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Comparative Politics and Government

Notes has made the entire system work in a way that the operation of the principle of checks and
balances has been undermined on one side by the growing leadership of the President and on
the other by the dominant position of the judiciary headed by the Supreme Court. The rise of
political parties and their way of functioning have tended to redistribute the power separated
by the Constitution. This has established the leadership of the federal executive in the hands of
the chief administrator called the President. Above all, there is the phenomenon of ‘judicial
despotism’. The federal judiciary, with Supreme Court has read into the Constitution many
things which are not visible there to the naked eye; it has read out of it other things which are
there as plain as print can make them. That is, the Supreme Court has established itself as the
sole guardian of the Constitution and by virtue of this unique position come to hold the
authority of being the ‘final interpreter of the fundamental law of the land’.
3. A Rigid Constitution
A rigid Constitution is distinctly different from its flexible counterpart in the sense that its
process of amendment is difficult as a result of which the difference between constitutional law
and ordinary law becomes sharply visible. The laws of the Constitution and the laws made by
the legislature in the normal course of its working are different from each other. The two flow
in different channels, the former possessing a specially higher and sacred status than the latter.
Thus, a special process is laid down in a rigid Constitution to carry out the work of amendment.
The authority of the legislature is limited and it can not pass a bill of constitutional amendment
exactly in the same manner as it does in the case of passing an ordinary legislative measure. It
is clearly laid down that the bill of constitutional amendment should be adopted either by a
special convention, or by a constituent assembly, or by the existing legislature with a special
majority, or by the people through referendum, or by a majority of the governments of the
units in a federal system, or by combination of them.
The most notorious example of a rigid Constitution is afforded by the fundamental law of the
United States. The system has been condemned as cumbersome and undemocratic and it has
also been proposed to substitute it with a more flexible and democratic procedure under which
an amendment might be proposed by a simple majority of the two houses of the national
legislature (Congress) and ratified by a majority of voters in the majority of the States, provided
the latter were a majority of the total vote cast throughout the country. It is owing to the
extremely rigid nature of the Constitution that only 27 amendments have taken place so far
ever since its inauguration in 1789.
4. Presidential Form of Government
Britain is known for parliamentary form of government, America has the model of presidential
government. The President is the head of the State as well as of the government. He is elected
for a term of four years and may be re-elected. He appoints his ministers and may remove any
minister or change his departments as per his pleasure. Since the executive and the legislature
have been separated, the President and his ministers cannot be the members of the Congress.
The President may send his message to the Congress and may go there to deliver it personally,
but he cannot vote. The Congress cannot throw out the ministry by passing a vote of no-
confidence. If the President is guilty of treason or of some grave misdemeanour, he may be
removed by the process of impeachment.
5. Senate as the Powerful Upper Chamber
In most of the countries of the world, legislature is bi-cameral in which the lower house is
made more powerful than the upper house. In the British Parliament, the House of Lords is a
weak chamber while the House of Commons, for all practical purposes, means the Parliament.
So is the case with the Senate of France and the Council of State of Switzerland. But in America
Senate, being the upper chamber of the national legislature, is more powerful than the House
of Representatives. It confirms all the appointments made and foreign treaties signed by the
President. It sits as a court of impeachment to try the President, Vice-President, judges of the
Supreme Court and federal courts etc. It is true that a money bill cannot be introduced in the
Senate, but when it comes, after it is passed by the House, the Senate it may make any number

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