Category: Organizations

Republic

Republic

A republic is a form of government that has the following characteristics.

In republics, the Head of State is elected through elections.

The president and government of the republic rule the state.

The supreme head of a republic is called the president and the head of the government, the prime minister.

The President remains in his/her position for a specified period, never for life, and it is not a hereditary position.

  • The people elect the president directly and through universal suffrage, as in France.
  • The party that secures a majority from among the members of parliament elected by the people chooses the prime minister, as in Spain.
  • In the United States of America, for example, the people elect their delegates in each individual state in the union, and the delegates then elect the president.

The President is not only the supreme representative of the State, he/she is also the head of government or Executive power. The power of the president varies from one republic to another.

Each constitution stipulates how long the same person can be head of government, head of the republic or prime minister, how long this period can be and for how many legislative periods.

Dictatorship

Dictatorship, is the political structure where a person or a single group of people of the same ideology has the absolut power. In this cases the three political powers ( legislative, Executive power, judicial ) are controlled by the same person or group.

Dictatorships can obtain power in different ways. Often they obtain the power after a coup d’etat but sometimes they are also elected or named by the single party.

In a dictatorship, the head of state and government is not change or maintain by secret, direct and free universal sufrage. In this cases, even when the dictator obtains the power through elections ( like Adolf Hitler), in a short period, the dictator forbide the other political parties and following elections, even some times there can be some manipulated pseudo elections for propagandistic reasons. In these elections, the dictator is the only elector candidate and the he/she obtains very high results. 

Democracy

A democracy is a political setup that a human group accepts in order to live together and which comes into being when the sovereignty of a country is put into practice. The basic idea of a democracy is this: sovereignty is in the hands of the people and everyone is free and equal before the law. In other words, all the inhabitants, all the citizens have the same rights and obligations without any kind of distinction.

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he birth of democracy is linked to Greece, when the country’s men began to meet together to make decisions. Today, democracy is the most widespread political setup of states and the world’s main states are organised as democracies. The essential characteristic of this political system is individual freedom and people being free to choose their leaders through elections.

That has a direct consequence: everybody, all the citizens, have the right to participate in politics. One person, one vote: this is the characteristic of equality. Democracy and freedom, too, go hand in hand. The civil, political and social rights enjoyed by citizens have become the basis of modern democratic society. But nowadays, because it is impossible for all the citizens to participate in all the decisions, most democratic systems function by means of representation. This is called representative democracy. Therefore, people participate mainly through these representatives. These representatives are organised into political parties. In some special situations the people themselves, in other words, all the inhabitants, decide directly: in referendums…

Democracy is also based on the following: division of powers and constitution. 

Division of powers

The division of powers is the way of dividing and organising the functions of the State. In this system, each main function is assigned to a different public institution. The division of powers, one of the main features of modern states, means that the power is divided into three powers: the legislative power, the Executive power (or government) and the Judicial  power.

  • Legislative power

The parliament that is directly chosen by the people is the legislative power or legislative power. It may be organised as a single chamber (like the Parliament of the BAC-Basque Autonomous Community) or as two chambers (the Spanish Congress and Senate).

The main tasks of the legislative power are to approve, reject or amend laws, impose taxes, debate and clarify political issues and control the government itself, taking the views of the citizens into consideration at all times.

  • Executive power

The party that wins a majority of seats in the parliament forms a government and is regarded as executing the will of the people. It is responsible for the everyday running of the State. Its main functions are to direct internal and external policies, to ensure that laws are enforced, to guarantee defence, basic services, etc.

In democratic states the Executive power is usually that of a single person: the head of government, the president, the prime minister, the chancellor, etc.

  • Judicial  power

The Judicial  power is responsible for the legal system of a country. It decides whether laws are being obeyed or broken, and guarantees the rights of citizens. That is why it is separate from the other two powers to ensure total freedom. Judges are responsible for guaranteeing judicial power.

Statute of Autonomy

The rules governing each autonomous community are set out in the corresponding Statute, and the Statute of Autonomy itself is the collection of laws or legislation that governs the autonomous community.

It functions as a constitution for an autonomous region inside the main State.

The name, borders, language, institution names, organisation and powers are strictly and specifically spelt out in the Statute of Autonomy.

On the basis of the 1978 Constitution, 17 autonomous communities that make up the nations and countries of the Spanish State were set up, and the powers were divided between the autonomous communities and the central government.

The parliament in the autonomous communities has only one chamber. Spain is like some decentralised states in Europe, similar to Germany and Italy.

The names of these chambers vary in the Statutes of each Autonomous Community: Parliament, Provincial Assembles, Regional Assembly, Assembly, General Council, “Cortes”, etc… The reason for the different names can be found in the historical bases.

Local representatives of the autonomous community meet in the provincial parliaments. They choose the president. So, the members can pass a vote of no-confidence, just as they can in the Congress against the Spanish Prime Minister.

The members of these parliaments are mostly referred to as autonomous community members of parliament. The largest number of them is 135 (in Catalonia) and the smallest, 35 (in Cantabria and La Rioja); they are all elected through universal suffrage from among those who are registered in the autonomous community.

The most important functions of the autonomous community parliament are as follows: to represent the community, to approve the budgets of each community or region, to support and monitor the work of the Executive power, and pass laws in the areas in which it has powers. The powers are not the same in all of them: some autonomous communities have greater powers than other.

Once again, the autonomous community laws, like those of the State, can be examined by the Constitutional Court.