Page 189 - DPOL202_COMPARATIVE_POLITICS_AND_GOVERNMENT_ENGLISH

Comparative Politics and Government

Notes • The Constitution empowers the President to send messages to the two Houses of the Parliament.
He can call the Parliament for special sessions to hear his messages. ‘This message is to be read
in the Assembly and the Senate but not to be debated.
• The Presidents of the Assemblies and the Constitutional Council. He shall inform the nation of
these measures in message. These measures must be prompted by the desire to ensure to the
constitutional governmental authorities, in the shortest possible time, the means of fulfilling
their assigned functions. The Constitutional Council shall be consulted with regard to such
measures. Parliament shall meet by right. The National Assembly may not be dissolved during
the exercise of emergency powers by the President.”
• The President is the ‘guide’ of the nation. He is the final source and holder of the power of the
state and the only man to hold and delegate The authoority of the State.
• Art. 80 says that the President shall be the head of the State. He shall be elected for a term of
four years by the citizens of the Russian Federation on the basis of universal, equal and adult
suffrage. Any citizen of Russia who has completed the age of 35 years and has resided in the
country on a permanent basis for at least ten years may be elected. The manner of the election
shall be determined by a federal law.
• It is different from the American system where a person cannot have more than two terms
either consecutively or otherwise. He shall take the oath of loyalty to the people in the presence
of the members of the Federation Council, the State Duma and the Constitutional Court before
assuming his office.
• Art. 92 makes it clear that the President shall exercise his powers after taking the oath until his
term expires and a newly elected President has been sworn in. The office may fall vacant in the
event of his death, resignation, persistent physical inability, or impeachment. In the event of his
persistent inability for reasons of illness, his duties shall be delegated to the Prime Minister
(Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation), but he shall have no right to dissolve
the State Duma, or call a referendum, or submit proposals for amendments in or revision of the
Constitution.
• Art.93 has the provision of removal of the President by impeachment. He may be charged by
the State Duma for high treason or some grave crime. A resolution to this effect must be passed
in the State Duma by 2/3 majority of the whole House and then approved by the Federation
Council in the like manner.
• The view of the Supreme Court of the Federation must be taken for ascertaining the commission
of the crime by the action of the President.
• To appoint the Chairman of the Government of the Federation (Prime Minister) with the consent
of the State Duma, and to appoint ministers on the advice of the Prime Minister,
• After consultation with the appropriate committees and commissions of the chambers of the
Federal Assembly, to appoint and recall diplomatic representatives of the Federation serving in
foreign States and international organisations.
• China is a republic, it is headed by the President with a Vice-President under him. Both are
elected by the National People’s Congress for a term of five years. That is, the term of the
President and the Vice-President is concurrent with that of the NPC and, as in the USA, it is
limited to two consecutive terms. A citizen of China having right to vote and above 45 years of
age may hold this post.
• The Chinese President performs his functions with the formal nod of the NPC or its Standing
Committee. He performs his executive functions through the State Council that is responsible
to the NPC or its Standing Committee. He has no veto power over the bills passed by the NPC
or the decrees promulgated by its Standing Committee. It shows that he is not a powerful figure
like the Presidents of America and France. However, as this post is held by a powerful leader of
the Communist party, his actual position very much depends on his place in the Party hierarchy.
• The executive is singular as it is headed by one person whether he is a President or a Prime
Minister and the like. But the Federal Council of Switzerland is a unique model of collegial or

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