The Legislature

UNIT 7

CONTEMPORARY DIVISION OF GOVERNMENT

READING PRACTICE

A Scan Text 7.1 and answer the questions:

a) What is the role of legislature? b) Which legislature is one of the largest?

B Read the text and answer these questions.

1. What is the function of the legislature in parliamentary systems? 2. What is the function of the legislature in presidential system of government? 3. Which legislatures are among the smallest?

4. How is legislature with one house called? 5. What countries have abolished their second chamber?

The Legislature

The three branches of government are: legislature, executive, and judiciary. A legislature is a type of representative assembly with the power to create, amend and ratify laws. The law created by a legislature is called legislation or statutory law. In most systems, however, legislatures also have other tasks, such as selection and criticism of the government, supervision of administration, ratification of treaties, impeachment of executive and judicial officials.

Legislatures, then, are not simply lawmaking bodies. In most systems the executive has a power of veto over legislation, and even where this is lacking, the executive may exercise original or delegated powers of legislation. Legislatures are known by many names, the most common being parliament and congress. In parliamentary systems of government, the legislature is formally supreme and appoints the executive. In presidential system of government, the legislature is considered a power branch which is equal to, and independent of the executive.

Legislatures differ greatly in their size, the procedures they employ, the role of political parties in legislative action. In size, the British House of Commons is among the largest; the Icelandic lower house, the New Zealand House of Representatives, and the Senate of Nevada are among the smallest. The primary components of a legislature are one or more chambers or houses- assemblies that debate and vote upon bills. A legislature with one house is called unicameral.

A bicameral legislature possesses two separate chambers, usually described as an upper house and a lower house, which often differ in duties and powers. Most legislatures are bicameral, although New Zealand, Denmark, the state of

Queensland in Australia have all abolished their second chamber.

In most parliamentary systems, the lower house is the more powerful house while the upper house is merely a chamber of advice or review. However, in presidential systems, the powers of the two houses are often similar or equal. In federations it is typical for the upper house to represent the component states; the same applies to the supranational legislature of the European Union. For this purpose the upper house may either contain the delegates of state governments or be elected according to a formula that grants equal representation to states with smaller populations, as is the case in

Austria and the modern United States.

In general, the legislature has a supervisory role over the actions of the executive, and may replace the Head of Government and/or individual ministers by a vote of (no) confidence or a procedure of impeachment. On the other hand, it may be dissolved by the Head of State, leading to new elections.

Не знайшли потрібну інформацію? Скористайтесь пошуком google:

Генерація сторінки за: 0.006 сек.