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UK
Who is the Prime Minister and what is his role?
The Prime Minister is the leader of Her Majesty’s Government and is ultimately responsible for all policy and decisions. The Prime Minister also:
- oversees the operation of the Civil Service and government agencies
- appoints members of the government
- is the principal government figure in the House of Commons The Cabinet is made up of the senior members of government. Every week during Parliament, members of the Cabinet (Secretaries of State from all departments and some other ministers) meet to discuss the most important issues for the government.
What is the UK Parliament?
The Parliament of the United Kingdom is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, the Crown dependencies and the British overseas territories. It alone possesses legislative supremacy and thereby ultimate power over all other political bodies in the UK and the overseas territories. Parliament is bicameral but has three parts, consisting of the sovereign (Crown-in- Parliament), the House of Lords, and the House of Commons (the primary chamber). The two houses meet in the Palace of Westminster in the City of Westminster, one of the inner boroughs of the capital city, London. HOUSE OF LORDS: The House of Lords is the upper House of the British Parliament, whose members are not elected. Its work consists mainly of: examining and making changes to bills from the House of Commons; discussing important matters which the House of Commons cannot find time to discuss; it also acts as the final court of appeal ( the Supreme Court). House of Lords consists in: Lords Temporal, Lords Spiritual, the Archbishops of York, the Archbishop of Canterbury and 24 diocesan Bishops of the Church of England. Lords Temporal are Members of the House of Lords who are not bishops. They are members of the peerage or peers (Pari d’Inghilterra, ovvero titoli nobiliari che compendono: duca, marchese, conte, visconte e barone) and peeresses (moglie o vedova di un Pari d’Inghilterra). There are Hereditary peers who are peers or peeresses who inherit their title; Life peers who are peers and peeresses who have been created by political parties and cannot pass it on to their son or daughter; Law Lords of appeal who act as the ultimate court of appeal for most purposes, under the chairmanship (= presidenza) of the Lord Chancellor. There are two important acts referring to Peers and Peerageor rather: The Life Peerage Act 1958: Before the 1950s it was recognized that to choose members of the 2nd chamber purely on the basis of the birth was not only unjustified but also inefficient. The idea is that Life Peerage chosen on the basis of ability and attitude and not passing their title on to an heir (= erede) were weeded to inject (= introdurre) new life into the chamber. The Peerage Renunciation Act 1963: Prior to that period, anyone itineriting a peerage was prevented. From having a seat in the House of Commons. This act allows any hereditary peer/peeress to disclaim his/her title within 12 months. The most important thing is that any act ore renunciation was not affect the right of heir to the peerage his/her parent has surrendered. HOUSE OF COMMONS: The House of Commons is the elective chamber. It consists of Members of Parliament, the Speaker and Whips. The speaker is elected by the Member of Parliament has the casting vote in the event of a tie (= stallo). Each party has its own whips to maintain the discipline in both House of Parliament. Both the House of Commons and the House of Lords meet in the Palace of Westminster (also called the House of Parliament). Those chambers have several rows of seat facing each other where members of the Government sit on one side and members of the Opposition sit on the
other side. Each period of Government lasts a maximum of five years and is divided into one- year periods called session.
Is the monarch an important figure in UK? What does she/he do?
The continuity of English Monarchy has been interrupted only by the Cromwell Republic of 1649-
- Succession to the throne is still hereditary. The monarch has a number of roles: she serves formally as head of state; she is commander in chief of the armed forces; she is the supreme governor of the Church of England; The monarch reigns but does not rule; She is expected to be politically neutral; She acts only on the advice of ministers; She summons, open, adjourns and dissolves Parliament; She gives the Royal Assent to Bill that have been passed both Houses of Parliament; She appoints ministers, grants, honors, gives pardons to some convicted criminals, fulfils international duties as Head of State; The most important function is the appointment of the Prime Minister
What are the General Elections in UK?
A general election is an opportunity for people in every part of the UK to choose their MP. This person will represent a local area (constituency) in the House of Commons for up to five years. There is a choice of several candidates in each constituency. Some will be the local candidates for national political parties. The candidate that receives most votes becomes their MP. Who decides to call a general election? The Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011 provides that Parliament is dissolved automatically after 5 years. Before the Act, dissolution was a personal prerogative of the monarch. The Act replaced the prerogative. Parliament is now dissolved automatically 25 working days before a general election.
What do you know about the British constitution?
Constitutions organise, distribute and regulate state power. They set out the structure of the state, the major state institutions, and the principles governing their relations with each other and with the state's citizens. Britain is unusual in that it has an 'unwritten' constitution: unlike the great majority of countries there is no single legal document which sets out in one place the fundamental laws outlining how the state works. Britain's lack of a 'written' constitution can be explained by its history. The Constitution of the United Kingdom is the system of rules that decides the political governance of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Unlike most countries, the UK constitution is not codified into a single document. However, the UK Supreme Court recognises that there are constitutional principles, including parliamentary sovereignty, the rule of law, democracy, and upholding international law. The UK Supreme Court also recognises that some Acts of Parliament have special constitutional status. These include Magna Carta, which in 1215 required the King to call "common counsel" (now called Parliament) to represent people, to hold courts in a fixed place, to guarantee fair trials, to guarantee free movement of people, to free the church from the state, and to guarantee rights of "common" people to use the land. A characteristic of States with written Constitutions is that a particular category of law is superior to all other laws and made difficult to change. For instance, in US the agreement of two-thirds of both Houses of Congress, followed by at least three-quarters of the States is necessary before any article in the Constitution can be changed. In Britain no distinction between ordinary law and Constitution law is made and the Constitution is much more flexible and easily changed. Britain is a unitary state in the sense that authority rests in a single legislative body: the Parliament. In a federal state, a number of smaller states are permanently linked together to form a Federation. A Federal Government deals with questions of concern to all states such as: Foreign Policy and defence. Individual States have power over other areas of policy such as: education and justice. Acts of Parliament are bills which have received the approval of Parliament – that is, the Monarch, the House of Lords and the House of Commons. On rare occasions, the House of Commons uses
USA
Is the United States a federal state? Why?
The federal government of the United States ( U.S. federal government ) is the national government of the United States, a federal republic in North America, composed of 50 states, a federal district, five major self-governing territories and several island possessions. The federal government is composed of three distinct branches: legislative, executive, and judicial, whose powers are vested by the U.S. Constitution in the Congress, the president and the federal courts, respectively. The powers and duties of these branches are further defined by acts of Congress, including the creation of executive departments and courts inferior to the Supreme Court.
Who is the President and what is his role?
The President is the head of the executive branch of the federal government of the United States. He - so far, the position has always been held by a man - 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 organisation numbering about four million people, including one million active-duty military personnel. The so- called 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. Who is eligible to become a President? 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 What are the powers of the President?
- Within the executive branch, the President has broad constitutional powers to manage national affairs and the workings of the federal government.
- 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 otherwide require legislation. Very few such orders were issued until the time of Abraham Lincoln (the Emanicpation 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- The President has the power to make treaties with the 'advice and consent' of the Senate.
- 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).
Who is the Vice President and what is his role?
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 heart beat 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.
Who elects the president in the USA?
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. In virtually all cases, the winner of the presidential election in any given state secures all the Electoral College votes of that state. The exceptions are Maine and Nebraska. 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
Speak about the US constitution.
Unlike Britain but like most nation states, 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. The United States Constitution is both the longest- lasting in the world, being over two centuries old, and one of the the shortest in the world, having just seven articles and 27 amendments. 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. At the heart of the US Constitution is the principle known as 'separation of powers' , a term coined by the French political, enlightenment thinker Montesquieu. This means that power is
spread between three institutions of the state - the executive (President & Cabinet), the legislature (House of Representatives & Senate) and the judiciary (Supreme Court & federal circuits) - and no one institution has too much power and no individual can be a member of more than one institution. This principle is also known as 'checks and balances' , since each of the three branches of the state has some authority to act on its own, some authority to regulate the other two branches, and has some of its own authority, in turn, regulated by the other branches.
What is the impeachment?
Impeachment is the procedure by which a public official in the US, including the President, is charged with acting illegally and may be forced to leave the office. The impeachment-trial procedure is divided in two steps:
- In the first step the House of Representatives must first pass “articles of impeachment” by a simple majority.
- In the second step the Senate tries the accused. In the case of the impeachment of the President,
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