Administration. The Executive Branch of the Government

An Unwritten Constitution.

While the shape of the country changed, the system of government also developed and transformed itself. Henry VIII was an autocratic medieval-style monarch, with very few limits on his power. Today, Britain has a monarch but within a parliamentary democracy. The transformation is (almost) complete. But, in contrast with almost every other country in the world, no dramatic event in British history has resulted in a written constitution.

In 1649, after a long and terrible civil war against Parliament, King Charles I was beheaded. There was then a period of republican government knows as the Commonwealth. Surprisingly, the monarchy later re-established itself, although things would never be quite the same again. The Habeas Corpus act of 1679 guaranteed certain basic freedoms for the citizen. In 1689, a Bill of rights established Parliament as the central body of government. In the 19^th century a number of Reform acts gave the vote to more and more of the male population; in 1928, this was finally extended to all women over 21. Other laws were passed to limit the length of parliaments and the power of the House of Lords.

These laws, however, have never been brought together into a single document. In fact, some aspects of the system are not even covered by laws, but rather by custom and practice. So it is often said that Britain has an unwritten constitution. It exists; but not as a document, but rather as a subject to be studied.

Unparliamentary Language.

Language and expressions used in the Chamber must conform to a number of rules. Erskine May states «good temper and moderation are the characteristics of parliamentary language.» Objection has been taken both to individual words and to sentences and constructions - in the case of the former, to insulting, coarse, or abusive language (particularly as applied to other Members); and of the latter, to charges of lying or being drunk, and misrepresentation of the words of another. Among the words to which Speakers have objected over the years have been blackguard, coward, hooligan, and traitor. The context in which a word is used is, of course, very important.

The Speaker will direct a Member who has used an unparliamentary word or phrase to withdraw it. Members sometimes use considerable ingenuity to circumvent these rules (as when, for instance, Winston Churchill substituted the phrase «terminological inexactitude» for «liе») but they must be careful to obey the Speaker's directions, as a Member who refuses to retract an offending expression may be named or required to withdraw from the Chamber.

Endorsements on Bills - the Use of Norman French.

There are some of the conventions and practices governing the sending of bills between the House of Commons and the House of Lords. The processes of legislation require that the same text of every Bill be approved by both Houses. The transmission of bills between the Houses always involves a formal procedure.

If the House of Lords has passed one or more Bills, they send a message to the commons by one of their senior Clerks. Messages have taken the same form for more than 200 years: «The Lords have passed a Bill, intituled... to which they desire the concurrence of this House.» However, endorsements on the Bills themselves are made in Norman French (in this case «soit baille aux communies») a relic of the very early days of Parliament. On a Commons Bill to which the Lords have agreed, is endorsed «A ceste Bille les Seigneurs sont assentus,» if amended «avecue des amendements» is added after «Bille.»

If a Commons Bill has been amended by the Lords, and the Commons subsequently disagree with the Lords Amendments, Reasons for the disagreement are stated in the message to the Lords. The Bill is endorsed «Ceste Bille est remise aux Siegneurs avecque des raisons.» These Reasons are drawn up by a Reasons Committee that is nominated and directed to withdraw forthwith after the votes on the merits of the amendments have been takes. The Reasons - in English - are usually concise and extremely terse. Before the mid-19 century, the Houses held a conference to present or discuss these reasons.

Bills sent by the Commons to the Lords that are Money Bills in the meaning of the Parliament Act 1911 are endorsed (in English) by the Speaker. Bills sent for the Royal Assent under the Parliament Acts 1911 and 1949 without the agreement of the Lords are endorsed in English, and the enacting formula scored through and altered by the Commons.

A Bill, passed by one House and sent to the other, should not be withdrawn by the Member in Charge in the second House, out of courtesy to the first. However, should the Commons reject or decide not to proceed with a Lords Bill, the Commons does not inform the Lords of this fact nor do the Lords in the case of a Commons Bill.

The formulae for Royal Assent are also given in Norman French at the Prorogation ceremony. «La Reyne le veult» is the formula for public (and since 1850, also for most private) bills, and «Soit fait comme il est desire» for private bills due to become personal Acts.

The Cabinet

The top ministers form an elite group of about 20, known as the Cabinet. These are the people who sit round a table with the Prime Minister (PM) and decide on the policies of the government. They have a rule of collective responsibility: in public they all have to agree with the decisions of the whole Cabinet. The role of the PM is extremely important: he or she appoints all the members of the government, so every one of them owes their job to the PM. It is 'very hard to be independent, still less rebellious, in such circumstances. But much depends on the personal style of the PM. As with managers in business, or sports captains, some leaders are more authoritarian than others.

In recent times John Major was a PM who preferred co-operation and consensus. Tony Blair did not appear to tolerate opposition within his own party. Mrs. Thatcher, the Iron Lady, was so tough that her Cabinet colleagues were all terrified of her. She once wrote: «I don't mind how much my ministers talk as long as they do what I say.» There is always a danger that the PM can take of a more presidential role, and in Mrs. Thatcher's time people started to talk about the system becoming an «elected dictatorship.»

Mrs. Thatcher may have shown how dictatorial a PM can be. But, unwillingly, she also showed the limits of the post. When she became unpopular in the country, the Conservative Party saw that it was going to lose the next election because of her, and so it sacked her. Remember that the PM is the leader of the majority party; and that party can always change its leader if it is unhappy.

The Separation of Powers

In the USA the constitution enforces a strict separation between the executive, the legislature and the judiciary. Britain has some separation but not very much. The legal system is independent to a large degree: although the government of the day appoints judges, it cannot interfere with their work and it cannot get rid of those appointed by the previous government. But the executive and the legislature are not separate at all: in fact, the former is part of the latter. The law-making body is-'Parliament - the House of Commons and the House of Lords. The Commons is made up of all the Members of Parliament (MPs) chosen by election - about 650 of them. Within that there is the majority party, and within the majority party there is a group of ministers who are the government. The leader of the majority party is the head of the government, the Prime Minister.

Social and Economic Issues of the USA

1. The American belief in «free enterprise» has not precluded a major role for government, however. Americans at times have looked to government to break up or regulate companies that appeared to be developing so much power that they could defy market forces. They have relied on government to address matters the private economy overlooks, from education to protecting the environment. And despite their advocacy of market principles, they have used government to nurture new industries, and even to protect American companies from competition.

2. As the sometimes inconsistent approach to regulation demonstrates, Americans often disagree about the appropriate role of government in the economy. In general, government grew larger and intervened more aggressively in the economy from the 1930s until the 1970s.

3. But economic hardships in the 1960s and 1970s left Americans skeptical about the ability of government to address many social and economic issues. Major social programs – including Social Security and Medicare, which provide retirement income and health insurance for the elderly – survived this period of reconsideration. But the growth of the federal government slowed in the 1980s.

4. The pragmatism and flexibility of Americans has resulted in an unusually dynamic economy. Change – whether produced by growing affluence, technological innovation, or growing trade with other nations – has been a constant in American economic history. The once agrarian country is now far more urban – and suburban – today than it was 100, or even 50, years ago. Services have become increasingly important relative to traditional manufacturing. In some industries, mass production has given way to more specialized production that emphasizes product diversity and customization. Large corporations have merged, split up, and reorganized. New industries and companies that did not exist at the midpoint of the 20^th century now play a major role in the nation’s economic life.

ELIZABETH II

(BORN 1926)

Queen Elizabeth II is the elder daughter of the late King George VI. Her full name is Elizabeth Alexandra Mary. She was born on 20 June 1926, in London. She was ten years old when her uncle King William VIII abdicated and her father became King George VI. She became the first in the line to succession and was expected to become Queen some day.

Little Princess Elizabeth never went to school and was taught by home tutors. She was very popular among her father's subjects. People admired her courage in the years of World War II when she joined the Auxiliary Territorial Service. She was only nineteen years old then.

In 1947 Princess Elizabeth married Prince Philip, her distant relation, a of Queen Victoria. Philip, whose father was Prince Andrew of Greece, was brought up in Britain and joined the British navy. He was given British nationality and adopted his mother's surname, Mountbatten. On his wedding day Prince Philip was created Duke of Edinburgh.

A year later Princess Elizabeth gave birth to a son, Charles Philip Arthur George, who is now known as Charles, Prince of Wales. Queen Elizabeth has got three children more. Her only daughter Princess Anne was born in 1950. Prince Andrew was born in 1960, and Prince Edward m 1964. All her children were not educated privately at home. They all went to ordinary schools instead.

Elizabeth succeeded to the throne on the death of her father in February 1952. Her coronation in 1953 was a moving event the romance of which was heightened by the news that Everest had been conquered by a British expedition led by Hunt.

The first decades of Elizabeth II's reign were marked by great changes in the lives of her people and prestige of her nation. Great economic difficulties caused by the World War II were overcome, and the gap between the rich and the poor was lessened. In 1931 the British Empire gave way to the Commonwealth, the association of Britain and its former colonies. By early 1980 about forty former British colonies had been granted their independence. Queen Elizabeth II is the head of the Commonwealth and often pays visits to its member states. The queen, one of the richest persons in the world, acts as a patroness for a number of charities and other organizations. Queen Elizabeth is very popular and much respected all over the world.

Federative System

The Russian Federation is a presidential republic. The president is strongly entrenched. The Constitution promotes the separation of powers among the federation and constituent entities of the Federation (region). The current trend is to strengthen “vertical of power”, i.e. federal centre.

The Russian Federation is composed of eighty-four subunits (constituent entities): twenty-one republics, forty-seven regions (oblast), five autonomous districts, eight territories (kraj), Moscow and St. Petersburg (cities of federal significance), and one autonomous region.

Variations in designations are due to historical reasons. The only practical difference is that a republic, unlike all other types of constituent entities of the Russian Federation, may establish its own language apart form Russian (although all official documents are in practice nevertheless drawn in Russian), and its own citizenship (“republican citizens” acquiring the same legal status as Russian citizens). Its chief official has the title of president, compared with all other types of constituent entities which are normally headed by governors (or mayor, in Moscow), and its main document is called a constitution, unlike charters in all other types of constituent entities.

The Police

The police shout «Who goes home?» when the House rises. This is often explained as an invitation to Members to join together in bands to cross what in the past were the dangerous unlit fields between Westminster and the City, or to hire boats homeward on the Thames as a party in order to save the individual fares.

Another call is made during the Speaker's procession, when the inspector on duty in the Central Lobby shouts «Hats off, Strangers.» There are of course few wearing hats; but the police remove their helmets. This is another relic of the elaborate hat wearing and doffing etiquette of former centuries.

The Police, though о duty in and about the Palace, do not enter the Chamber when the House is sitting. If the House sits beyond midnight, they remove their helmets.

Prayers

Each sitting of the House begins with prayers. Members stand for prayers, facing the wall behind them. This practice has sometimes been attributes to the difficulty Members would once have faced of kneeling to pray whilst wearing a sword. The Speaker's Chaplain, who is usually the incumbent of St Margaret's Westminster, the House of Commons church, reads the prayers, though in his or her absence another member of the clergy of the Church of England may deputize. A woman minister has occasionally deputized. On rare occasions, in the absence of clergy, the Speaker has read the prayers.

The form of the main prayer is as follows: - «Lord, the God of righteousness and truth, grant to our Queen and her government, to Members of Parliament and all in positions of responsibility, the guidance of your Spirit. May they never lead the nation wrongly through love of power, desire to please, or unworthy ideals but laying aside all private interest and prejudices, keep in mind their responsibility to seek to improve the condition of all mankind; so may your kingdom come and your name be hallowed. Amen.»

Since 1997, an additional prayer has been used to day after the death of a Member has been reported to the House. Although information on the origin of daily prayers is sketchy, it is believed that the practice of having such prayers started about 1558, and was a settled practice by 1567. The use of fixed forms of prayer and the appointment of a clergyman to read them appear to have been developments of the 1580's or later. The present form of prayers probably dates from the Restoration.

Naming of a Member

If a Member has disregarded the authority of the Chair, or ahs persistently and willfully obstructed the House by abusing its rules, he or she (after generally being given every opportunity to set matters to rights) may be named. That is, the Speaker says «I name Mr George White» or whoever. In such instances, the Leader of the House, the Government Chief Whip, or the senior Minister present, moves «that Mr George White be suspended from the service of the House.» A division may follow: if the motion is agreed to, the Member is directed to withdraw, and suspension (for five sitting days for a first offence) follows. A second offence in the same session will lead to suspension for 20 sitting days, and a third, to suspension for a period the House has to decide. Any Member so named loses their parliamentary salary for the period of suspension. Should a Member refuse to withdraw, and then resist removal, suspension for the remainder of the Session ensues.

Systems Theory and An Organization

1. Systems theory has had a significant effect on management science and understanding organizations. A system is a collection of parts unified to accomplish an overall goal. If one part of the system is removed, the nature of the system is changed as well. For example, a pile of sand is not a system. If one removes a sand particle, you’ve still got a pile of sand. However, a functioning car is a system. Remove the carburetor and you’ve no longer got a working car. A system can be looked at as having inputs, processes, outputs and outcomes. Systems share feedback among each of these four aspects of the systems.

2. Let’s look at an organization. Inputs would include resources such as raw materials, money, technologies and people. These inputs go through a process where they’re planned, organized, motivated and controlled, ultimately to meet the organization’s goals. Outputs would be products or services to a market. Feedback would be information from human resources carrying out the process, customers/clients using the products, etc. feedback also comes from the larger environment of the organization, e.g., influences from government, society, economics, and technologies. This overall system framework applies to any system, including subsystems (departments, programs, etc.).

3. Systems theory may seem quite basic. Yet, decades of management training and practices in the workplace have not followed this theory. This interpretation has brought about a significant change (or paradigm shift) in the way management studies and approaches organizations.

4. The effect of systems theory in management is that writers, educators, consultants, etc. are helping managers to look at the organization from a broader perspective. Systems theory has brought a new perspective for managers to interpret patterns and events in the workplace and recognize the various parts of the organization and the interrelations of the parts.

The House of Lords

There may be other constitutional monarchs around the world, but nowhere is there is anything quite like the upper Chamber of the British Parliament, the House of Lords. In fact, it is difficult to talk about it in the present tense, as it is in the process of being radically changed. In the 1997 election, part of Labour's manifesto was a promise to reform it — hardly surprising if you look at the extraordinary nature of the House of Lords before these reforms began.

The function of the upper Chamber is to act as a brake on the government of the day. Its members take a long, cool look at new legislation prepared by the Commons. They discuss it, revise it and sometimes send it back to be reconsidered. Their power has for a long time been very limited. Even before the 20 century it was accepted that the Commons was the real seat of power; but from time to time the Lords tried to take control.

The problem was that the permanent Conservative majority in the Lords opposed the Commons when it was in the hands of its enemies, the Liberals. In 1909, the Liberals tried to introduce a radical People's Budget increasing taxes and benefits. The House of Lords did its best to stop the budget going through, and the Commons lost its patience. A law was passed to limit the powers of the upper Chamber: the Parliament Act of 1911. From then on, it could only delay new laws for a fixed period, and it could not alter budgets (normally the most important of government measures).

The problem of the Conservative majority did not, however, go away. It was still the main reason for Tony Blair's promise to reform the Lords in 1997. The origin of this built-in, permanent Conservative majority was the bizarre and medieval composition of the House of Lords. Most members were from the ancient aristocracy: dukes, marquises, earls, viscounts and barons. These are hereditary titles, like the monarchy, passed on from father to son through the generations.

In recent years, it has been the practice to create new lords, known as life peers, Senior politicians such as ex-Prime Ministers, and other important public figures were given titles (for example, Baroness Thatcher) and a seat in the House of Lords. But the relics of feudalism were joined by many more Conservatives among the life peers, 26 bishops of the Church of England, nine senior judges and about 500 life peers. You can see form the figures that another problem was the size of the membership; luckily, only a small proportion of them ever came in to work.

THE HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT

Close by Westminster Abbey on the riverside stands the Palace of Westminster, generally known as the Houses of Parliament. Although these buildings are in Gothic style, they are not truly historic, for they were built in 1840 on the site of the old Palace which was destroyed by fire in 1834.

Parliament consists of two separate chambers whose membership and duties have evolved slowly over centuries: the House of Lords (or Upper House), whose members sit there by hereditary right or conferred privilege (there is an increasing number of life peers, whose titles cease when they die), and the House of Commons, where the elected Members of Parliament sit.

Although the Upper House is the larger in membership - more than one,— thousand peers have the right to attend the sittings - nearly all the legislation is initiated in the House of Commons and presented to the lords for approval. This is, however, little more than a formality, for the powers of the House of Lords are strictly limited. The Queen opens Parliament at the House of Lords.

The six hundred and fifty elected members of the House of Commons meet in a Chamber which is still sometimes called St. Stephen's Chapel. The original chapel where the first parliaments assembled centuries ago was lost in 1834, and the present Chamber is a replica of the one built in 1840, but destroyed during World War II. The members sit on two sides of the Chamber, one side for the Government and the other for the Opposition. Between them sits «Mr. Speaker,» who acts as chairman in the debates. Traditionally, his role was to inform the House of Lords and the monarch of decisions taken by the elected parliament, and as there have been periods in British history when such a duty could be dangerous, the member chosen to be Mr. Speaker always accepted the position with the pretence of great reluctance and fear!

as a bill. Most bills, and nearly all important bills, are introduced by the government about fifty bills are passed each year. Every bill brought in by the Government has been approved first by the Cabinet.

Once the Government has decided to introduce a bill, one minister is put in charge of it. The preparation of the text often takes many months, with long consultations involving civil servants in the minister's department and with the parliamentary Counsel.

The Parliament and the Government of the Russian Federation

The Federal Assembly – the Parliament of the Russian Federation is the representative and legislative body of the Russian Federation. The Federal Assembly consists of two houses: Federation Council and State Duma.

The Federation Council is composed of tow representatives from each member of the Russian Federation – one from its representative and one from its executive body of state authority. The State Duma consists of 450 deputies.

The Federal Assembly is a permanently working body. The Federation Council and the State Duma have their sessions separately. Their sessions are public, but in the cases stipulated by their code of procedure, they may hold their sessions in camera. Each of the houses forms committees and commissions and holds hearings on the appropriative issues.

To supervise the execution of the federal budget the Federation Council and the State Duma form an Accounting chamber. Its composition and procedure of work is determined by federal legislation.

The Federal council has power:

- to approve changes of borders between members of the Russian Federation;

- to approve the decree of the President of the Russian Federation on the introduction of martial law;

- to approve the decree of the President on the introduction of the state of emergency;

- to decide the possibility of using the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation beyond its territory;

- to call the elections of the President of the Russian federation;

- to remove the President of Russia from office by impeachment;

- to appoint the judges of the Constitutional Court, the Supreme Court and the Supreme Court of Arbitration of the Russian Federation;

- to appoint and remove from office the Prosecutor-General of the Russian Federation;

- to appoint the Deputy Chairman of the Accounting Chamber and half of its auditors and to remove them from office.

The Prime Minister and Civil Service in Great Britain

The man who not only presides over the Cabinet, but personally chooses it is the Prime Minster. He nominates the members of the Cabinet and has the right to ask for the resignation of any of them. Following an election, the Monarch calls the Parliamentary leader of the majority party to be Prime Minister and to form a Cabinet. Parliament accepts the appointment of the Prime Minister and his Cabinet. The Prime Minster keeps in his safe the seals of every Minister's office, and the write of every member's seat. Discussion in Cabinet is very brief and the Cabinet never votes — the Prime Minister’s decision is final. Responsibility, on the other hand, is collective. This means that if the Prime Minster resigns, the whole Cabinet resigns, too.

Each department of the Government has a large staff of professional civil servants who do most of the running of the department on the minister's behalf. The civil service consists of three main grades — the administrative class, the executive class and the clerical class. The clerical class is mostly recruited from pupils who have passed their School Leaving Certificate (General Certificate of Education), or completing secondary education. The executive class is filled either by successful persons, who have passed their General Certificate of Education at advanced level, or university graduates. The administrative class is particularly selective. The vast majority comes from public schools and from Oxford especially, chosen carefully by examination and interview. This class is closely connected with the ruling families. In this grade, the civil servants act as heads of departments, deputy heads, under-secretaries of state and generally as advisers to ministers.

What's in a name?

Extraordinary though it seems, people in this country are genuinely confused about its name. Some say Britain or occasionally, if they are feeling patriotic, Great Britain. Customs officers and economists call it the UK. This presents a linguistic problem, as there is no adjective form. English people quite often forget all about their important neighbors and call it England.

«This royal throne of kings, this sceptred isle...This other Eden, demi-paradise... This precious stone set in the silver sea...This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England,» says John of Gaunt in Shakespeare's play Richard П.

If England was an island, where were Scotland and Wales at the time - under water? Then there is the nice general term which TV weather presenters like to use, the British Isles. But this one worries the Irish: does it include them as one of the «isles»?

The full name of the country is, of course, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Very briefly indeed, the history is as follows. Wales was merged with England by King Henry VIII in 1543. Scotland followed with the Act of Union in 1707, after which the country was known as the United Kingdom of Great Britain. The Act of Ireland in 1801 united Britain and Ireland, but that unhappy union finally broke up in 1921, with only six mainly Protestant counties in the north of Ireland remaining in the UK. This remains the situation today.

Administration. The Executive Branch of the Government

The US. Constitution defines a federal system of government in which certain powers are delegated to the national government; other powers fall to the states.

The national government consists of executive, legislative and judicial branches that are designed to check and balance one another; all are interrelated and overlapping yet each is quite distinct.

Since the Constitution was ratified in 1788, there have been 26 amendments to it. The first 10, known as the Bill of Rights, established a number of liberties. Notable among the other amendments are the 13th, 14th and 15th, which abolished slavery and declared former slaves citizens with the right to vote; the 17th,
which provided for the direct election of U.S. senators; and the 19th, which effected women's suffrage.

Amending the Constitution requires a proposal by a two-thirds vote of both houses of Congress or by a national convention.

The executive branch of the government is headed by the president, who must be a natural-born citizen of the United States, at least 35 years old and a resident of the country for at least 14 years. The formal responsibilities of the president include those of chief executive, treaty maker, commander in chief of the army and head of state.

In practice, they have grown to include drafting legislation, formulating foreign policy, personal diplomacy and leadership of his political party. The members of the president's Cabinet — the secretaries of State, Treasury, Defence, Interior, Agriculture, Commerce, Labour, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, Transportation, Education, Energy and Veterans Affairs and the attorney general — are appointed by the president with the approval of the Senate.

Administration. State and Municipal Governments
The governments of the 50 states have structures closely paralleling those of the federal government. Each state has a governor, a legislature and a judiciary. Each state has its own constitution.
All state legislatures but one have two houses, Nebraska's being unicameral. Traditionally, state legislatures have been dominated by rural representatives who may not always be sympathetic to the needs of growing urban areas. Most state judges are elected.
State governments have functions, encompassing agriculture and conservation, highway and motor vehicle supervision, public safety and corrections, licensing, business and industry, and certain aspects of education, public health and welfare. These activities require a large administrative organisation, headed by the governor.
In most states there is also a lieutenant governor, not always of the same party as the governor, who serves as the presiding officer of the Senate. Other elected officials commonly include a secretary of state, state treasurer, state auditor and attorney general.
Municipal governments are more diverse in structure than state governments. There are three basic types: mayor-council governments, commission governments and council-manager governments.
In the first type, the mayor and the council are elected; although the council is nominally responsible for formulating city ordinances, which the mayor enforces, the mayor often controls the actions of the council. Boston, New York City, Philadelphia, Chicago, and Seattle, Wash., are among those cities having the mayor-council type of government.
In the commission type, voters elect a number of commissioners, each of whom serves as head of a city department; the presiding commissioner is generally the mayor. Tulsa, Okla., and Salt Lake City, Utah, are included among the cities with commission governments.
In the council-manager type, an elected council hires a city manager to administer the city departments. The mayor, elected by the council, simply chairs it and officiates at important functions. Des Moines, Iowa, and Cincinnati, Ohio, have council-manager governments.

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