The political system of Ukraine

Ukraine is a sovereign state whose independence was declared on August 24, 1991. Before that it was one of the 15 republics of the former Soviet Union. The country has a democratic political system which means that its executive branch is headed by the president with strong powers, and its legislative branch is represented by a national parliament.

The president who is elected to a five-year term is the commander-in-chief of the, military forces and can issue orders, called edicts, without the approval of the parliament. The first president of Ukraine was Leonid Kravchuk, whose programme was aimed at the construction of a new Ukraine with a strong state system, genuine democracy, material well-being of the Ukrainian people and their elevated spiritual awareness.

In 1994 people elected a new president, Leonid Kuchma, and Ukraine entered a new phase of develop­ment. In 1999 he was re-elected to a new term of presidency and stated among his main concerns the rapid implementation of crucial economic reforms.

UkraineYpaHiament, called Verkhovna Rada (the Supreme Council), is the nation’s law-making body. It has one chamber consisting of450 members who are elected by.yoters at general“elections to a five-year term. Every citizen of Ukraine over 18 has the right to vote in theetefctions.

Judicial power in Ukraine is represented by the SupremeCourt and the Constitutional Court.

The president is assisted by a Cabinet of Ministers whose responsibilities lie in the areas of foreign affairs, home policy, economy, science and technology, industry, law and humanitarian matters. TlieCabinet is headed by the Prime Minister who is appointed by the president and approved by the majority of the Parliament.

In other words, it is possible to say that state power in Ukraine is based on the division of authority into legislative, executive and judicial branches, and Ukraine can be called a country with a parliamen-’ J:ary-presjdential form of government. ~ "

Administratively Ukraine is divided into 24 regions, called “oblasty”. Crimea, which is also part of our country, has a special status of an autonomous, self-governing republic. Each region has its local government bodies which are responsible to the Cabinet of Ministers and the President.

There are avariety of political parties in Ukraine, they currently number more than 60. The most influential are the Social-Democratic Party of Ukraine (united), the Rukh, the People’s Democratic Party (NDP) and the Socialist party. The President of Ukraine does not belong to any of the parties.

The main trend of foreign policy in Ukraine is to live in peace with the rest of the world community, to co-operate with other countries and participate in European and world structures through membership

in the United Nations Organisation and other international political, economic and cultural organisa­tions.

Constitution of Ukraine

The political system of Ukraine, its laws, its home and foreign policy, the rights and duties of its citizens are established, based and guaranteed by the Constitution. There have been several previous constitutional documents in the history of Ukraine (1710, 1918, 1919, 1929, 1937, 1978). The new Constitution of Ukraine as an independent, sovereign, democratic, social and legal state was adopted by the Verkhovna Rada on June 28,1996 as the Fundamental Law of the country.

The main points of the 1996 Constitution are.

V The political system of the United Kingdom of Great Britain

\ and Northern Ireland

The United Kingdom is a constitutional or parliamentary monarchy. It means that it has a monarch (either a queen ora king) as its Head of State but the monarch has-very little power. The Queen (or King) reigns but she(he) doesn’t rule. Parliament and the existent government have the power. Parliament and the monarch have different roles and they only meet together on symbolic occasions such as the corona­tion of a new monarch or the traditional annual opening of the Parliament.

There is no written constitution in Britain. The rules for governing the country have,been developed over the centuries. More than a thousand years ago, before the Norman Conquest in 1066, the Anglo­Saxon kings consulted the Great Council (an assembly of the leading men from each district) before taking major decisions. Between 1066 and 1215, the king ruled alone, but in 1215 the nobles forced King John to accept Magna Carta (the Great Charter), which took away some of the king’s powers. In 1264 the first parliament of nobles met together. Since then the British Constitution has grown up slowly as a result of countless Acts of Parliament. There have been no violent changes in the constitution since the “bloodless revolution” of 1688 when the Parliament invited William and Mary to become Britain’s first constitutional monarchs who could rule only with the support of the Parliament. The Bill of Rights in 1689 was the first step towards constitutional monarchy because it prevented the monarch frommaking laws or raising the army without Parliaments’ approval. Since 1689 the power of Parlia­ment has grown steadily while the power of the monarch has weakened..

The present British monarch is Queen Elizabeth (since 1953) and the next in line to the throne is her son, Charles, the Prince of Wales, and then his son, Prince William of Wales. ”

Britain is a democracy. Men and women over 18 have the right to vote, but it is not compulsory. They have the right to elect a Member of Parliament (M.P.) for their electoral area (constituency). Most M.Ps belong to a different political party. Although there is no 1 ^mic to the number of political parties, and at present there are more than 100 of them, Britain in reality has a two-party system of government, since most people vote either Labour or Conservative. ’ ”

The party that wins the most seats in a general election forms the government and its leader becomes the Prime Minister, the head of the government. At pfesent the Prime Minister of Britain is TohyUlair, the leader of the Labour Party. He or she (the only woman Prime Minister in the history of Britain was Margaret Thatcher, the leader of the Conservative party from 1979 to 199p) usually-takes policy deci­sions with the agreement of thdCabinet of Ministers. The power of the Cabinet, in its turn, is control/ed by the Parliament, for no bill can become law until it is passed by an Act of Parliament )

All important.bills are pFesentecko the House of Commons (the lower chamber of the Parliament, all 659 members of which are elected by people), where they are explained andaebated. If they receive a majority vote they go to the House of Lords (the upper chamber consisting of 9"2Tiere3itary of fiT^-time peers, clergy, and supreme judges) and after that to the monarch to be sighed. Although a bill must Be supported by all three bodies, the House of Lords has only limited powers, and the monarch-has 3^>t refused to sign any bill for about 200 years. The monarch always acts on the advice of the Prime Minis­ter. So the House of Commons is the main law-making body while the Cabinet of Ministers and the government are the main executive bodie Scotland and Wales have their own governments: the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh and the Welsh Assembly in Cardiff. Both opened in 1999.

In Northern Ireland the situation is more complicated. Because of the need to deal with politically inspired violence and terrorism, the Government assumed direct rule over Northern Ireland in 1972. Since then, several plans have been put forward by the successive governments in an effort to establish an administration acceptable both to Protestant and Roman Catholic Communities. Due to the old-time religious enmity, only since 1968 over 3,000 people have lost their lives as a result of the terrorists’ attempts to achieve their aims through violence.

There are 14 British overseas territories in which Britain is responsible for their defence, internal security and foreign relations. British policy is to give independence to those overseas territories that want it, and not to force it on those which do not. The territories include British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Falkland Islands, Gibraltar and some others. According to this policy Britain returned Hong Kong to China in 1997.

Great Britain is a member of the Commonwealth which is a voluntary association of independent states that originated as a result of dismantling of the British Empire after 1945. The British monarch is the Head of the Commonwealth and also the Head of State of 16 member countries such as Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the Bahamas and some others.