Switzerland
Constitution
The current federal constitution dates from 1999 and has replaced the former
constitution from 1874. The constitution has a catalogue of individual and popular rights,
contains the different duties for the cantons and the State and establishes the organs of public
power (federal authorities).
Organs of public power (5th title of the constitution)
Parliament (Federal assembly)
The Swiss parliament is called Federal assembly. It is divided into two councils, the
National council that has 200 seats and the Council of States that has 46 seats.
The elections for the parliament take place every 4th year. Every person that can vote can be
elected to the National Council or the Council of States. It is worth mentioning that only in
1971 did women get the right to vote on a national level.
An interesting, and somewhat unique, feature of Switzerland's is the militia
parliament. While in most countries the members of the parliament have their mandate as a
full time job, Swiss politicians will have another job along side their political roles. Being a
parliamentarian is only a part time job in Switzerland. That’s why they only have sessions
four times a year for three weeks. The purpose of that is to stay rooted in the local population.
In practice most Swiss politicians are still professional politicians. Most work in different
advisory board’s, for example, for banks or the pharma industry. It’s a lucrative side-line.
These mandates can be a problem since there is often a conflict of interest. If they, for
example, work beside in an advisory board for a nuclear power station they are probably not
going to vote for a provision that would support renewable energy.
Decisions from the federal assembly require the agreement of both chambers. The
decisions need a simple majority on those who vote. Some decisions need an absolute
majority. The duties of the parliament include establishing binding legal rules in form of
federal acts or ordinances, adopting the budget, exercising as an oversight over the federal
council etc.
Something to add is that Switzerland is a country with instruments of direct
democracy in contrast to most other European countries that have representative systems in
which people vote for representatives who decide most of the policy initiatives. In a direct
democracy people have more power and can decide about a lot of things they can e.g. propose
changes to the constitution or as for a referendum to be held on a law.
Government (Federal Council)
The federal council is the supreme governing and executive authority of Switzerland.
It has seven members which are elected by the Federal assembly for a period of four years. To
be elected to the Federal Council the only requirement is Swiss citizenship. When electing a
new member, care must be taken to ensure the various geographical and language regions of
Switzerland. Every year there is a shift of the chairmanship. The other members are still
coequal but the president has to lead the meetings and has different representative duties.
Important is the principle of collegiality. That means that the Federal council reaches its
decisions as a collegial body and if single members of the council have a different opinion
about it they may subordinate behind the decision.
The federal Administrations is organised into Departments, each member of the Federal
Council is a head of a department.
Federal Supreme Court and other Judical Authorities
The Federal Supreme Court is the supreme authority of the Confederation. It hears
disputes concerning violations of different areas of the law such as federal law or international
law. The access to the Federal Supreme Court is guaranteed by law but the access can also be
excluded in relation to specific matters.
United Kingdom
Parliament
Parliament is formed by a two House system, the House of Commons and the House
of Lords. One of the main roles of the Parliament are scrutinising the Government. Parliament
is able to examine and challenge the work of the Government through questioning
Government ministers, investigating the work of the Committee and debating. Ministers have
the right to answer questions of Parliament either orally or in writing. The Prime Minister also
answers questions on a weekly basis. Debates within the House of Commons focus on the
creation and amendment of legislation, which can then voted upon, but can also focus on
national and international issues. The House of Lords also have the power to scrutinise
legislation.
Another key role of Parliament is debating and passing all legislation. They are
responsible for approving new laws. Both Houses must debate, vote and agree on all
legislative proposals for them to become law.
The Government
The Government work alongside the Parliament and form a key part in forming
legislation as they are the body that draft the laws. They also run the country and are
responsible for developing and implementing policy. The Government is formed by the
political party who win the overall general election vote in the House of Commons. The
leader of this party then becomes the Prime Minister. A coalition Government is formed when
there is no outright majority and so two parties or more parties join to form the Government.
Government ministers are chosen from MPs and Lords in Parliament. These ministers
are often questioned by MPs and Lords regarding their work and conduct within their role.
Ministers must therefore ensure that they abide by The Ministerial Code, which contains rules
on how ministers should conduct themselves when in office, although has no legal force.
Parliament also checks the work of the Government and their spending and taxes must be
approved by the House of Commons. The Government must retain the confidence of the
majority of the House of Commons in order to retain power.
The Crown
The Crown is a key part of the institution of Parliament. The Queen opens and
dissolves Parliament. Once the general election is complete, she invites the leader of the
winning political party to become the Prime Minister and to then form a Government. The
Queen also delivers a speech to Parliament from the throne in the House of Lords, informing
them of the new government’s policy and legislative ideas. The Queen also gives Royal
Assent to Bills in order to turn them into an Act of Parliament, meaning that they are then
law.
The Ombudsman
An ombudsman is an appointed person whose role it is to look into complaints about
organisations and public bodies and address any maladministration or unfair treatment. They
may also conduct their own independent enquiries. There are many different forms of
ombudsman in the United Kingdom, such as the Parliamentary and Health Service
Ombudsman, who investigates the work of public bodies, the NHS and also of Government
departments. Ombudsman are impartial, free to consult and completely independent. Usually,
a person will make their complaint to the body or organisation first, before approaching the
ombudsman. They will then inform the body in question with their suggestions on how the
can resolve the matter, which the body almost always abides by.
An unwritten constitution
The UK's constitution is not contained in any one document, and is not really
contained in any document anywhere, other than perhaps every statute enacted by parliament
which relates, in some way, to the administration of the state.
The reason that Britain has an unwritten constitution can be explained largely by the
fairly stable political and social history that Britain has enjoyed; there has never been any real
need to codify the administration of the state.
Instead of a single document the UK's constitution consists of a framework of custom
and statute. It is often suggested that the UK's constitution can be summed up by: what the
queen in parliament enacts is law. This is really a way of describing parliamentary supremacy
which is perhaps the defining feature of our constitution. It means that the laws that the
parliament enacts or repeals can not be altered by any other institution. This results in a
constantly changing and evolving set of administrative rules meaning that it can be very hard
to understand or pinpoint the state of the UK's constitution at any one time. This flexibility is
also advantageous in that there are no laws afforded special constitutional protection with
long complex amendment procedures such as we see in the USA.
The idea of Parliamentary supremacy is now questionable due to influences of EU law
as well as devolution throughout the UK (could devolution agreements really be repealed).
The nature of an unwritten constitution brings with it the reliance on what is most
easily described with reference to Hart's 'rule of recognition'. The constitution is effectively
what all officials in the UK believe it to be and any changes in the nature of our constitution
would have to be accepted by the officials in the judiciary, executive and legislature.
Germany
Parliament
The German parliament has two chambers. The Bundestag which is the first chamber
is elected directly by the people in general elections - usually held every 4 years. The second
chamber is the Bundesrat which consists of members of the government of the federal states.
The Bundestag enacts laws for the whole country. In certain cases which, for example, are
strongly related to the federal states, their financial or administrative organization or about
changes of the constitution the Bundesrat has to agree to the law.
Another responsibility of the Bundestag is to elect the Bundeskanzler who appoints the
government. The Kanzler is elected by the majority of the delegates, which can be reached by
forming a coalition of several parties.
The Bundestag also supervises the government and takes part in the election of the
Bundespräsident and the Federal Constitutional Court judges. The parliament takes part in the
election of every constitutional institution which legitimates all of them as they are indirectly
elected by the people.
Government
The government gets appointed by the Bundeskanzler who is its chairman. The
government is the head of administration and all executive power. The ministers are
appointed by the Kanzler. There are 15 ministers at the moment. They are members of the
three parties which formed the coalition in the Bundestag, a minister keeps his seat in the
parliament. The Ministers are head of their department and work independently.
Disagreements between two or more ministers on a topic that concerns both departments are
concluded by a voting among all ministers.
The main responsibility of the Government is to steer the country and to enact
ordinances. It also takes part in the legislative process by introducing drafts to the Bundestag.
Ombudsman
The Ombudsman is not a constitutional institution in Germany. Nevertheless there are
several types of Ombudsman. In four of the federal states there are ombudsmen for
administrative concerns, to support the citizens to enforce their rights. There are also some
special ombudsmen for prisoners, children and against corruption in public services etc.
President
The president is the head of the state. He has to execute laws, appoints the Kanzler and
has important responsibilities in periods of crisis or when the Bundestag has to be broken up.
He is not involved in the politics of the day, he executes representative duties.
Federal constitutional court
The federal constitutional court is the "upholder of the constitution". It passes
judgment on the distribution of competences between the constitutional institutions and
interprets the constitution in disputes. Citizens who feel they have been treated
unconstitutionally (e.g. in a sentence or an act of law) can go to the federal constitutional
court to appeal against this action.
Finland
Finland is a constitutional republic. The powers of the State in Finland are the people,
represented by the Parliament (The Constitution of Finland Ch 1: Section 2).
The legislative powers are exercised by the Parliament. The Parliament also decides on
the State finances. Governmental powers are exercised by the President of the Republic and
the Government. Members of the Government shall have the confidence of the Parliament.
The judicial powers are exercised by independent courts of law, with the Supreme Court and
the Supreme Administrative Court as the highest instances (The Constitution of Finland Ch 1:
Section 3).
The Finnish Parliament is unicameral legislative body and consists of 200
representatives elected for 4 years at a time through direct, proportional and secret ballot (The
Constitution of Finland Ch 3: Section 24). The Parliament’s tasks are enacting laws,
approving the State budget and applying international treaties. The Parliament is divided into
committees, comprising of the Grand Committee and 14 other committees.
The President of the Republic is elected by a direct vote for a term of 6 years. A
Native-born Finnish citizen can be elected as President. The same person may be elected for
no more than 2 consecutive terms of office. (The Constitution of Finland Ch 5: Section 54).
The president makes decisions in Government on the basis of motions proposed by the
Government (The Constitution of Finland Ch 5: Section 58).
The Government consists of the Prime Minister and the necessary number of
Ministers. The ministers shall be a Finnish citizens known to be honest and competent (The
Constitution of Finland Ch 5: Section 60). Ministers of the government are responsible for
their actions in office. A minister is responsible of any decisions made, unless he or she
expressed an objection. The Parliament elects the Prime Minister, appointed to the office by
the President of the Republic. The President appoints the other Ministers in accordance with a
proposal made by the Prime Minister (The Constitution of Finland Ch 5: Section 61). The
Government makes decisions at the Cabinet Finance Committees, at Government plenary
sessions and presidential sessions. Ministers attend regular meetings of cabinet committees
and ministerial working groups. When necessary, ministers also attend the evening session
which is an unofficial negotiation session of the Government. The ministers have duties in
their respective administrative sectors at their own ministries and duties as members of
Parliament.
In Finland there are two independent supreme guardians of law: the Chancellor of
Justice and the Parliamentary Ombudsman. They have the similar tasks as in Sweden,
Sweden
The role of the Parliament
The parliament of Sweden is called Riksdag. Since 1971 the parliament has only one
chamber that contains 349 seats. The work of the parliament is described in chapter 4 and is
comparable to the legislative work in most countries. They determine laws, change the
constitution etc.
The members are elected for a period of four years. Eligible is every Swedish citizen
above the age of 18 that has the right to vote.
To enter the parliament the parties have to reach at least 4 % of the national votes. If a
party doesn’t get 4 % of the national votes but 12 % in an electoral district it is possible to get
part of the fixed mandates of the district but it depends on how many mandates a district has.
In practise it has never happened that a party with less than 4 % entered the parliament.
There are currently two major blocs in the parliament. The socialist/green bloc (Social
Democrats, the Left party, the green party) and the blue bloc/alliance (Moderate party, liberal
peoples party, the centre Party ,the Christian Democtats. The Sweden Democrats party is not a
member of any of these blocs because no party wants to collaborate with them. In many
issues they support the blue bloc.
A On September 14, 2014 an election was held. No party won the absolute majority. But the
red bloc became the biggest political group. Stefan Löfven has been appointed to form a
government.
The Role of the Swedish Parliamentary Ombudsmen
The Swedish Parliamentary Ombudsmen, also referred to as the JO, are appointed
directly by the Swedish Parliament, the Riksdag. The Office of the Parliamentary
Ombudsman was created in 1809, when the Instrument of Government came into effect, in
order to give the Riksdag some independent control over the exercise of executive power.
These 4 members are elected for a four year period, but may be re-elected at the end of this
time. The Chief Parliamentary Ombudsman is responsible for administration. He or she
decides what the other members are responsible for, although he cannot intervene with their
work, as each Ombudsman is only accountable to the Riksdag. The members are completely
independent in their duties, but they must submit an annual report to the Riksdag regarding
their work within the year.
The role of the JO is to review the work of public administration bodies and the
Government. They must ensure that these bodies are complying with the law and are not
infringing on citizens rights. In other words, they aim to protect the rights of citizens. The
powers of review include Parliamentary review, judicial review and efficiency audits. They
may initiate enquiries either from public complaints or through their own desire and they are
able to publish statements if a body of official is acting contrary to the law or their conduct is
inappropriate in any way. The JO may also recommend changed to statutes to either the
Government or the Riksdag.
The Swedish Government
The Regieringen consists of the prime minister and the ministers appointed by him.
The number of ministers is variable. There were 24 ministers in the Reinfeldt Cabinet which
was abolished ahead of the general election on the 14th September 2014.
After a general election -which is held in September of every forth year- the Riksdags
president proposes a prime minister. If there is no majority against the suggested person he is
elected. This system leads to a high possibility of minority governments especially in the
Swedish situation with two political blocks and the Sweden Democrats in between which do
not work with one of the blocks.
The prime minister appoints his ministers, they represent the parties in power. Every
minister gets an alternate to substitute him in the Riksdag and the ministers abstain the right to
vote in the parliament. Every minister has his own department, some ministries have several
departments.
The role of the government is to rule the country. It influences the country with its
various competences regarding legislation e.g. forming laws and amendments and
implementing the decisions of the parliament. But it needs to give account to the parliament
and needs the support of the delegates to enact their regulations. The government is also the
head of the executive and therefore directs the administration. Another competence is the
representation of Sweden within the European Council of Minister and to make contracts with
other states.
The Head of State
The King or the Queen is the Head of State according to the Instrument of
Government Ch.2 sec.1. “The right of succession to the throne of Sweden is vested in the
male and female descendants of King Carl XVI Gustaf, Crown Prince Johan Baptist Julii,
later King Karl XIV Johan’s, issue in direct line of descent. In this connection, older siblings
and their descendants have precedence over younger siblings and their descendants” (The Act
of Succesion sec 1). This means that only descendants within the royal family can succeed the
thrown. The Head of State may not be at the same time a minister, hold the office of Speaker
or serve as a member of the Riksdag (sec 2).
According to the Act of Succession sec. 4, the King shall always profess the pure
evangelical faith, princes and princesses of the Royal House shall be brought up in the same
faith and within the Realm. Members who not profess this faith shall be excluded from all
rights of succession.
Right now the Head of State is Carl XVI Gustaf since 1973. The Swedish monarchy is
purely constitutional. He has only ceremonial duties and functions. The Head of State
represents Sweden when making state visits to other countries, he also acts as host for
representatives of other countries when they visit Sweden. At the beginning of each
parliamentary year, the Head of State opens the coming year's session at the Riksdag.
The Head of State has no prerogative political power and does not participate in political life.
The Head of State does not take part in the deliberations of the Government and is not
required to sign any Government decisions.
The Prime Minister shall inform affairs of the Realm to the Head of State (sec3). When
required the Government convenes as Council of State under the chairmanship of the Head of
State. Before traveling abroad the Head of State shall consult the Prime Minister.
One of the most important tasks the Head of State has is chairman of the Foreign Affairs
Advisory Council. King or Queen who is Head of State cannot be prosecuted for his or her
actions. Nor can a Regent be prosecuted for actions as Head of State, this means full penal
and procedural immunity of the monarch (sec 8).
Judicial Review
Judicial review is open in Sweden to the courts and any other public body. The
provisions for Judicial review are found in ch. 11 art. 14. This sets out that should either a
court or a public body find any provision which conflicts with any constitutional or superior
rule or that the procedure which is prescribed for the provisions enactment was set aside when
the provision was introduced then it must be set aside. It is interesting to note that this power
is not given exclusively to the courts which has the effect of possibly reducing the authority of
the courts in these instances.
There was, until 2010 a provision that stated the error for which the provision was
being struck down must be 'manifest' which, as a very ambiguous term caused confusion and
difficulty.
As well as the power of judicial review there is also a kind of 'judicial preview'
whereby a separate committee, the Council on Legislation, makes preventative checks on
legislation before it is enacted. The constitutional compatibility of the proposals is a large
factor in the councils consideration and so there is an obvious overlap in responsibility. This
can cause the problem that courts may be reluctant to strike down legislation which has
already been declared constitutionally sound by the council. However the council has no
legally binding say over which laws are enacted and so a system of judicial review, although
fairly rarely exercised is still essential.