Sri Lanka has a long history of establishing a republic form of government. The Constitution adopted in 1978 was the third constitution since independence from Great Britain. Under this type of government Sri Lanka has three branches of government. A Presidential system headed by a President is accountable to the parliament which is an unicameral legislative branch. The other branch of Sri Lanka’s government is the judiciary branch. The Constitution of 1978 guarantees many of the basic rights or freedoms such as freedom of speech, freedom to have a lawful occupation, freedom of travel, legal protection, and many others. There is an amendment process which requires a two-thirds vote of the population. However, this process appears to be manipulated by narrow-minded extremists who have contributed to violence and ethnic divisions.
Sri Lanka has two major political parties. These two parties are the United National Party (UNP) and Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP). The UNP is the Conservative party. The members of the UNP are often educated in English Language. The UNP believe in parliamentary democracy, private ownership economy, and Sri Lankan nationalism. The SLFP is considered the socialist party. The SLFP is in favor of a government ownership economy, as well as Sinhalese nationalism, and equality. Sri Lanka also has many minor political parties that exist.
The President of Sri Lanka is elected for a six year term. The current President is Mahinda Rajapaksa. He was elected in 2005 and is the sixth president of Sri Lanka. William Gopallawa was the first president before they gained independence in 1972. He was in office until 1978. Junius Richard Jayewardene introduced executive presidency in 1978. He ran until 1989. Ranasi...
... middle of paper ...
...rve six terms in office. However many votes each party receives is how many seats that party gets. The next election will be held in April 2016.
The Legislative has standing orders which are rules that are conducted by members and are followed to regulate the meeting. The meetings are spoken in three languages. They are spoken in Sinhala, Tamil, and English. At these meetings the Speaker, Deputy Speaker, Deputy Chairman of committees, and six other members that can be nominated by the committee of selection. All of these people are present at each meeting. The Secretary General is the person that makes sure the meetings stay on task and everything is talked about. The Secretary General assists the speakers and let them know what to talk about next.
The president of Sri Lanka is under Parliament rule. The legislative can impeach the president by a two thirds vote.
The law making process is a lengthy process. First, a representative must have an idea for a new law and they become the sponsor of this bill. The representative must present to the bill to the Clerk of the House if it is in the house (H.R. Bills), or in the Senate (S Bills). The Government Printing Office, GPO, then prints the bill and distributes it to each representative. The Speaker of the House, for further study, then assigns this bill to a standing committee within the house. The standing committee studies the bill and its contents and has two options, either to release the bill with a recommendation to pass it or lay it aside so it cannot be voted on. If the bill is released, it may be voted on or sent into debate within the house and needs a majority vote for the bill to move onto the Senate. Within the Senate, the bill must go through one of the Senate’s sixteen standing committees, and as with the House of Representatives, the bill is either released or pigeonholed. If it is released, a simple majority passes the bill. The bill takes another step into a conference committee, which is made up of members of the Hou...
Our Legislative Branch has two chambers or as some will call it bicameral. The chambers consist of the Senate and the House of Representatives just like the National Legislative Branch. In our Senate we currently have a total of 31 members and there are 150 members in the House of Representatives. Senators hold their seat for 4 years and their election years are spread out while the House of Representatives are elected for two-year terms. In our Texas Legislature we have a few authority figures. “The Texas Constitution provides that the lieutenant governor shall serve as president of the senate, the presiding officer of that body. The lieutenant governor is elected statewide by voters of Texas and is the second-highest ranking officer of the executive branch of government”. (Texas Medical Associaton) In the House of Representatives we have a Speaker of the House who is chosen in each time a new legislature starts by its own members. “The speaker maintains order during floor debate, recognizing legislators who wish to speak and ruling on procedural matters.” (Joe Straus Speaker) There are also many committees who act as important gatekeepers and shape the proposed legislation. (University of Texas at Austin). The main pu...
... other 299 seats are allocated to candidates elected by party lists. The party vote is critical because it determines the percentage of seats each party wins in the lower house, which in turn selects the chancellor. To share in the division of seats, a party must win 5 percent of the second type of vote or have at least three directly elected lawmakers. However, if any one party wins more seats through the direct vote than it would be allotted under the distribution based on the party vote, the system allows that party to keep the extra seats. Once the votes have been counted, the President will propose a chancellor to Parliament. That candidate needs to secure a majority of all lawmakers in the lower house to take office. If lawmakers fail to give a majority to one candidate in three tries, the president could appoint a minority government or dissolve Parliament.
...s vote for a party instead for an individual, and when the votes are tallied for the region the regional representative seats for that region are divided among the parties in proportion to the share of the vote that each party received.
How the legislature is organized is very important to the actual processes of making laws. Seniority is not important at the state level, but the division of power between majority and minority parties is. The speaker of the House is the presiding officer, and is chosen by vote of the whole House. In reality, it is the m...
Political parties have several roles in government. They recruit, choose, and present candidates for public office. They inform and mobilize supporters through campaigns, defining issues, and even criticizing other candidates. Parties act as a bonding agent guaranteeing their candidate is worthy of office and will act according to their partisanship, or firm allegiance to a party. Most importantly they unite diverse interests and make collective action possible. Parties out of power act as a watchdog, keeping a close eye on the actions of the party in power for an error or indiscretion to use against them in the next election. (pg. 251-252)
Iceland is a constitutional republic; a state where the head of state and other officials are representatives of the people and must govern according to existing constitutional law that limits the government's power over all of its citizens. Iceland became a republic on June 17, 1944, when it declared total independence from Denmark. The constitution provides municipalities with the right to manage their own affairs. The constitution also guarantees equality under the law regardless of sex, race, and religion. The central Icelandic government has an executive branch, a legislative branch, and a judicial branch. The executive branch consists of the president, who does not have much executive power; the head of government, or prime minister, who, along with the cabinet has the most executive power; and the cabinet, a body selected from the parliament either by the president or political party leaders within the parliament. The president and the parliament are elected by the people. Universal suffrage permits all residents 18 years old and over to vote for the president and the Althingi. The president and Althingi members serve four-year terms. (Aronson, 2010)
One basis of political democracy during this time period was the debate about property requirements to be able to vote. After the Revolution, no new state required property ownership to be able to vote. Also, constitutional conventions during the 1820s and 1830s got rid of property requirements within older states, mostly because the expanding amount of wage earners who did not have much property insisted on the right to vote. However, by 1860, in the South, where large slave owners controlled politics and did not trust mass democracy, property requisites were extinguished gradually and went away later than the rest of the nation. The personal independence necessary to the citizen was now found in owning one’s self, instead of owning property.
Its population is 21,866,445. The majority of their population are Buddhist the rest are either Muslim, Hindu, or Christian. Buddhism was brought to Sri Lanka in the 5th century B.C. The legend that is told states that Buddha ordered a group of his followers to travel to Sri Lanka and spread Buddhism. According to this legend Buddha said that Buddhism would strive in Sri Lanka for 5,000 years. (Flinkins,3) This legend holds true for the most part, the sinhalese Buddhists have taken down any threat that has been made to their religion. With the knowledge that Buddhism is a religion of nonviolence and peacefulness one may assume that Sri Lanka could be one of the most peaceful nations in the world. Unfortunately this assumption is very wrong. The way the Buddhist tackle the threats to their religion causes this country to be
It is not uncommon for the President to adapt his/her policy agenda to meet their personal time frame. Additionally, to remove a President from office requires a lengthy process. A successor will likely political legitimacy and may have their own agenda causing further discontinuity. On the other hand, Linz describes the fixed term for parliamentary leaders as stable because they can be removed from office easily and replaced seamlessly.
Sri Lanka has also experienced a series of socio-political disturbances over the past several decades including...
It is not uncommon for the President to adapt his/her policy agenda to meet their personal time frame. Additionally, to remove a President from office requires a lengthy process. A successor will likely political legitimacy and may have their own agenda causing further discontinuity. On the other hand, Linz describes the fixed term for parliamentary leaders as stable because they can be removed from office easily and replaced seamlessly.
In a presidential system, the President (who is the chief executive as well as the symbolic head of government) is chosen by a separat...
In modern society, political parties serve as a link between state and society. Anton Downs wrote a well-known definition for political parties as “a team of men seeking to control the governing apparatus by gaining office in a duly constituted election.” Political parties carry out a political leadership role in a modern democracy. To participate successfully in the political process and to contribute to the consolidation of democracy, political parties have to demonstrate certain functions. This essay will mainly discuss different functions of political parties in two different political systems, namely parliamentary system and presidential system. In both systems, political parties serve common functions of selection, exercising political
A social problem has many definitions. One way to define is that is a social condition/issue which has negative effects on an individual, our social and our physical world. A social problem does not have to be experienced by every individual to be called a problem, it comes from acknowledging that the problem exists and that a particular social condition affects a greater percentage of the population. We as sociologists and psychologists need to be able to face the one-sided reality of a social condition and need to address it as a social problem.