1. How well have you read the text? Can you explain the following and answer the questions?

1. Explain why the stiidy of governmental structures should be ap­proached with great caution.

2. Compare the roles of monarchs in the parliamentary democracies ofWfcstern Europe and in the emerging states of North Africa, the Middle East, and Asia.

3. Why were the most successful German, Austrian and Russian royal dynasties fated to lose their thrones?

4. Why are some kings of the non-Westem world nowadays consid­ered to be rather monocrats than monarchs?

5. What is the main feature of oligarchic rule in pre-industrial societies?

6. Speak of the new forms of oligarchic rule in advanced industrial societies.

7. What does “democracy” imply? What forms of democracy have been known by humanity?

8. What is the essence of constitutionalism?

9. Speak of the main functions of political parties in a constitutional democracy.

10. What are the two major types of constitutional democracy in the modern world?

11. What is the difference between the American and the British con­stitutional democracies?

2. Now decide whether the following statements are true or false:

1. The fact that two states have similar constitutions with similar insti­tutional provision means that they represent the same type of politi­cal system.

2. The kings who in modern times maintain their position by the claim of legitimate blood descent are called monocrats.

3. The role of the king in some emerging states of North Africa, the Middle East and Asia has much in common with that of dictators in autocratic regimes.

4. According to Aristotelian classificati-'? of government, oligarchy is a debased form of aristocracy.

5. The simple forms of oligarchic rule based on recruiting elites from a ruling class are still persisting unchanged in advanced industrial so­cieties.

6. The key point of modern constitutional democracies is the will of the people expressed in free elections.

7. The British parliamentary system provides for the separation of leg­islature and executive.

efficiency reciprocal ^ primacy brcU I/

3. Transcribe the following words. Pay machinery /4e>^ /' Г)^Г! facade SO: &

dynasty ' of/'ПQ . dignitary" Of / O n i -f^ft ~ autocratic /): v) Ј

regime Г'& / ^rJ<’ ^rn-

caste n Ci:J-h

oligarchy О fi t>Q ■’ к / absolutism, ^ J>jо_f /и:-f/2^^ administrator#^/'/vlf ле/£> elite / /1 : -h

attention to the stress.

stratum S-t't'Q ■ /«? /w-

committee ^rm /’//>• ^ bureaucratic К/с/9 Г^ t

jeopardize /iiWo/ Q > 2-

r-t-

m p™ kJ. # - ,

-«iv /J nto^e.

personnel/ л 3 . ^h_cn,_aL

demise уЛ Vw 6U Z-

legitimate l/'d?i'-f-a legislature j

4. Give English-Russian equivalents of the following expressions:

1. Introduction, Monarchy, Oligarchy

предусматривать рамки (пределы); идти рука об руку с чем- то; а ceremonial dignitary; to distinguish between form and reality; официальный глава правительства; indispensable figure in all great official occasions; выполнять задачи правления (в государстве); по праву законного происхождения; to vanish from the world; набирать элиту из привилегированной касты; испытать на себе в полной мере влияние индустриализации; stratum of society; до­ставшееся в наследство социальное положение; to compel recruit­ment; ограничить власть; to thrust great power into smb’s hands;

быть подотчетным, отвечать за что-либо; to jeepardi/e the effi­ciency of the policy-making process; государственные органы.