Political System of Great Britain

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a constitutional monarchy. Britain does not have a written constitution. Parliament is the most important authority in Britain.

The monarch serves formally as head of state. The present sovereign is Queen Elizabeth II (the second).

The House of Commons consists of Members of Parliament. General elections are held every five years. Ail citizens aged 18 have the right to vote.

There are few political parties in Britain. The main ones are: the Conservative Party, the Labour Party.

Each political party puts up one candidate for each constituency. The one who wins the most votes is MP for that area.

The party which wins the most seats in Parliament forms the Government; its leader becomes the Prime Minister.

The functions of the House of Commons are legislation and scrutiny of government activities. The House of Commons is presided over by the Speaker.

The House of Lords is presided by the Lord Chancellor. The House of Lords has no real power.

It's in the House of Commons that new bills are introduced and debated.

Parliament is responsible for British national policy. Local governments are responsible for organizing of education, police and many other

Political system

The United Kingdom is a constitutional monarchy. The Queen is the head of state. But according to the constitution, power in the country belongs to Parliament. The monarch can only reign with the support of Parliament. The British Parliament consists of the House of Lords and the House of Commons. They meet only on symbolic occasions, such as the opening of Parliament. In reality, the House of Commons has true power. New bills are introduced and debated here. If the majority of the members are in favour of a bill it goes to the House of Lords to be debated and then to the Queen for signing. Only then it becomes law. The House of Commons is made up of 650 elected members (MPs). They are elected by the people at a general election. Parliamentary elections must be held every five years. There are four political parties in Great Britain — the Conservative, the Liberal, the Labour and the Communist Parties. The political parties choose candidates in elections. The party, which wins the majority of seats, forms the Government. Its leader usually becomes the Prune Minister. The largest minority party becomes the Opposition. The majority party runs the country.The Prime Minister chooses about 20 MPs from his party and they form Cabinet of Minister. Each minister is responsible for a particular area of government. The leader of the Opposition chooses MPs too. They are responsible for opposing the government. They form the’ Shadow Cabinet ‘. The Conservative and Liberal parties are the oldest. Since 19th century they were the only parties elected to the House of Commons. The members of the House of Lords are not elected.

Parliament in London is responsible for deciding national policy, but many public are provided by local governments. They are responsible for organizing such services as education, libraries, police and others.

Active Words and Word Combinations:

head of state - голова держави

power - влада

bill – білль (законопроект )

majority - більшість

election - вибори

to vote - голосувати

to win - отримати перемогу

to depend on - залежати від

minority – меншість

to be responsible for - відповідати за що-небудь

shadow – тінь, тіньовий

agreement - угода

Questions:

1. What can you say about the power of the Queen in Great Britain?

2. Is there a constitution in Great Britain?

3. What houses does the legislative branch consist of?

4. Who is the Queen of Great Britain?

5. The House of Commons is a hereditary chamber, isn’t it?

Answer the following questions:

1. What kind of country is the United Kingdom?

2. Who is the head of state?

3. What Houses does the British Parliament consist of?

4. Who has true power in the country?

5. When does a bill become law?

6. How many elected members are there in the Houses of Commons?

7. How many political parties are there in Great Britain?

8. Which party forms the government?

9. Who forms Cabinet of Ministers?

10. How is the” Shadow Cabinet” formed?

II.What is Parliament responsible for?

11. When are Parliamentary elections held?

Практичне заняття № 14

Political System of the USA - Державний устрій США

The United States of America is a federative republic.

Since 1959 the Federation comprises 50 states.

The president is the head of the state and executive body.

He is also the commander-in-chief of the army and Navy of the USA.

The president and vice-president are elected for a term of four years.

All the legislative power is vested in Congress, which consists of the Senate and the House of Representatives.

There are 100 senators and 435 members in the House of Representatives.

Two Senators from each state are elected by popular vote for a term of six years, the Representatives are elected for two-year term.

Both houses must approve the bill for it to become a law.

An essential role in the US political system is played by the Supreme Court, which may declare a law, passed by Congress, to be contradictory to the Constitution of the country.

The various states have legislative and executive bodies of their own.

Their structure, function and competence are determined by the Constitution of each state.

There is an elected governor at the head of each state.

States enjoy independence in their domestic affairs, including financial matters.

However, state laws and actions of state authorities must not conflict with the Constitution of the USA.

 

Questions:

1. Who is the head of the state?

2. How are the senators elected?

3. Who stands at the head of each state?

4. How many senators are there in the House of Representatives?

5. How many states are there in the USA?

 

Практичне заняття № 16

Elections in Ukraine gives information on election and election results in Ukraine.

Ukraine elects on national level a head of state (president) and a legislature. The president is elected for a five-year term by the people. The Verkhovna Rada (Parliament of Ukraine) has 450 members, elected for a 5-year term (before a constitutional reform of 2004 this term was equal to 4 years).

Before 1998 all the members of the Parliament were elected by single-seat constituencies (from each electoral district). In 1998 and in 2002 half of the members were elected by proportional representation (faction vote) and the other half by single-seat constituencies. Since the 2006 parliamentary election, all 450 members of the Verkhovna Rada are elected by party-list proportional representation with closed lists (the same goes for local elections). The parliamentary election law has been changed 4 times since 1991.

Ukraine has a multi-party system, with numerous parties in which often not a single party has a chance of gaining power alone, and parties must work with each other to form coalition governments.

Representative bodies and heads of local government throughout Ukraine are elected simultaneously with the Verkhovna Rada.

A snap poll must have a voter turnout higher than 50%.

Since 1994 the average voter turnout for the Verkhovna Rada elections has been 68.13% and for presidential elections 73%.

The most popular presidential elections were the first one in 1991 where voted nearly 30.6 millions people and in 2004 election which gathered some 28 millions. There were only three presidential candidates who have gathered over 10 millions votes: Leonid Kravchuk (1991 - 19.6, 1994 - 10.0), Viktor Yushchenko (2004 - 11.1), and Viktor Yanukovych (2004 - 11.0). The 10 million voters mark was almost reached by Leonid Kuchma in 1999, but he only managed to gain trust of 9.6 millions. To this day Kravchuk is the only presidential candidate who managed to win the elections after the first round obtaining over 50% of votes in 1991. Most often participant of presidential elections is Oleksandr Moroz who took part in every presidential election since 1994 when he gained the biggest support of some 3.5 millions, while in 2010 for him voted less than .1 million. Viktor Yanukiovych became the strongest runner-up in the history of presidential elections, while Leonid Kuchma - the only runner-up of the first round who managed to pull a win in the second one. Thus far the top two presidential candidates always would get support of over 5 million voters each.

Despite a clear system for declaring donations to campaign funds, officials and experts say that Ukraine’s election law is consistently flouted, with spending from candidates’ official funds representing only a fraction of the amount truly spent while it’s rarely clear where the funding comes from.

Early May 2009 the "The Committee of Voters of Ukraine" stated they believe that the use of the state’s administrative resources by political forces for their own national and local election campaigns is no longer a decisive factor in the outcome of Ukrainian elections. According to a survey of 2,000 people conducted in October 2010 by two Ukrainian nongovernmental organizations, the Democratic Initiatives Fund and OPORA, one in five Ukrainians were willing to sell his or her vote in the then upcoming 2010 Ukrainian local elections. But according to (then) Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov these elections "were absolutely without the use of administrative resources, naturally. Nobody interfered with our citizens."

Voting analysis shows that during Ukrainian election there are traditional geographical voting patterns. Viktor Yanukovych (and his Party of the Regions) and Yulia Tymoshenko (and her party Bloc Yulia Tymoshenko) have been since about 2005 the main players in Ukrainian politics. Yanukovych traditional base of support is east and south Ukraine, whereas Tymoshenko traditional base of support is west and central Ukraine. Although this geographical division is decreasing.

A 2010 study by the Institute of Social and Political Psychology of Ukraine found that in general, Yulia Tymoshenko supporters are more optimistic compared with Viktor Yanukovych supporters. 46 percent of the Tymoshenko’s backers expect improvement in their well-being in the next year compared to 30 percent for Yanukovych.