which has the effects of limiting the range of candidates, increasing the influence of corporate interests and pressure groups, and enhancing the position of the incumbent office holder (especially in the winning of primaries). As long ago as 1895, the Chairman of the Republican National Committee Mark Hanna stated: "There are two things that are important in politics. The first is money, and I can't remember what the second one is."
8. Whereas in other countries, voters shape the policies and select the candidates of a party by joining it, in the USA voters register as a supporter of one of the major parties and then vote in primary elections to determine who should be the party's candidate in the 'real' election.

One other oddity of the American party system is that, whereas in most countries of the world the colour red is associated with the Left-wing party and the colour blue with the Right-wing party, in the United States the reverse is the case. So the 'blue states' are those traditionally won by the Democrats, while the 'red states' are those normally controlled by the Republicans.

Two interesting features of American political elections are low turnout and the importance of incumbency.

Traditionally turnout in US congressional elections are much lower than in other liberal democracies especially those of Western Europe. When there is a presidential election, turnout is only about half; when there is no presidential election, turnout is merely about one third. The exception was the elections of 2008: the excitement of the candidacy of Barack Obama led to an unusually high turnout of 63%, the highest since 1960 (the election of John F Kennedy).

While Congress as an institution is held in popular contempt, voters like their member of Congress and indeed there is a phenomenon known as 'sophomore surge' whereby incumbents tend to increase their share of the vote when they seek re-election. More generally most incumbents win re-election for several reasons: they allocate time and resources to waging a permanent re-election campaign; they can win "earmarks" which are appropriations of government spending for projects in the constituency; and they find it easier than challengers to raise money for election campaigns.

THE FEDERAL SYSTEM

Understanding the federal nature of the United States is critical to appreciating the complexities of the American political system.

Most political systems are created top-down. A national system of government is constructed and a certain amount of power is released to lower levels of government. The unique history of the United States means that, in this case, the political system was created bottom-up.

First, some 240 years ago, there were 13 autonomous states that, following the War of Independence against the British, created a system of government in which the various states somewhat reluctantly ceded power to the federal government. Around a century later, the respective authority of the federal government and the individual states was an issue at the heart of the Civil War when there was a bloody conflict over who had the right to determine whether slavery was or was not permissible. With the exception of Switzerland, no other Western democracy diffuses power to the same degree as America.

So today the powers of the federal government remain strictly limited by the Constitution - the critical Tenth Amendment of 1791 - which leaves a great deal of authority to the individual states.

Each state has an executive, a legislature and a judiciary.

The head of the executive is the Governor who is directly elected. As with the President at federal level, state Governors can issue Executive Orders.

The legislature consists of a Senate and a House of Representatives (the exception is the state of Nebraska which has a unicameral system).

The judiciary consists of a state system of courts.

The 50 states are divided into counties (parishes in Louisiana and boroughs in Alaska). Each county has its court.

Althought the Constitution prescribes precisely when Presidential and Congressional elections will be held, the dates and times of state and local elections are determined by state governments. Therefore there is a plethora of elections in the United States and, at almost all times, an election is being held somewhere in the country. State and local elections, like federal elections, use the 'first past the post' system of election.

In fact, most states choose to elect the governor and legislature when Congressional elections are held on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November in even numbered years. Exceptions are the states of Virginia and New Jersey which hold their governor and legislature elections in odd numbered years (known as "off-year elections"). This means that these states provide the first electoral indication of how voters view the performance of a newly-elected President and/or Congress.

The debate about federalism in the US is far from over. There are those who argue for a stronger role for the federal government and there are advocates of locating more power at the state level. The recent rise of the electorally-successful Tea Party movement owes a good deal to the view that the federal government has become too dominant, too intrusive and too profligate.

Meanwhile many states - especially those west of the Rockies - have what has been called "the fourth arm of government": this is the ballot or referendum initiative. This enables a policy question to be put to the electorate as a result of the collection of a certain number of signatures or the decison of the state legislation. Over the last century, some 3,000 such initiatives have been conducted - in some cases (such as California) with profound results.

RECENT TRENDS

In all political systems, there is a disconnect between the formal arrangements, as set out in the constitution and relevant laws, and the informal arrangements, as occurs in practice. Arguably, in the United States this disconnects is sharper than in most other democratic systems because:

• The US Constitution is an old one (late 18th century) whereas most countries have had several constitutions with the current one typically being a 20th century creation.
• The US Constitution is relatively immutable so it is very difficult to change the provisions to reflect the reforms that have come about over time from the pressure of events.
• Since the US adopted its Constitution, the US has become the pre-eminent world economic and political power which has brought about major changes in how the Presidency operates, most especially in the international sphere.

What this means is that, in the last century and most especially since the end of the Second World War, the reality of how the American political system operates has changed quite fundamentally in terms which are not always evident from the terms of the Constitution (and indeed some might argue are in some respects in contravention of the Constitution). The main changes are as follows:

• The balance of power between the Congress and the President has shifted significantly in favour of the President. This is evident in the domestic sphere through practices like 'impoundment' (when money is taken from the purpose intended by Congress and allocated to another purpose favoured by the President) and in the international sphere through refusal to invoke the War Powers Resolution in spite of major military invasions. Different terms for this accretion of power by the Presidency are "the unitary executive" and "the imperial presidency".
• The impact of private funding of political campaigns and of lobbyists and special interest groups in political decision making have increased considerably. Candidates raise their own money for campaigns, there is effectively no limit on the money that can be spent in such campaigns (thanks to what is called super Political Action Committees), and the levels of expenditure - especially in the presidential primaries and election proper - have risen astronomically. In the presidential race of 2012, both Barack Obama and Mitt Romney spent over one billion dollars. Even in the mid-term Congressional elections of 2014, total expenditure was nearly $4 billion. All this has led to some observers describing the American political system as a plutocracy, since it is effectively controlled by private finance from big businesses, which expect certain policies and practices to follow from the candidates they are funding, and big donors, who often expect preferment such as an ambassadorship from a candidate elected as President.
• There has been a growth of what is called "pork barrel" politics through the use of "earmarks". The term "pork barrel" refers to the appropriation of government spending for projects that are intended primarily to benefit particular constituents, such as those in marginal seats, or campaign contributors. Such appropriations are achieved through "earmarks" which can be found both in legislation (also called "hard earmarks" or "hardmarks") and in the text of Congressional committee reports (also called "soft earmarks" or "softmarks").
• The nature of political debate in the United States has become markedly more partisan and bitter. The personal lifestyle as well as the political record of a candidate might well be challenged and even the patriotism or religiosity of the candidate may be called into question. Whereas the politics of most European countries has become more consensual, US domestic politics has become polarised and tribal. As a result, the political culture is often more concerned with satisfying the demands of the political 'base' rather than attempting to achieve a national consensus.

One final trend worth noting is the frequency of the same family to provide members of Congress. Low polling in elections, the high cost of running for election, and the focus on the individual more than the party all mean that a well-known name can work successfully for a candidate. Everyone is familiar with the Kennedys, Clintons and Bush in American politics but, in 2014, there are no less than 37 members of Congress who have a relative who has served in the legislature.

A DIVIDED DEMOCRACY

Of course, all nation states are divided, especially in terms of power and wealth, but also - to different extents - by gender, race, ethnicity, religion and other factors. Indeed the constitution and institutions of a democratic society are deliberately intended to provide for the expression and resolution of such divisions. However, it is often observed that the USA is an especially divided democracy in at least four respects:

1. It is divided horizontally through the 'separation of powers', so that the executive, the legislature and the judiciary are quite distinct in terms of both powers and personalities. Each arm of government exercises a check on the other.
2. It is divided vertically through the federal system of government with the division of powers between the federal government and the state governments a very important issue that arguably was once the subject of a civil war. In such a large country geographically, the federal government can seem very distant to many citizens.
3. It is divided politically through the sharp (and often bitter) differences of view on many economic issues like tackling the recession and reforming health care and social issues ranging from gun control to gay rights. Since 2009, such differences have been highlighted by the presence of the first black President in the White House and the rapid emergence of a Tea Party movement that is both virulently anti-Obama and anti-mainstream Republicanism.
4. It is divided racially through the growth of the non-white electorate. When Ronald Reagan was first elected President in 1980, almost 90% of the US electorate was white; today some 30% of voters are non-white; and that proportion is growing (especially Spanish-speaking communities). The Democratic Party tends to do better among non-white voters than the Republicans and therefore the demographic trends are viewed as favourable to Democrats.

One of the most visible and dramatic illustrations of how the divisions in American politics frustrate decision-making is the regular failure to agree a federal budget before the start of the new financial period. This results in what is known as federal 'shutdown' when most federal employees are sent home because they cannot be paid and many federal institutions therefore close down. This is not an isolated occurrence: it has happened 18 times since 1976 (the last one was in 2013).

A major role of the Congress is to pass legislation but the divided nature of American politics has made this increasingly difficult and the Congress frequently exhibits legislative grid-lock. Hillary Clinton - former First Lady, former Senator, and former Secretary of State - in her memoir "Hard Choices" (2014) talks of "all the horse trading, arm-twisting, vote counting, alternating appeals to principle and self-interest, and hard-ball politics that go into passing major legislation".

AMERICAN EXCEPTIONALISM

Going by the history of America we will find out that the United States is different from other democracies. This observation has given rise to the notion of "American exceptionalism". This is an ill-defined term which has been used differently at different times. From the creation of the Republic in 1776, there has been a sense that the United States has been exceptional in its commitment to freedom as expressed in the US Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Even though today there are many challenges to freedom in the USA, many Americans still feel that their attachment to freedom - however defined - is a distinguishing feature of their nation as compared to all other nations.

Another important version of "American exceptionalism" revolves around the lack of a clear ideological or class-based division between the two major political parties. The USA has never had a credible socialist or anti-capitalist party; both the main parties are pro-capital and pro-business and speak largely to the 'middle class'. Other versions of the concept revolve around the alleged 'superiority' of the United States because of its history, size, wealth and global dominance plus the 'sophistication' of its constitution and power of its values such as individualism, innovation and entrepreneurship. More so, the country’s most extreme form, the concept of a religious dimension with the belief that God has especially chosen or blessed the country.

 

One can say that, it is easy to view the American political system as exceptional in negative terms such as the unusual influence of race, religion and money as compared to other liberal democracies. Honestly, for all its special features, the American political system needs to be seen as one among many models of democracy with its own strengths and weaknesses that need to be assessed in comparison to those of other democracies. The Americans democracy is pure mixed with nothing than the true democracy only practiced in their country alone.

French Political System of Government

The French Political system cannot be compared with the American political system and the British political system which essentially has existed in their current form for centuries, the French political system has evolved through five major constitutional models as follows:

• First Republic: 1792-1804
• Second Republic: 1848-1852
• Third Republic: 1870-1940
• Fourth Republic: 1946-1958
• Fifth Republic: 1958-present

This means that the current form of the French system is a relatively recent construct dating from 1958 and today's Fifth Republic - which centralizes substantial power in the President - is a response to the political weaknesses of the pre-Second World War; Third Republic and post-war Fourth Republic. The Fifth Republic came about following a political crisis over France's colonial war in Algeria, when Charles de Gaulle took power under a new constitution which gave the President new executive powers compared to the Fourth Republic, making the post uniquely powerful in European politics and indeed politically - if not militarily - more powerful than the American Presidency.

The current constitution can only be changed with the support of three-fifths (60%) of the Congress which is the body formed when both houses of parliament, the National Assembly and the Senate, meet at the Palace of Versailles to vote on proposed revisions to the constitution. During the presidential election of 2007, Nicolas Sarkozy's manifesto proposed changes to modernize the institutions of the Fifth Republic. The Comité de réflexion et de proposition sur la modernisation et le rééquilibrage des institutions (literally : "A committee of reflection and proposal on the modernisation and the re-balancing of the institutions") presided over by Édouard Balladur, a former Prime Minister, was established in July 2007 and submitted its report to the President in October 2007. This resulted in a bill which was approved by both chambers of the legislature in 2008.

Controversially, the final approval was secured by only one vote more than the required three-fifths majority of votes cast. Jack Lang, who broke his party whip, voted for the changes. The President of the National Assembly, Bernard Accoyer, also voted for them which defied the tradition whereby the President of the Assembly abstains from voting. Without those two votes, the bill would not have passed. The bill re-evaluated the role of the executive and strengthened the parliament's powers. The President was banned from exercising more than two consecutive periods in office. There was limitation of the exceptional power of the President after 30 and 60 days. However, some of the proposals were not ratified, such as the introduction of proportional representation for election of the National Assembly, the reform of representation in the Senate, and the ban on dual mandates.

THE PRESIDENCY

Four of France's five Republics have had presidents as their heads of state, making the French presidency the oldest presidency in Europe still to exist in some form. However, in each of the Republics' constitutions, the President's powers, functions and duties - and his relation with French governments - have differed. Under the Third and Fourth Republic, which were parliamentary systems, the office of President of the Republic was a largely ceremonial and powerless one. The constitution of the current Fifth Republic greatly increased the President's powers and some have described the current position as a constitutional monarch. So the office of the Presidency is regarded as the most powerful position in the French political system presently.

Duties of the French President Include:

        i.            heading the armed forces

      ii.            appointment of the Prime Minister,

    iii.            power to dismiss the National Assembly,

    iv.            chairing the Council of Ministers (equivalent to the Cabinet in Britain),

      v.            appointing the members of the highest appellate court and the Constitutional Court,

    vi.            chairing the Higher Council of the Judiciary,

  vii.            negotiating all foreign treaties,

viii.            and the power to call referenda,

But all domestic decisions must be approved by the Prime Minister. The President has a very limited form of suspense veto: when presented with a law, he or she can request another reading of it by Parliament, but only once per law.

The official residence of the President is the Élysée Palace.

Since 1875, the President has been barred from appearing in person before the National Assembly or the Senate in order to ensure that the executive and the legislature are kept separate. However, in 2008, a constitutional amendment was carried which enables the President to convene the Congress of the French parliament in order to make a declaration. A debate may then follow his declaration, without his presence.

Following a referendum in 1962, the President is elected by universal suffrage. Candidates for the Presidency must obtain 500 sponsoring signatures of elected officials from at least 30 departments or overseas territories. The post is elected in a two-stage voting system. A candidate who receives more than 50% of the vote in the first round is elected. However, if no candidate receives 50%, there is a second round which is a run-off between the two candidates who secured the most votes in the first round. This is held two weeks later. All elections are held on a Sunday.

In practice, no candidate secures more than 50% of the vote in the first round and therefore a second round is always necessary. It is often said that the French vote with their heart in the first round and with their head in the second round. Following a referendum in 2000, the term of office for the Presidency is five years, a reduction from the previous seven years. A President can seek a second term and normally secures it, but two Presidents of the Fifth Republic have failed a re-election bid - Valéry Giscard d'Estaing and Nicolas Sarkozy - and one - François Hollande - did not even seek a second term.

In the French political system, the relationship between the President and the Prime Minister - the first- and second-highest authorities respectively - is critical. It is not always the case that these two individuals come from the same political party or part of the political spectrum and, when they are of different political persuasion (as was the case in 1986, 1993 and 1997), the two figures must practice a process of 'cohabitation'.

In May 2012, Nicolas Sarkozy, the incumbent President and candidate of the conservative; the Union for a Popular Movement (French: Union pour un mouvement populaire (UMP), was beaten in the second round of the Presidential election by the Socialist Party candidate François Hollande, the self-syled 'Mr Normal', who gained 51.63% of the vote. Hollande was the first socialist President in France for 17 years and had never previously held ministerial office. He soon became so unpopular in the polls that he acquired the new nickname of Monsieur Flanby - a reference to a wobbly French pudding.

The last Presidential election was held on 23 April and 7 May 2017. In the first round, for the first time since the Second World War neither candidate of the two main political parties - the Socialist Party and what is now called The Republicans - won enough votes to go forward into the second round. Instead the candidates in the second round were Emmanuel Macron of En Marche! (On The Move) and Marine Le Pen of the National Front. Macron won the election, securing 66.1%% of the vote. When he took office on 14 May 2017 at the age of just 39, he was be the youngest person to head the French state since Napoleon.

 

 

THE EXECUTIVE

The head of the government is the Prime Minister who is nominated by the majority party in the National Assembly and appointed by the President for an indefinite term. The Prime Minister recommends Ministers to the President, sets out Ministers' duties and responsibilities, and manages the daily affairs of government. He issues decrees and is responsible for national defence.

France’s centrist president Emmanuel Macron appointed a prime minister from the right: Édouard Philippe, then 46, the mayor of the Normandy port town Le Havre, comes from Les Républicains, the party that was previously headed by Nicolas Sarkozy and whose candidate, François Fillon, was knocked out in the first round of the presidential election won by Macron.

The Council of Ministers - typically consisting of around 15-16 individuals - is headed by the Prime Minister but chaired by the President. The total size of the ministerial team is typically 30-40. The members of the Council are called Ministers, while the junior ministers are known as Secretaries of State - the reverse of the nomenclature in the British political system.

It is customary for the President, in consultation with the Prime Minister, to select elected representatives from the National Assembly for ministerial posts, but this is not a set rule. For example, there has been Raymond Barre, Prime Minister (1976-81), who prior to that appointment was a university economics lecturer, while Thierry Breton, Minister for Economy, Finance and Industry (2005-07) was a business man.

THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY

The lower house in the French political system is the National Assembly. This has 577 seats representing single-member constituencies. The 2.5 million French people living abroad have the opportunity to vote in one of 11 constituencies grouping areas of the world together.

Members of the National Assembly are directly elected in a two-stage voting system. A candidate who receives more than 50% of the vote in the first round (provided at least 25% of the voters registered in that constituency turn out) is elected. However, if no candidate receives 50%, there is a second round which is a run-off between all those first round candidates who secured more than 12.5% of the votes in that first round. This is held one week later. All elections are held on a Sunday.

Members of the National Assembly serve five-year terms.

The powers of the National Assembly in the Fifth Republic are limited compared to the position under the Fourth Republic. The Assembly controls neither its sessions (dates and length are determined by law) not its agenda (in practice, this is determined by the government). Essentially the role is limited to budget and laws and the body tends to specialise in scrutinising day-to-day government business. In cases of disagreement with the Senate, the position of the National Assembly prevails. Critics have argued that the Assembly is weak in terms of setting its own agenda and holding the exeutive to account.

Most members of the Assembly sit in a parliamentary group and each such group must have at least 15 members. The benefits of being in a parliamentary group are that groups have access to top positions in the Assembly and speaking time in debates plus provision of public funding.

THE SENATE

The upper house in the French political system is the Senate. This currently has a total of 348 seats (the number depends on population changes): 323 representing mainland France, 13 representing French overseas territories, and 12 representing French nationals abroad. Many French Senators are also high-level local officials.

Members of the Senate are indirectly elected by an electoral college of 88,000 made up of city councilors and local officials which provides a rural and therefore Right-wing bias to the process. Indeed, since the Fifth Republic was established in 1958, Right-wing parties have always held a majority in the Senate until the elections of September 2011 when the Left took control for the first time. In the Senate elections of September 2014, the far-Right Front National won representation - two seats - for the first time and the Left lost its majority.

Since 2004, members of the Senate serve a six-year term (a reduction from the previous nine years) and one-half of seats (previously one-third) come up for election every three years.

The Senate elections was held in September 2020.

As with the National Assembly, the role of the Senate under the Fifth republic is limited to be compared to the position under the Fourth Republic. The Senate tends to specialize in constitutional matters and foreign affairs including European integration (it has a 'listening post' in Brussels, the headquarters of the European Union).

The Senate meets in the Luxembourg Palace.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Name		Abbr.	Leader	Position	Ideology
	Renaissance	RE	Stéphane Séjourné	Centre to centre-right	Liberalism, Pro-Europeanism
	The Republicans	LR	Eric Ciotti	Centre-right to right-wing	Liberal conservatism, Gaullism
	National Rally	RN	Jordan Bardella	Far-right	Right-wing populism
	Socialist Party	PS	Olivier Faure	Centre-left	Social democracy
	La France Insoumise	FI	Manuel Bompard	Left-wing to far-left	Left-wing populism

 

France is a multi-party political system which means that often no one party wins a majority of seats in the Assembly. Indeed the major parties themselves are often very fractional with shifting personal allegiances. French politics has historically been characterized by two politically opposed groupings but, more recently, a third force has emerged and, in the few years, a fourth movement has sprung into prominence, so that elections are now a much more complicated battlefield.

The earlier bi-polar model consisted of two groups:

• one Left-wing centered around the French Socialist Party with minor partners such as Europe Ecology – The Greens (EELV) and the Radical Party of the Left
• the other Right-wing and centered around what was the neo-Gaullist Rally for the Republic (RPR), then its successor the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP), and now - since 2015 - the renamed Les Republicans, with support from the New Centre.

 

THE JUDICIARY

France uses a civil legal system; that is, law arises primarily from written statutes; judges are not to make law, but merely to interpret it. The basic principles of the rule of law were laid down in the Napoleonic Code.

The highest appellate court in France is called the Cour de Cassation and the six chief judges are appointed by the President. Unlike the supreme courts in other countries (such as the USA), it does not have the power of judicial review.

The power of judicial review is vested in a separate Constitutional Court which is a unique creation of the Fifth Republic. The court consists of nine members: one appointment made by each of the President, the President of the Senate, and the President of the National Assembly every three years for a nine-year, non-renewable term. This contrasts with the US system where the President makes all appointments to the Supreme Court but then the appointments are for life.

All former Presidents of the Republic - known as "les sages" (the wise) - are de jure members of the Constitutional Court. Currently there are three of them, giving the court a membership of 12.

The Court meets infrequently, only upon referral of legislation by the President, the Prime Minister or at least 40 Deputies in the National Assembly.

LOCAL GOVERNMENT

Although there have been recent moves to decentralization, France is still one of the most centralized major countries in Europe and the world. It is colloquially known as mille-feuille, after the puff pastry of many layers and lots of cream.

Administrative units with a local government in Metropolitan France (that is, the parts of France lying in Europe) consist of:

• about 36,000 communes, headed by a municipal council and a mayor, grouped in
• 96 départements, headed by a conseil général (general council) and its president, grouped in
• 13 régions (recently reduced from 22), headed by a regional council and its president.

Essentialy the system of local government has not been reformed since the time of Napoléon in the early 1800s, but in December 2015 there were elections to 13 new super regions - down from the previous 22 regions - and the new structure is estimated to save 15 billion Euros (over £12 billion).

POLITICAL REFORM

Following his campaign promises, in May 2018 President Macron tabled a suite of proposals for political reform.

The head lime proposals - which command a fair degree of support - are as follows:

• a reduction in the number of deputies in the National Assembly from 577 to 404
• a reduction in the number of members of the Senate from 348 to 244
• the introduction of proportional representation at national level for the election of 15% of deputies
• a limit on elected members to serving three consecutive terms

Other, more procedural reforms - which have much less support - are as follows:

• new limits on deputies and senators to introduce amendments to bills
• a reduction in the time provided to find a compromise when deputies and senators do not agree on the text of bills to benefit the version adopted by the National Assembly rather than the Senate
• an increase in the control of parliament's agenda by the government

National Assembly debates on these proposals were suspended in July 2018, but the government is likely to reintroduce the proposals some time in 2019.

 

Nigerian Political System

A Brief Early History of Nigeria

Not much was known about the earliest history of Nigeria. But by C.2000 B.C. most of the country was sparsely inhabited by persons who had a rudimentary knowledge of raising domesticated food plants and of herding animals. Then from C.800 B.C. to C.A.D. 200 the Nok culture (named for the town where archaeological findings were first made) flourished on the Jos Plateau; the Nok people made fine terra-cotta sculptures and probably knew how to work tin and iron. The first important centralized state to influence Nigeria was Kanem-Bornu, which probably was founded in the 8th century A.D., to the north of Lake Chad outside modern Nigeria. In the 11th century, by that time its rulers had been converted to Islam. Kanem-Bornu expanded south of Lake Chad into present day Nigeria, and in the late 15th century its capital was moved there.

Beginning from the 11th century, seven independent Hausa city states were founded in the Northern Nigeria Biram, Daura, Gobir, Kano, Katsina, Rano, and Zaria. Kano and Katsina competed for the lucrative trans-Saharan trade with Kanem-Bornu, and for a time had to pay tribute to the kingdom. In the early 16th century all the Hausa land was briefly held by the Songhai Empire.  Songhai empire, also spelled Songhay, great trading state of West Africa (fl. 15th–16th century), centered on the middle reaches of the Niger River in what is now central Mali and eventually extending west to the Atlantic coast and east into Niger and Nigeria.

However, in the late 16th century, Kanem-Bornu replaced Songhai as the leading power in Northern Nigeria, and the Hausa states regained their autonomy. In southwest Nigeria two states Oyo and Benin had developed by the 14th century; the rulers of both states traced their origins to Ife, renowned for its naturalistic terra-cotta and brass sculpture. Benin was the leading state in the 15th century but began to decline in the 17th century, and by the 18th century Oyo controlled Yoruba land and also Dahomey. The Igbo people in the southeast lived in small village communities. In the late 15th century Portuguese navigators became the first Europeans to visit Nigeria. They soon began to purchase slaves and agricultural produce from coastal middlemen; the slaves had been captured further inland by the middlemen. The Portuguese were followed by British, French, and Dutch traders. Among the Igbo and Ibibio a number of city-states were established by individuals who had become wealthy by engaging in the slave trade; these included Bonny, Owome, and Okrika.

To understand Nigerian politics is to study the direction of their history that will help us to understand more about their political system. History is very important to explain the way and why some political system of a nation varies from the other. On like so many other modern African states, Nigeria is the creation of European imperialism. It is named after the great Niger River; and the country’s name was suggested in the 1890s by British journalist Flora Shaw, who later became the wife of colonial governor Frederick Lugard. The modern history of Nigeria as a political state encompassing 250 to 400 ethnic groups of widely varied cultures and modes of political organizations dated from the completion of the British conquest in 1903 and the amalgamation of northern and southern Nigeria into the Colony and Protectorate of Nigeria in 1914. The history of the Nigerian people extends backward in time for some three millennia. Archaeological evidence, oral traditions, and written documentation established the existence of dynamic societies and well developed political systems whose history had an important influence on colonial rule and has continued to shape independent Nigeria. Nigerian history is fragmented in the sense that it evolved from a variety of traditions, but many of the most outstanding features of modern society reflected the strong influence of the three regionally dominant ethnic groups the Hausa in the north, the Yoruba in the west, and the Igbo in the east.

There are several dominant themes in Nigerian history that are essential in understanding contemporary Nigerian politics and society. First, is the spread of Islam, predominantly in the north but later in southwestern Nigeria as well, began a millennium ago. The creation of the Sokoto Caliphate in the jihad (holy war) of 1804 to 1808 brought most of the northern region and adjacent parts of Niger and Cameroon under a single Islamic government. The great extension of Islam within the area of the present day Nigeria dated from the nineteenth century and the consolidation of the caliphate. This history helps account for the dichotomy between north and south and for the divisions within the north that have been so strong during the colonial and postcolonial eras.

Second, the slave trade, both across the Sahara Desert and the Atlantic Ocean, had a profound influence on virtually all parts of Nigeria. The transatlantic trade in particular accounted for the forced migration of about 3.5 million people between the 1650s and the 1860s, while a steady stream of slaves flowed north across the Sahara for a millennium, ending at the beginning of the twentieth century. Within Nigeria, slavery was widespread, with social implications that are still evident till date. The Sokoto Caliphate, for example, had more slaves than any other modern country, except the United States in 1860s. Slaves were also numerous among the Igbo, the Yoruba, and many other ethnic groups. There were, many ethnic distinctions, especially in the middle belt the area between the north and south were reinforced because of slave raiding and defensive measures that were adopted for protection against enslavement. Conversion to Islam and the spread of Christianity were intricately associated with issues relating to slavery and with efforts to promote political and cultural autonomy.

 

Third, the colonial era was relatively brief; lasting for six decades or so, depending upon the part of Nigeria, but it unleashed such rapid change that the full impact was still felt in the contemporary period.  There was the expansion of agricultural products as the principal export earner and the corresponding development of infrastructure resulted in severely distorted economic growth that has subsequently collapsed. Also the social dislocation associated with the decline of slavery and the internal movement of population between regions and to the cities necessitated the reassessment of ethnic loyalties, which in turn have been reflected in politics and religion.

 

In the three/third decades since the independence of Nigeria in 1960, a period of the colonial era, Nigeria has experienced a number of successful and attempted military coups d'état and a brutal civil war, let corrupt civilian governments siphon off the profits from the oil boom of the 1970s, and faced economic collapse in the 1980s. As the most populous country in Africa, and one of the ten most populous countries in the world, Nigeria has a history that is important in its own reason than to understand how and why this nation became as it is today.

There were major internal changes in Nigeria in the 19th century in 1804; Usuman dan Fodio (1754–1817), a Fulani and a pious Muslim began a holy war to reform the practice of Islam in the north. He soon conquered the Hausa city-states, but Bornu, led by Muhammad al-Kanemi (also a Muslim reformer) until 1835, maintained its independence. In 1817, Usuman dan Fodio's son, Muhammad Bello (D.1837) established a state centered at Sokoto, which controlled most of Northern Nigeria until the coming of the British in (1900–1906). Under both Usuman dan Fodio and Muhammad Bello, Muslim culture, and also trade, flourished in the Fulani Empire. In Bornu, Muhammad al-Kanemi was succeeded by Umar (reigned 1835–80), under whom the empire disintegrated.

In 1807, Great Britain abandoned the slave trade; however, other countries continued it until about 1875. Meanwhile, many African middlemen turned to selling palm products, which were Nigeria's chief export by the middle of the century. In 1817 a long series of civil wars began in the Oyo Empire; they lasted until 1893 (when Britain intervened), by which time the empire had disintegrated completely.

In order to stop the slave trade there, Britain annexed Lagos in 1861. In 1879, Sir George Goldie gained control of all the British firms trading on the Niger, and in the 1880s he took over two French companies active there and signed treaties with numerous African leaders. Largely because of Goldie's efforts, Great Britain was able to claim Southern Nigeria at the Conference of Berlin ( Berlin, Conference of) held in 1884 to 1885.

In the following years, the British established their rule in South Western Nigeria, partly by signing treaties (as in the Lagos hinterland) and partly by using force (as at Benin in 1897). King Jaja, a leading African trader based at Opobo in the Niger delta and strongly opposed the European competition, was captured in 1887 and deported. Goldie's firm, given (1886) a British royal charter, as the Royal Niger Company, to administer the Niger River and Northern Nigeria, antagonized Europeans and Africans alike by its monopoly of trade on the Niger; in addition, it was not sufficiently powerful to gain effective control over Northern Nigeria, which was also soughted by the French.

 Colonialism

In 1900 the Royal Niger Company's charter was revoked and British forces under Frederick Lugard conquered the north, taking Sokoto in 1903. By 1906, Britain controlled Nigeria, which was divided into the Colony (i.e., Lagos), and Protectorate of Southern Nigeria and the Protectorate of Northern Nigeria. In 1914 the two regions were amalgamated and the Colony and Protectorate of Nigeria was established.

The administration of Nigeria was based on a system devised by Lord, Lugard and called "indirect rule"; under this system, Britain ruled through existing political institutions rather than establishing a wholly new administrative network. In some areas (especially the southeast) new African officials (resembling the traditional rulers in other parts of the country) were set up; in most cases they were not accepted by the masses and were able to rule just because British power stood behind them. All important decisions were made by the British governor, and the African rulers, partly by being associated with the colonialists, most of their traditional authority lost within a twinkle of an eye. Occasionally (as in Aba in 1929) discontent with colonial rule flared into open protest where by Aba women rioted and protested against payment of tax.

Under the British, railroads and roads were built and the production of cash crops, such as palm nuts and kernels, cocoa, cotton, and peanuts, was promoted. The country was urbanized as Lagos, Ibadan, Kano, Onitsha, and other cities grew in size and became important as prominent towns. From 1922, African representatives from Lagos and Calabar were elected to the legislative council of Southern Nigeria; they constituted only a small minority, and Africans otherwise continued to have no role in the higher levels of government. Self help groups organized on ethnic lines were established in the cities. Small Western educated elite developed in Lagos and a few other southern cities.

In 1947, Great Britain promulgated a constitution that gave the traditional authorities a greater voice in national affairs. The Western educated elite was excluded, and, led by Herbert Macaulay and Nnamdi, Azikiwe, its members vigorously denounced the constitution. As a result, a new constitution was provided for elected representation on a regional basis, which was instituted in 1951.

There were a major political parties emerge the National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons (NCNC; from 1960 known as the National Convention of Nigerian Citizens), led by Azikiwe and largely based among the Igbo; the Action Group, (AG) led by Obafemi Awolowo constitutes with mostly Yoruba membership; and the Northern People's Congress (NPC), led by Ahmadu Bello and based in the north. The constitution proved unworkable by 1952, and a new one, solidifying the division of Nigeria into three regions (Eastern, Western, and Northern) including the Federal Territory of Lagos, came into force in 1954. In 1956 the Eastern and Western regions became internally self-governing, and the Northern region achieved this status in 1959. Going by these knowledge we may say that, that was the reason why the northerners clinked to power till date.

Independence and Political Internal Conflict/Nigerian Politics with Bitterness

At that time the Nigerian independence was scheduled for 1960, while elections were held in 1959. No party won a majority, and the NPC combined with the NCNC to form a government. Nigeria attained independence on Oct. 1, 1960, with Abubakar Tafawa Balewa of the NPC as the prime minister and Azikiwe of the NCNC as governor-general (ceremonial head of government); when Nigeria became a republic in 1963, Azikiwe was made the first Nigerian president which lasted only but a short time due to corruption. The first years of independence as at that time were characterized by severe conflicts within and between regions. In the Western region, a bloc of the Action Group split off (1962) under S. I. Akintola to form the Nigerian National Democratic party (NNDP); in 1963 the Mid-Western region (whose population was mostly Edo) was formed from a part of the Western region. National elections late in 1964 were hotly contested, with an NPC-NNDP coalition (called the National Alliance) emerging victorious.

In Jan., 1966, Igbo army officers presently known as the south-south and south-East staged a successful coup, which resulted in the deaths of Federal Prime Minister Balewa, Northern Prime Minister Ahmadu Bello, and Western Prime Minister S. I. Akintola. Whereas, Maj. Gen. Johnson T. U. Aguiyi-Ironsi, an Igbo, became head of a military government and suspended the national and regional constitutions; the new government was met with a violent reaction in the north. In July, 1966, a coup led by Hausa army officers ousted Ironsi was killed, and instituted Lt. Col. Yakubu Gowon as the head of a new military regime.  This caused violent in the north especially in Kano state.  In Sept. 1966, many Igbos living in the north were massacred. In fact it was a gruesome killing where people were shown no mercy.

 Note: as at that time the South-South and South-East were regarded as the Igbo people because they do things in common. It was after the civil war (Biafra vs Nigeria) that the divisions or hatred to the South-East started. Even at that till date these two geopolitical zones are regarded as the Igbos in the eyes of the Northerners and nothing can change that. The South-South comprises Cross-River, Akwa-Ibom, Delta, Edo, Bayelsa, and Rivers. The South-East comprised Enugu, Ebonyi, Anambra, Imo and Abia. It is interesting to note that Major General Kaduna Nzeogwu  come from South-South present Delta state. He was the one who headed in plotting the coup of 1966.

The Igbos resisted the leadership of Gowon who attempted to start Nigeria along the road to civilian government. The resistance of the Igbo was caused by the disagreement of Gowon to implement the Aburi accord of which Ojukwu stood firm in that agreement of which he presented a press conference disagreeing with Gowon’s agenda to Nigeria. As a result Gowon proclaimed a state of emergency, and, as a gesture to the Igbos, re divided Nigeria into 12 states (including one, the East-Central state that comprised most of the Igbo people). However, on May 30, Ojukwu proclaimed the independent Republic of Biafra, and in July fighting broke out between Biafra and Nigeria. Biafra made some advances early in the war, but soon federal forces gained their ground. After much suffering, Biafra capitulated on Jan. 15, 1970, and the secession ended. The early 1970s were marked by reconstruction in areas that were formerly part of Biafra, by the gradual reintegration of the Igbo into national life, and by a slow return to civilian rule.

 

Modern Nigeria

Spurred by the booming petroleum industry, the Nigerian economy quickly recovered from the effects of civil war and made impressive advances. Nonetheless, inflation and high unemployment remained, and the oil boom led to government corruption and uneven distribution of wealth. Nigeria joined the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries in 1971. The prolonged drought that desiccated the Sahel region of Africa in the early 1970s had a profound effect on N Nigeria, resulting in a migration of peoples into the less arid areas and into the cities of the south.

Gowon's regime was overthrown in 1975 by Gen. Murtala Muhammad and a group of officers who pledged a return to civilian rule. In the mid-1970s plans were approved for a new capital to be built at Abuja, a move that drained the national economy. Muhammad was assassinated in an attempted coup one year after taking office and succeeded by Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo. In a crisis brought on by rapidly falling oil revenues, the government restricted public opposition to the regime, controlled union activity and student movements, nationalized land, and increased oil industry regulation. Nigeria sought Western support under Obasanjo while supporting African nationalist movements.

In 1979 elections were held under a new constitution, bringing Alhaji Shehu Shagari to the presidency. Relations with the United States reached a new high in 1979 with a visit by President Jimmy Carter. The government expelled thousands of foreign laborers in 1983, citing social disturbances as the reason. The same year, Shagari was reelected president but overthrown after only a few months in office.

In 1985 a coup led by Maj. Gen. Ibrahim Babangida brought a new regime to power, along with the promise of a return to civilian rule. A new constitution was promulgated in 1990, which set national elections for 1992. Babangida annulled the results of that presidential election, claiming fraud. A new election in 1993 ended in the apparent presidential victory of Moshood Abiola, but Babangida again alleged fraud. Soon unrest led to Babangida's resignation. Ernest Shonekan, a civilian appointed as interim leader, was forced out after three months by Gen. Sani Abacha, a long-time ally of Babangida, who became president and banned all political institutions and labor unions. In 1994, Abiola was arrested and charged with treason.

In 1995, Abacha extended military rule for three more years, while proposing a program for a return to civilian rule after that period; his proposal was rejected by opposition leaders, but five political parties were established in 1996. The Abacha regime drew international condemnation in late 1995 when Ken Saro-Wiwa, a prominent writer, and eight other human-rights activists were executed; the trial was condemned by human-rights groups and led to Nigeria's suspension from the Commonwealth of Nations. Also in 1995, a number of army officers, including former head of state General Obasanjo, were arrested in connection with an alleged coup attempt. In 1996, Kudirat Abiola, an activist on behalf of her imprisoned husband, was murdered.

Abacha died suddenly in June, 1998, and was succeeded by Gen. Abdulsalam Abubakar, who immediately freed Obasanjo and other political prisoners. Riots followed the announcement that Abiola had also died unexpectedly in July, 1998, while in detention. Abubakar then announced an election timetable leading to a return to civilian rule within a year. All former political parties were disbanded and new ones formed. A series of local, state, and federal elections were held between Dec., 1998, and Feb., 1999, culminating in the presidential contest, won by General Obasanjo. The elections were generally deemed fair by international monitors. The People's Democratic party (PDP; the centrist party of General Obasanjo) dominated the elections; the other two leading parties were the Alliance for Democracy (a Yoruba party of the southwest, considered to be progressive), and the All People's party (a conservative party based in the north).

Following Obasanjo's inauguration on May 29, 1999, Nigeria was readmitted to the Commonwealth. The new president said he would combat past and present corruption in the Nigerian government and army and develop the impoverished Niger delta area. Although there was some progress economically, government and political corruption remained a problem. The country also was confronted with renewed ethnic and religious tension. The latter was in part a result of the institution of Islamic law in Nigeria's northern states, and led to violence that has been an ongoing problem since the return of civilian rule. Army lawlessness was a problem as well in some areas. A small success was achieved in Apr., 2002, when Abacha's family agreed to return $1 billion to the government; the government had sought an estimated $4 billion in looted Nigerian assets.

In Mar., 2003, the Ijaw, accusing the Itsekiri, government, and oil companies of economic and political collusion against them, began militia attacks against Itsekiri villages and oil facilities in the Niger delta, leading to a halt in the delta's oil production for several weeks and military intervention by the government. The presidential and earlier legislative elections in Apr., 2003, were won by President Obasanjo and his party, but the results were marred by vote rigging and some violence. The opposition protested the results, and unsuccessfully challenged the presidential election in court. The Ijaw-Itsekiri conflict continued into 2004, but a peace deal was reached in mid-June. The Ijaw backed out of the agreement, however, three weeks later. Christian-Muslim tensions also continued to be a problem in 2004, with violent attacks occurring in Kebbi, Kano, and Plateau states.

Obasanjo's government appeared to move more forcefully against government corruption in early 2005. Several government ministers were fired on corruption charges, and the senate speaker resigned after he was accused of taking bribes. A U.S. investigation targeted Nigeria's vice president the same year, and Obasanjo himself agreed to be investigated by the Nigerian financial crimes commission when he was accused of corruption by Orji Uzor Kalu, the governor of Abia and a target of a corruption investigation. Ijaw militants again threatened Niger delta oil operations in Sept., 2005, and several times in subsequent years, resulting in cuts in Nigeria's oil production as large as 25% at times. Since early 2006 the Niger delta area has seen an increase in kidnappings of foreign oil workers and attacks on oil operations; the resulting government focus on protecting oil facilities allowed criminal gangs to expand their influence in populated areas there. In Oct., 2005, the government reached an agreement to pay off much of its foreign debt at a discount, a process that was completed in Apr., 2006.

The end of 2005 and early 2006 saw increased contention over whether to amend the constitution to permit the president and state governors to run for more than two terms. The idea had been rejected in July, 2005, by a national political reform conference, but senators reviewing the conference's proposals indicated they supported an end to term limits. The change was opposed by Vice President Atiku Abubakar, but other PDP leaders who objected were removed from their party posts. A census—a contentious event because of ethnic and religious divisions in Nigeria—was taken in Mar., 2006, but the head count was marred by a lack of resources and a number of violent clashes, and many Nigerians were believed to have been left uncounted. In May the Nigerian legislature ended consideration of a third presidential term when it became clear that there was insufficient support for amending the constitution. Nigeria agreed in June, 2006, to turn over the Bakassi peninsula to Cameroon after a two-year transition period; the region was finally ceded in Aug., 2008.

In July the vice president denied taking bribes from a U.S. congressman, but in September the president called for the Nigerian senate to remove the vice president from office for fraud, based on an investigation by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). The senate agreed to investigate the charges, and the PDP suspended the vice president, blocking him from seeking the party's presidential nomination. Abubakar counteraccused Obasanjo of corruption. The EFCC was also investigating most of Nigeria's state governors, but the commission itself was tainted by charges that it was used for political retaliation by Obasanjo and his allies. Several state governors were impeached by legally unsound proceedings, moves that were seen as an attempt by Obasanjo to tighten his control prior to the 2007 presidential election.

When the vice president accepted (Dec., 2006) the presidential nomination of a group of opposition parties, the president accused him of technically resigning and sought to have him removed, an action Abubakar challenged in court; the government backed down the following month, and the courts later sided with Abubakar. In Jan., 2007, the results of the 2006 census were released, and they proved as divisive as previous Nigerian censuses. The census showed that the largely Muslim north had more inhabitants than the south, and many southern political leaders vehemently rejected the results.

In February, the EFCC declared Abubakar and more than 130 other candidates for the April elections unfit due to corruption, and the election commission barred those candidates from running. Abubakar fought the move in court, but the ruling was not overturned until days before the presidential election. The state elections were marred by widespread and blatant vote fraud and intimidation, but the election commission certified nearly all the results, handing gubernatorial victories to the PDP in 27 states. In the presidential election, Umaru Yar'Adua, the relatively unknown governor of Katsina state who was hand-picked by Obasanjo to be the PDP candidate, was declared the winner with 70% of the vote, but fraud and intimidation were so blatant that EU observers called the election a "charade" and the president was forced to admit it was "flawed." Nonetheless, Yar'Adua's inauguration (May) marked the first transition of power between two elected civilian presidents in Nigeria's post-colonial history.

Yar'Adua subsequently moved to reorganize and reform the national petroleum company, but those efforts stalled, as did action to fight government corruption. The federal government did not, however, interfere with challenges in the courts to state elections. In Dec., 2008, challenges in the courts to Yar'Adua's election came to an end when the supreme court ruled that opposition lawyers had not provided sufficient evidence to annul the vote.

In Feb., 2009, KBR, a U.S. company, pleaded guilty in U.S. court to giving $180 million in bribes to Nigerian officials to obtain a contract to build a liquefied natural gas plant. A significant army offensive against Niger delta militants that began in May, 2009, provoked an increased round of attacks against oil facilities, particularly pipelines. At the same time, however, Yar'Adua offered (June) amnesty to militants who lay down their weapons by Oct. 4, and many militants ultimately accepted the amnesty, though some did not. Subsequent slow progress by the government led to increased tensions in 2010. In July, 2009, Boko Haram, an extremist Islamist sect, launched attacks against the government in NE Nigeria after several leaders were arrested; the subsequent fighting was especially fierce in Maiduguri, where the group's headquarters was destroyed and some 700 died. The group began a new series of attacks in Sept., 2010, that continued into subsequent years, with the attacks become more significant beginning in mid-2011.

The president traveled to Saudi Arabia in Nov., 2009, to seek medical treatment. As his stay there prolonged into 2010 many prominent Nigerians called for executive powers to be transferred on an interim basis to the vice president, Goodluck Jonathan, but the president did not initiate the constitutional process necessary for it to happen. In Feb., 2010, the National Assembly unanimously voted to make Jonathan acting president, but the lack of a formal letter from the president notifying the Assembly of his absence raised constitutional issues. Jonathan remained acting president after Yar'Adua returned later in the month, and succeeded him as president when Yar'Adua died in May.

Jonathan's subsequent decision to run for a presidential term in his own right threatened to split the PDP, which had alternated fielding northern and southern presidential candidates. In Dec., 2010, however, he won the support of most of the state governors who were members of the PDP, and the following month the PDP nominated him for the presidency. In Sept., 2010, one faction of Niger delta militants announced an end to their cease-fire, and the group subsequently set off car bombs in Abuja during an Independence Day parade on October 1.

The Apr., 2011, elections were won by Jonathan and the PDP. Jonathan won 57% of the vote, but overwhelmingly majorities in a number of southern states led to charges of vote rigging. The opposition candidates challenged the results, and in some northern states, where support for the opposition was strong, there were riots after the results were announced. International observers, however, generally described the presidential election as the country's freest and fairest in many years. In the National Assembly elections, the PDP won with a reduced majority in both houses, and it also lost control of a number of governorships in the subsequent gubernatorial elections.

By the first half of 2012 the increasingly violent, ongoing insurgency by the Islamic militant group Boko Haram was stoking sectarian tensions and worsening the economic situation in the already economically stagnant N Nigeria; the situation had also led to significantly larger government expenditures on security, diverting money from other needs. In May, 2013, after increasing Islamist-related violence, Nigeria imposed martial law in three northern states and launched an offensive against Islamist militants, but in many cases the militants fled without confronting the army, and subsequently they launched a number of murderous attacks as clashes increased later in the year. In August tensions in the PDP led to a split in the party, and several governors and a number of legislators left to form the New PDP; later in the year, most of them joined the All Progressives Congress (APC), an opposition group formed by the merger of several parties earlier in 2013.

REFERENCES

John Coleman de Graft-Johnson

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Musa-I-of-Mali#ref228242

http://www.rogerdarlington.me.uk/Russianpoliticalsystem.html