Otázka: Compare political systems in the CR and the UK
Jazyk: Angličtina
Přidal(a): _eva35
The Czech Republic
After overthrowing Communism in 1989, the country set up a parliamentary democracy. The parliament consists of two houses; the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate. There are 200 people in the Chamber of Deputies, and they serve a 4−year term. The 81 Senate members are elected for 6 years. The head of state is the president, and it is he who appoints a prime minister.
Until 2013 presidents were elected by both houses of the Parliament in three rounds of voting. In 2013 the President was elected for the first time in the direct presidential election by the citizens older than 18 years in the second ballot system. He may serve a maximum of two successive terms in office and they are elected for five-year terms. The President is the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces. But Presidential power is limited; the most important is the right to veto any bill which has already been passed by Parliament, with the exception of constitutional bills.
Our current President is Petr Pavel, who serves his second term in this position.
The Government is the supreme executive authority and is accountable to the Chamber of Deputies. It Consists of the Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Minister and Ministers, and coordinates activities of the ministries and the central bodies of the state administration and manages the state administration throughout the territory of the state.
Elections to the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate take place by secret ballot on the basis of general, equal and direct voting.
All citizens of the Czech Republic over 18 years of age have the right to vote for representatives in both chambers of Parliament. Candidates for the Chamber of Deputies must be over 21 years of age, while candidates for the Senate must be over 40 years of age.
Political parties
- Since 1993, the two largest parties were the center-left Czech Social Democratic Party and right-wing Civic Democratic Party. This model changed at the beginning of 2014, with the rise of a new political party ANO 2011 (led by Andrej Babiš, who is also a prime minister) which led to weakening of both major parties.
- Other Czech political parties include for example: the Czech Pirate Party, Freedom and Direct Democracy and the Communist Party.
- The current government is composed of ODS (6 members), STAN (4 members), KDU-ČSL (3 members), Czech Pirate Party (3 members) and TOP 09 (2 members).
The UK
The politics in the United Kingdom operate within a ‘constitutional monarchy’ similar to countries like Spain, Sweden, Japan or the Netherlands.
While the Queen is head of state, the Prime Minister is head of government. Since 1999, the UK government has shared executive powers with the devolved governments of the Scottish Parliament, Welsh Assembly and Northern Ireland Assembly.
Each of the United Kingdom parliaments or assemblies has elected political parties. The UK Parliament in London is at the heart of the political system in Britain and is the legislative body for the UK and British overseas territories.
Parliament has two legislative parliamentary bodies – the House of Lords and the House of Commons. The House of Lords includes three types of members: Bishops from the Church of England, nobility (British honours system) and Law Lords (Judges).
Its members are not elected, but instead appointed by the Queen on the advice of the Prime Minster. The House of Commons consists of democratically elected Members of Parliament from various different political parties. Elections are held every five years.
Registered political parties in Great Britain and Northern Ireland includes for example:
- The Conservative Party – which has formed the government 45 times.
- Centre – left The Labour Party – which describes itself as the ‘democratic socialist party’.
- The Liberal Democrats – the third-largest party in the UK parliament, with politics considered to be ‘centre/centre-left’.
- And United Kingdom Independence Party, British National Party, The Green Party and many more.
