United Kingdom France

Unlike most modern states, Britain does not have a The short-lived French Constitution of 1791 was the first
codified constitution but an unwritten one or uncodified formed written constitution in France, created after the collapse of the
of Acts of Parliament, court judgments and conventions. Absolute Monarchy of the AncienRégime. One of the basic precepts
An uncodified constitution is a type of constitution where the of the revolution was adopting constitutionality and establishing
fundamental rules of government take the form of customs, popular sovereignty.
usage, precedent and a variety of statutes and legal instruments.
Constitution Britain's constitution has developed in haphazard fashion,
building on common law, case law, historical documents, Acts of
Parliament and European legislation. It is not set out clearly in
any one document. Thus the only "British Constitution" that
exists is a set of rules and regulations constituted by
jurisprudence and laws (English and Scottish law), and by
various treaties and international agreements to which the
United Kingdom has signed up.

Constitutional Monarchy is the form of their government. 1. Executive

1. Executive
- Monarch
- The executive branch is commonly known as His/Her
Majesty's Government.
Branches of the - It is made up of the government machine itself, starting
Government with the prime minister and his office and down to the
local branches of government such as city majors. They are
the ones responsible for implementing the Bills produced
by the Parliament. Their actions are mainly limited by the
judiciary and publicity.
The French executive branch is made up of three
different parts: the president, the prime minister, and the
cabinet.
 President
 The president is also considered the commander-in-
chief of the French armed forces and solely has the
ability to make and dissolve treaties and declare war.
The French president is also largely in charge of the
other portions of the executive branch as well.
 The president may dissolve the National Assembly
and call for new elections whenever it satisfies him,
though in the interest of sound government this is
2. Legislative
Made up of two houses:
 House of lords (Upper house)
- Consists of over 700 Lords
- Some are bishops and archbishops; others are
hereditary peers, and still others are peers appointed
by the monarch for their specialized knowledge in
areas useful to the government.
- Participates in the law making process, scrutinizes
government administration, and independently
investigates matters of public interest.
 House of commons (Lower house)
- Chaired by the Speaker
- Consists of about 650 Members of Parliament, who
are elected by British citizens.
- They make laws, control the government's finances,
and keep a close eye on government administration.
The two houses performed four primary duties:
1. Passing laws
2. Authorizing taxes and government budgets
3. Scrutinizing and investigating government administration
4. Debating current issues.
3. Judicial
- Independent of the executive and the legislative.
- President is under the Judicial Dep.
- The Supreme Court is the highest court of United Kingdom.
- The SC is headed by the President and Deputy President
and is composed of a further ten Justices.
- Its members have a great power because they are the ones
who decide what the law actually implies in any given case.
not often done. In times of emergency, it's possible
for the French president to become a virtual dictator,
assuming comprehensive control over the French
government and armed forces. In this time he/she is
even allowed to intervene in National Assembly
legislation and introduce his/her own; something
the president is prohibited from doing in normal
time.
 Prime Minister and Cabinet
 The prime minister, is appointed by the president
and serves at his leisure. He/she is charged with
running the day-to-day business of the French
government for the president.
 The prime minister directs the French legislative
branch and introduces legislation on behalf of the
executive branch.
 On certain categories of legislation the prime
minister must sign the bill into law along with the
president before the law can be enacted.
2. Legislative
It consists of two houses:
 The Senate(Sénat)
 the National Assembly (Assemblée nationale).
Members of the parliament called disputes are
elected by universal suffrage in general elections that takes
place every five years.
Senators are elected by grand electors who are mostly other
other local elected representatives.
Each assembly conducts legislative sessions at a
separate location in Paris: the Palais du Luxembourg for the
Senate and the Palais Bourbon for the National Assembly.
 - The power of judges is even higher because it does not
have a written constitution and therefore there is no
supreme set of laws collected in one place to be available
for the citizens.
- Judiciary has a large amount of checks and balances.
 UK Tribunal System
- Part of the national system of administrative
justice with tribunals classed as non-departmental
public bodies.
- Headed by the Senior President of Tribunals.
The Queen is the head of state and the sovereign, but not
Head of the State the head of government. The monarch takes little direct part in
governing the country, and remains neutral in political affairs.
However, the legal authority of the state that is vested in the
sovereign and known as the Crown remains the source of the
Parliament meets for a single, nine-month session
each year. Under special circumstances the President can
call an additional session.
3. Judicial
 The Ministry of Justice handles the administration of courts
and the judiciary, including paying salaries or constructing
new courthouses.
 The Ministry also funds and administers the prison system.
 It receives and processes applications for
presidential pardons and proposes legislation dealing with
matters of civil or criminal justice.
 It is also the head of public prosecution.
 The courts can be seen as organized into:
 ordinary courts (ordre judiciaire), which handle
criminal and civil litigation
 administrative courts (ordre administratif), which
supervise the government and handle complaints
 The structure of the French judiciary is divided into three
tiers:
 Inferior courts of original and general jurisdiction
 Intermediate appellate courts which hear cases on
appeal from lower courts
 Courts of last resort which hear appeals from lower
appellate courts on the interpretation of law.
The head of the state in France is the President. French
presidential elections are conducted via run-off voting which
ensures that the elected President always obtains a majority: if no
candidate receives a majority of votes in the first round of voting,
the two highest-scoring candidates arrive at a run-off. After the
 executive power exercised by the government.
The Prime Minister is the head of the government and is
the most important person in the British political system. The
Prime Minister simply chooses the ministers who run
Government departments and chairs the Cabinet - the collection
of the most senior of those Ministers. In practice, however, the
Prime Minister is a very powerful figure and increasingly has
Head of the Government been behaving much like a president in other political systems,
especially in the area of foreign policy. The Prime Minister
assumes responsibility for all the decisions and policies of the
British government. He or she appoints other government
officials; organizes and oversees government departments and
agencies; acts as a liaison with the monarch; participates in the
House of Commons; and represents the United Kingdom
internationally.
The Houses of Parliament consider proposals, called bills,
most of which are introduced by the government. To become law,
a bill must be approved by both MPs in the House of Commons
and peers in the House of Lords. Bills go through a very similar
How they pass laws process in both Houses.
president is elected, he goes through a solemn investiture
ceremony called a "passation des pouvoirs" ("handing over of
powers"). The president serves as the supreme commander of the
military, he determines policy with the aid of hid council of
ministers and he appoints a prime minister.
The Prime Minister is the head of the government. He is
appointed by the President of the Republic. He can choose
whomever he wants. While prime ministers are usually chosen
from amongst the ranks of the National Assembly. The Prime
Minister functions to oversight of the administrative court system
and defend the programs of their ministry and make budgetary
choices.
Laws are created in the following way:
1. A “Project de Loi” is presented to parliament usually the
chamber des deputes- either by the member of the
parliament or, more frequently, by the ember of the current
government. Another possibility is that an existing law
needs to be amended in which case a “Project d’ amendment
is presented and discussed exactly in the same way as a
normal.
2. The law is then discussed by the disputes who amend and
modified it.
 3. The law is then the subject to a vote by dispute. All
amendments to the laws are also voted upon.
4. If accepted the law then goes to the senate where it is again
discussed, modified and amended.
5. The law is then subject to a second vote by the senate. And
then must be signed by the president.
6. If rejected, it will go back to the house of origin for another
discussion, if turned out, the law dies.

There are two common systems of local government. There are three main tiers of local administration:
1. Old-Style Two-Tier System
 County councils who provides the majority of public 1. The communes
services in their areas. The commune has a deliberative or decision-making
 District Councils covers a much smaller area and provide body(the municipal council) and an executive (the Mayor),
more local services. elected by the municipal council. The number of municipal
2. Newer Single-Tier System councillors is proportional to the population. Elected for six
years by direct universal suffrage, municipal councillors lay
 Unitary Authorities can be city councils, borough councils,
down guidelines for municipal policy, adopt the budget,
county councils, or district councils. Their responsibilities
Local Government manage municipal assets, notably primary school buildings
are mixed of country and district council’s in the old-style
and equipment, and decide how the municipal
two-tier system.
administration is to operate.
- Metropolitan Districts
- London Boroughs
- Town and Parish Councils
2. The Department
The department essentially has competence in health
and social services, rural capital works, departmental roads,
and the capital expenditure and running costs of colleges.

3. The Regions
Its main spheres of competence are planning,
regional town and country planning, economic

 Every citizen aged 18 or over can vote once in the
constituency in which they live. Voting is not compulsory. president and a legislature.
 A method of election called the simple majority system or
'first past the post' (FPTP). In this system, the country is
divided into a number of constituencies each with a single
member and the party that wins the largest number of
Elections votes in each constituency wins that constituency
regardless of the proportion of the vote secured. The
simple majority system of election tends to under-
represent less successful political parties and to maximise
the chance of the most popular political party winning a
majority of seats nationwide even if it does not win a
majority of the votes nationwide.
development, vocational training, and the building,
equipment and running costs of schools (lycées). These are
both districts in which administrative decisions made at
national level are carried out and local authorities with
powers of their own. A local authority is a public-law
corporation with its own name, territory, budget,
employees, etc. and has specific powers and a certain
degree of autonomy vis-à-vis central government. In
addition, there are France's overseas territories and
regional bodies (collectivités territoriales) with special
status (Paris, Marseille, Lyon, Corsica, Mayotte and Saint-
Pierre-et-Miquelon).
France elects on its national level a head of state, the
 Elections are conducted according to rules set in the
Constitution of France, organisational laws (lois
organiques), and the electoral code.
 The voters are the French citizens over the age of 18
registered on the electoral rolls. For municipal and
European elections, citizens aged 18 or older of other
European Union countries may decide to vote in France
 Citizens may register either in their place of residence or in
a place where they have been on the roll of taxpayers for
local taxes for at least 5 years. A citizen may not be legally
registered in more than one place.
 Citizens living abroad may register at the consulate
responsible for the region in which they live.
 Only citizens legally registered as voters can run for public
office.
 There are exceptions to the above rules:
 Convicted criminals may be deprived of the right to vote, for
a certain period of time depending on the crime.
 In particular, elected officials who have abused public funds
may be deprived of the right to run for national public office
for as long as 10 years.
 Voting by proxy is possible when the citizen cannot easily
come to vote (reasons include: health problems, the citizen
does not live in the voting constituency, he or she is away
for work or vacations, he or she is jailed yet has not been
sentenced and deprived of civic rights etc.).

The political system is a multi-party system and the two France does not have a full-fledged two-party system; that
largest political participation have been the Conservative Party, is, a system where, though many political parties may exist, only
descended from the old Tory party and the Labour Party. The two parties are relevant to the dynamics of power.
Scottish National Party is the third party in terms of French politics displays some tendencies characterizing a two-
representative’s elected and party membership. Political parties party system in which power alternates between relatively stable
are an all-important feature of the British political system coalitions, each being led by a major party: on the left, the Socialist
because: Party, on the right, Les Républicains and its predecessors.
 The three main UK political parties in the UK have existed
Party System for a century or more and have a strong and stable 'brand
image'.
 It is virtually impossible for someone to be elected to the
House of Commons without being a member of an
established political party.
 All political parties strongly 'whip' their elected members
which means that, on the vast majority of issues, Members
of Parliament of the same party vote as a 'block'.
Government and Politics of Selected European States

POLSCIEL2

Marquez, Marinel M.

AB Political Science IV