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Vinod C.V., Lovely Professional University Unit 6: Socio-Economic Bases and Salient Features of the Constitutions

Unit 6: Socio-Economic Bases and Notes
Salient Features of the Constitutions

CONTENTS
Objectives
Introduction
6.1 Constitutions of UK, USA, Russia, France, China and Switzerland
6.2 Amendment Process in the Constitution of USA and Switzerland
6.3 Federal System of the USA and Switzerland
6.4 Summary
6.5 Key-Words
6.6 Review Questions
6.7 Further Readings

Objectives

After studying this unit students will be able to:
• Explain the constitutional development of UK, USA, Russia, France, China and Switzerland.
• Know the amendment process in the constitution of USA and Switzerland.
• Understand the federal system of the USA and Switzerland.

Introduction

A comprehensive study of the British political system, and that too with a first and foremost place
for it in a comparative study of the major modern governments is necessitated by certain pertinent
reasons. Britain is rightly regarded as the ancestral home of the parliamentary government; the
British Parliament is happily described as the ‘mother of modern parliaments; and her constitution,
though unwritten, is appropriately lauded as a testament of democracy in a land without ‘a
declaration of independence.’ Impressed with the facts of English constitutional history, Woodrow
Wilson observed that it “has been its leading characteristic that her political institutions have been
incessantly in a process of development, a singular continuity marking the whole of the transition
from her most ancient to her present form of government.” The secret of this glorious feature of
the British political system should be traced in this fact: “Homogeneity, consensus and deference
are often cited as outstanding features of British society. Britain is widely seen as being
fundamentally homogenous in its ethnic, religious and socio-economic composition, while the
British people are often said “to exhibit a considerable degree of consensus on basic political issues
and show a marked degree of defence towards political leaders.”
A study of the American political system and that too with a place after the British political system
in an advanced study of the major modern political systems of the world is not without some valid
reasons. It is not at all due to America’s being the most advanced nation of the democratic world,
nor should its reason be traced in her being the most powerful country of the globe. Rather, the
source of all pertinent reasons should be discovered in several momentous developments like the
beginning of documentary constitutionalism, political and national integration, irresistible growth
towards democratisation, freedom of the press, existence of an independent judiciary and a host
of several other phenomena that constitute the model of a liberal-democratic order. More than all,
the American constitutional system, like its English counterpart, has adapted itself to changing
conditions. It is as a result of this that a “heterogeneous restless people have developed a continent,

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