Form of government

Monarchy

Republic

Absolute

Limited

(constitutional)

Presidential

Parliamentary

Dualistic

Parliamentary

Mixed

(presidential-parliamentary)

Rice. 5. Forms of government.

Limited (constitutional) monarchy involves limiting the power of the monarch by parliament. Depending on the degree of such restriction, dualistic and parliamentary monarchies are distinguished.

Under a dualistic monarchy (Jordan, Kuwait, Morocco), the powers of the head of state are limited in the legislative sphere, but quite broad in the executive sphere. The monarch has the right to appoint a government that is responsible to him. The judiciary also belongs to the monarch, but can be more or less independent. The monarch has the right of absolute veto on laws, so we can only talk about a reduced separation of powers here. The monarch can also issue a decree, which has the force of law, and can dissolve parliament, thereby replacing a dualistic monarchy with an absolute one.

A dualistic monarchy is a transitional form between absolute and parliamentary monarchies, therefore many dualistic monarchies evolve into parliamentary ones.

Parliamentary monarchy is the most common in the countries of the modern world. It usually exists in democratic, highly developed states, where power is actually divided while recognizing the principle of the supremacy of parliament over the executive branch.

In such states, the head remains the monarch, who does not have real independent powers to govern the country. The powers of the head of state are primarily representative and ceremonial in nature. Despite his lack of real power, the monarch still has a certain influence on political processes as a kind of arbiter.

Under a parliamentary monarchy, the power of the head of state practically does not extend to legislation and is significantly limited in the sphere of executive power. The government is formed by a parliamentary majority and is accountable to parliament, not to the monarch (Great Britain, Sweden, Denmark, Belgium, Japan, etc.).

By performing various public functions of a moral nature, the monarchy can maintain an important political and legal role. The prerogatives of the monarch are a symbol of the unity of state sovereignty. The figure of the monarch, as it were, concentrates the key powers delegated to the state by the highest sovereign - the people. And the execution of certain government powers occurs by branches of government independent from each other, acting on the basis of the prerogatives of the Crown or along with them.

The dominant form of government in modern world is a republic. Historically, it arose much later than the monarchy. If the monarchy reflected the idea of ​​power as a phenomenon of a higher, divine nature, then republicanism became the most logical expression of the theory of the social contract. In this case, the people are considered the source of power, the sovereign, and all government bodies are derived from their will.

Republic (Latin res publika - common cause) - a form of government in which government bodies are formed on the basis of their election by the people; The highest power belongs to elected representative bodies, and the head of state is elected by the population or the representative body.

The following features are defining for the republican form of government:

1. Derivation of state power from the sovereignty of the people.

2. Election of the highest bodies of state power, collegial, collective nature of their activities.

3. The presence of an elected head of state.

4. Election of bodies of supreme state power for a certain period.

5. Legal responsibility of all branches of government, including the head of state.

There are presidential, parliamentary and mixed (presidential-parliamentary or semi-presidential) republics. Their key differences are determined not only by the configuration of the highest state bodies and the boundaries of their prerogatives. Each of the republican forms of government presupposes a certain style of exercising power, the degree of elitism of public administration, its centralization (decentralization), the presence of restraining mechanisms that protect civil society from possible political dictates from the state, their rigidity or formalization, locality.

A presidential republic is a form of government in which the president is both the head of state and the head of the executive branch (government)(USA, Philippines, Mexico, Zimbabwe, Brazil, Argentina, Venezuela, Bolivia, Syria, etc.).

The structure of a presidential republic is characterized by the following features.

1. The legislative and executive powers are elected separately (based on direct general elections or, in some cases, by an electoral college), i.e. one power cannot be elected by the other.

2. The president is simultaneously the head of state and government (there is no post of prime minister). He has the right to independently form a government as his administration or a separate branch of the executive branch; the government is responsible directly to the president and is controlled by him in its current activities.

3. Implementation of the most consistent and strict version of the separation of powers - based on “checks and balances”, including the absence or significant limitation of the president’s right to dissolve parliament, the absence of the right of parliament to remove the government, the extraordinary nature of the right of parliament to remove the president (impeachment procedure).

4. Preservation of the predominance of parliament in the field of legislative activity, with the existence of significant prerogatives of the president in this area (including the right of a suspensive veto on laws, requiring override by a qualified majority of parliament).

the president, at his own discretion, determines the foreign policy course of his government;

has the right to legislative initiative or the right to make proposals for legislation;

has the right to veto laws passed by parliament;

ex officio is commander-in-chief;

is the head of the ruling party and is guided in politics by its course.

A parliamentary republic is a form of government in which, under conditions of separation of powers, the leading role in the political life of society belongs to parliament.

A parliamentary republic (Estonia, Moldova, India, Italy, Germany, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia, etc.) is a form of government with the leading role of parliament. Elected on the basis of universal direct suffrage and reflecting the entire spectrum of influential party and political groupings, it has supremacy in the system of separation of powers. A strong parliament can, to the greatest extent, “pull back” real power, acquiring a key position not only in the legislative process, but in the entire political process. When a stable legal status of the government is formed, its head (as a rule, who is also the leader of the ruling party or parliamentary coalition) can become a key political figure in the state. Such a system of government has the opportunity to become no less “strong” than a presidential republic (for example, the “chancellor’s republic” in Germany). But in the case of political fragmentation of the parliament itself, instability of coalitions and active factional struggle, a parliamentary republic can become a symbol of a politically “weak”, conflict-ridden state (Italy).

The structure of a parliamentary republic is characterized by the following features.

1. The predominance of the principle of parliamentary supremacy, including in the system of separation of powers.

2. The political responsibility of the government to parliament, which, in particular, involves the formation of the government by the legislative body from among the deputies belonging to the ruling party (having a majority of votes in parliament), the right of parliament to express a vote of confidence or a vote of no confidence in the government as a whole, the head of government (chairman of the council ministers, prime minister, chancellor), minister.

3. The Prime Minister, who heads the government and represents the largest faction in parliament, is the most influential political figure; Parliament's right to remove the government is difficult from the point of view of the procedure for its adoption.

4. The President, as the head of state, is elected by parliament or an electoral college formed by parliament, i.e., he is not elected on the basis of direct elections.

5. The President is the head of state, but not the head of government; his prerogatives are reduced, including in the field of the legislative process, the dissolution of parliament, control of the activities of the government and its composition.

Features of the powers of the president:

the president can dissolve parliament and call early elections in cases where parliament expresses no confidence in the government;

has the right to legislative initiative agreed with the government;

does not have the right to veto laws passed by parliament;

represents the state in the field of foreign policy and coordinates its actions with the foreign policy course of the government;

does not depend on parties in its activities;

cannot fire the head of government; on the recommendation of the head of government, may dismiss members of the government;

plays the role of a political arbiter, coordinator of the activities of government bodies and a mediator between them in the event of a conflict.

The parliamentary regime functions stably if one political party or a stable bloc of political parties with similar views and goals has a majority in parliament.

A mixed (semi-presidential) republic combines the features of parliamentary and presidential(France, Portugal, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Peru, Turkey, Venezuela, Finland, Poland, Bulgaria, Austria, etc.).

Its distinctive feature lies in the dual responsibility of the government - both to the president and to parliament. The predominance of one or another branch of government is ensured by the distribution of their prerogatives in the field of control over the government:

who appoints the cabinet - the president or prime minister, representing the largest parliamentary faction;

who takes the initiative to express a vote of no confidence in the government - the executive or the legislative branch;

what are the legal consequences of such a vote - the duty of the president or his right to dissolve parliament in the event of a vote.

The president and parliament themselves are elected in this form of government, as a rule, on the basis of universal direct elections and do not have broad opportunities for mutual control. The essence of the semi-presidential model comes down to strong presidential power in conditions of a somewhat lesser degree of separation of powers than in a presidential republic. The president here can, under certain circumstances, dissolve parliament, and parliament has the right to express no confidence in the government. The president has a wide range of powers, which gives him the opportunity to actively intervene in the political life of the state.

A special type of republican form of government is theocratic republic. It is characterized by the legal consolidation of the participation of the clergy in the direct government of the state. For example, the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran of 1978 provides, along with the post of president, the post of faqih - the spiritual leader of the Iranian people. His decisions are binding on secular authorities and have a decisive influence on the conduct of public affairs.

State form is a way of organizing the structure of the state and its bodies. State form- a way of exercising state power, expressed in the form of government, form of government and political regime.

State form allows us to establish how the state is structured, in what forms the functioning of state power is organized, by what bodies it is represented, what is the order of their formation and activities, the term of office, and finally, by what methods is state power exercised in the country.

So, form of state includes:

Form of government;

Form of government;

Political (state) regime.

Under form of government usually understand the organization of the highest bodies of state power, the order of their formation, interaction between themselves and the population.

According to the form of government, states are divided into monarchy And republics.

Monarchy characterized by such properties as lifelong use of power by the head of state, occupation of the throne by inheritance or by right of kinship, representation of the state by the monarch, sole rule; legal irresponsibility (the monarch bears neither political nor legal responsibility for the results of his reign, answering only “before God and history”).

In its turn monarchy are divided into unlimited(absolute) and limited.

At absolute monarchy the power of the monarch is not limited in any way (France in the 15th-16th centuries under King Louis XIV, who owned the saying “the state is me”). If the monarch does not have full power, then the state in its form of government is limited monarchy(currently UK, Spain, Belgium, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Japan, etc.)

In turn, limited monarchy is divided into dualistic and parliamentary (constitutional).

Dualistic monarchy involves the division of state power between the monarch and parliament: executive power belongs to the monarch, and legislative power to parliament.

Parliamentary (constitutional) The monarchy is distinguished by the fact that the legal status of the monarch is actually limited in all areas of the exercise of state power. He reigns, but does not rule.

Republic – a form of government in which supreme state power is exercised by elected bodies, usually elected by citizens for a certain term.

Republic characterized by such properties as the exercise of state power on behalf of the people; separation of powers into legislative, executive and judicial; urgency and turnover of state power; officials bear political and legal responsibility (resignation, dissolution of parliament, removal from office, criminal, administrative, civil, disciplinary liability for abuse of their official position etc.) for failure to fulfill or improper fulfillment of the powers assigned to them.

Modern republics are divided into presidential And parliamentary. The distinction between the two forms is based on the order in which the government is formed and its responsibilities. All other characteristics are additional and do not determine the type of republic.

In a presidential republic The president independently decides on the formation of the government, is free to choose ministers and can dismiss any member of the government or disband the entire government. Parliament has no powers regarding the formation of the government, and the government is not responsible to parliament. A presidential republic has a number of additional features, for example, the president does not have the right to dissolve parliament, but parliament has the right to raise the issue of removing the president from office in cases provided for by the constitution. In this type of republic, the president often combines his post with the post of head of government.

Concerning parliamentary republic, here the government is formed by parliament and is responsible for its activities to parliament. This means that parliament has the right to declare a vote of no confidence in the entire government or its individual member, and this entails the automatic resignation of the minister or the entire government from his post.

The presidential republics currently include the USA, Brazil, Venezuela, Mexico, etc., and the parliamentary republics include Italy, India, Turkey, the Czech Republic, Latvia, etc.

In practice, mixed or hybrid forms are used, for example, semi-presidential or semi-parliamentary republics, as well as presidential-parliamentary ones. In such models, the power of parliament is most often limited and the executive power is strengthened or, conversely, the role of the president is reduced. The Republic of Belarus, the Russian Federation, France, etc. belong to mixed republican forms of government.

Moving on to the characteristics of the next element of the form of the state - forms of government, It should be noted that it reveals the territorial organization of the state.

Form of government is an administrative-territorial or national-territorial organization of state power, revealing the relationships between individual parts of the state, in particular, between central and local authorities.

It is customary to distinguish three forms of government: unitary, federal and confederal.

For unitary state The following features are characteristic: complete political and territorial unity of the state. This means that administrative-territorial units do not have political independence; a single citizenship has been established for the population; citizens of territorial units do not have their own citizenship; a unified structure of the state apparatus throughout the state, a unified judicial system; a unified legislative system for the entire state. A unitary state, as a rule, is characterized by ease of administration and a fairly high degree of centralization. This form of territorial structure is inherent in such states as Finland, Great Britain, Greece, Turkey, etc. In terms of the form of government, the Republic of Belarus also belongs to unitary states.

Federation a complex state consisting of various entities with varying degrees of political independence.

The Federation has the following features: two levels of state apparatus (the existence of supreme bodies of state power and administration common to the entire state and, at the same time, bodies of power and administration in the constituent entities of the federation); the possibility of establishing “dual” citizenship, i.e. a citizen of each of the subjects is simultaneously a citizen of the federation; two systems of legislation (general federal and the system of legislation of the subjects of the federation, however, the priority of national acts is established over the acts of the subjects of the federation); subjects have their own judicial system along with the highest judicial bodies of the federation; a two-channel tax system, which presupposes the existence, along with general federal taxes, of a tax system of the constituent entities of the federation.

Currently, there are more than two dozen federal states in the world: the Russian Federation, the USA, India, Switzerland, Mexico, Canada, etc.

Confederation is is a union or association of states in which these states fully retain their independence and have their own supreme bodies of power, administration and justice. A confederation is created to achieve certain goals. Acts adopted at the confederation level are subject to approval by the highest authorities of the united states. The procedure for joining and leaving the confederation is determined by the member states of the confederation by mutual agreement. Secession from the confederation is simplified - a unilateral expression of the will of any state is sufficient. A confederation is a fragile entity: after achieving the goal for which the states united, the union may disintegrate (Rzeczpospolita, Austria-Hungary) or, on the contrary, if strong ties have developed between the members of the confederation, it may develop into a federation (USA, Germany, Switzerland) . In modern world confederations does not exist in the classical sense. However, there are associations of states that have some characteristics of a confederation, for example the Commonwealth of Independent States.

The third element of the state form is political-legal regime is a set of methods and means by which state power is exercised.

Political and legal regimes are diverse. History knows despotic, absolutist regimes, regimes of slave-owning and feudal democracy, military-police, authoritarian, fascist, liberal-democratic and others.

There are two types of political and legal regimes: democratic and non-democratic.

TO democratic political and legal regimes include regimes of liberal democracy, pluralistic democracy, etc.

A modern democratic political and legal regime is possible only in a rule of law state that ensures the rule of law, guarantees pluralism in socio-political life, ensures human and civil rights, and creates effective mechanisms for the direct participation of the population in the exercise of state power. Legal guarantees of the democratic regime in the Republic of Belarus are enshrined in the Constitution of the Republic of Belarus and the legislation of the country.

TO non-democratic regimes include despotic, totalitarian (including fascist, military dictatorial, fundamentalist-religious, etc.), authoritarian.

Modern non-democratic regimes are characterized by the dominance of one official ideology, one political party, restriction of personal and political rights of citizens, lack of conditions for the growth of the population's well-being, the presence of punitive measures against dissidents, arbitrariness of officials, violation of law and order.

It is obvious that non-democratic regimes exclude the formation of a rule of law state.

Theory of State and Law Morozova Lyudmila Aleksandrovna

5.1 Form of government of the state

Form of government of the state

Form of government reveals three main characteristics states:

organization of the highest bodies of the state, their structure, order of formation, degree of participation of the population in their formation;

the relationship of the highest authorities with each other and with the population;

the competence of these bodies.

The form of government shows who rules in the state who exercises supreme power. There are two main forms of government: monarchical And republican.

“Monarchy” translated from Greek means “unity”, “ autocracy" Most typical features The monarchical form of government is as follows:

1) the presence of a sole ruler;

2) dynastic inheritance of power;

3) lifelong rule: the laws of monarchies do not provide any grounds for removing the monarch from power;

4) concentration in the hands of the monarch of all power;

5) the absence of any responsibility of the monarch for how he governs the country. He is responsible only to God and History.

The listed features characterize, as a rule, an unlimited (absolute) monarchy, which was inherent in slave-holding and feudal societies. In addition to unlimited there are limited monarchy. The original form of limited monarchy was dualistic. This form is characterized by the fact that, along with the legal and actual independence of the monarch, there are representative bodies with legislative and control functions. Executive power belongs to the monarch, who exercises it directly or through the government. Although the monarch does not legislate, he is endowed with the right of absolute veto, that is, he has the right to approve or not approve laws adopted by representative bodies. Thus, the dualism is that the monarch cannot make a political decision without the consent of parliament, and parliament without the consent of the monarch. Some scientists classify the class-representative feudal monarchies that existed in Western Europe in the Middle Ages as dualistic. Currently, there are no classical dualist monarchies, although Bhutan, Jordan, Kuwait and Morocco are sometimes included.

Another type of limited monarchy is parliamentary, or constitutional, where the power of the monarch is legally limited in all areas of activity. This institution is preserved mainly due to historical traditions and fulfills modern society integrative and stabilizing role. The example of Spain is indicative in this regard, where after the 40-year dictatorship of Franco in 1975, the people of Spain spoke out for the restoration of the monarchy.

A parliamentary monarchy is characterized by the following features:

1) the power of the monarch is limited in all spheres of state power;

2) government is based on the principles of separation of powers and parliamentarism;

3) executive power is exercised by the government, which is responsible to parliament;

4) the government is formed from representatives of the party that won the parliamentary elections, and the leader of this party becomes the head of the government;

5) laws are adopted by parliament, they are signed by the monarch, but this is a purely formal act, since he does not have the right of veto.

In some countries, the monarch may retain certain powers, for example, the right to appoint the head of government and ministers, but only at the proposal of parliament. The monarch does not have the right to reject a minister's candidacy if it has been approved by parliament. The monarch can issue decrees, but they are usually prepared within the government and signed by the head of government or the relevant minister (the so-called countersign). Without such a signature, the monarch's decrees have no legal force. The government or minister who signed the decree of the monarch takes responsibility for the implementation of the decree. The monarch can dismiss the government if it has lost the confidence of parliament. In turn, the government may propose to the monarch, in cases specified by law, to dissolve parliament and call new elections.

But not in all states where the form of government in the form of a parliamentary monarchy is established, parliament dominates. For example, in countries where there is a two-party system (Great Britain, Canada, Australia) or a multi-party system with one dominant party (Japan), the parliamentary model of relations between parliament and government practically turns into its opposite. Legally, parliament controls the government. But in reality, the government, consisting of party leaders with a majority in parliament, controls parliament through party factions. This system was named cabinet systems, or ministerialism.

Parliamentary monarchy today exists in Great Britain, Belgium, Spain, Norway, Sweden, the Netherlands, etc.

For republican forms of government are characteristic the following features:

1) supreme power is exercised by elected bodies;

2) the source of power is the people, who exercise this power through elections of supreme and local representative bodies of government, as well as local self-government bodies, held at certain intervals;

3) the urgency of the powers of the highest representative bodies of power (parliament, president);

4) use of democratic institutions in various forms;

5) legal and political responsibility of the head of state and other officials.

Currently, the republican form of government is the most common in the world. There are two main types of republican form of government - presidential And parliamentary republics.

Presidential republic has features:

1) combination in the hands of the president of the powers of the head of state and head of government;

2) election of the president on the basis of general elections, thereby he receives his mandate directly from the people;

3) the president has significant powers; he independently forms the government, which is responsible to the president, and not to parliament. Presidential republics include the USA, Argentina, Mexico, Brazil, etc.

main feature parliamentary republic is that the government is formed by parliament from among the deputies of the party that has a majority in parliament. The government is responsible to parliament, not to the president. Other features of this type of republic include:

1) supreme power belongs to parliament;

2) the president is not elected by the people, but by parliament or a special board formed by parliament;

3) the government is formed only by parliamentary means, and the head of the government is not the president, but the leader of the ruling party or party coalition;

4) the announcement by parliament of a vote of no confidence in the government means that the government does not enjoy the support of the parliamentary majority and must resign.

A parliamentary republic is characterized by a strong legislative branch and the subordination of the executive branch to it. As a rule, in a parliamentary republic the president does not have the right to veto laws, hold a referendum, or declare a state of emergency. Currently, the parliamentary republics are Finland, Germany, Italy, Turkey, Hungary, India, etc.

Presidential and parliamentary republics have both their advantages and disadvantages.

To the number advantages A presidential republic is usually attributed to its stability and greater efficiency, since the president, having broad powers, largely determines the policy of the state, and managerial influence is more targeted, since it comes from the center.

The main one flaw presidential republic - excessive concentration of power in the hands of one person - the president. Hence the possibility of its abuse, which often leads to a cult of personality and the transformation of a presidential republic into a super-presidential one, when representative bodies practically lose their significance.

A parliamentary republic is considered more democratic, since the government is formed by a collegial body - parliament, and not by one person, as in a presidential republic. Therefore, there are no objective prerequisites for the concentration of power in one hand. Basic flaw of a parliamentary republic is that with a multi-party system, frequent government crises are possible. An example is Italy, where until the 90s the government changed almost every year.

Many states use the form of government in the form mixed republics with elements of presidential and parliamentary republics. For example, along with a strong president, who is also the head of the government, parliament also participates in the formation of the government, for example, it approves ministerial candidates nominated by the president. At the same time, the government is responsible not only to the president, but also to parliament. Another option for a mixed republic is increased independence of the government, an increased role of the head of government.

Mixed republics are established mainly in countries that have recently overthrown totalitarian regimes (Poland, Portugal, Bulgaria, etc.).

At the same time, some republics are turning into “monarchical” ones. These are those in which the president holds office for life, for example the DPRK.

Under military regimes, presidential-militarist republics. Most often this is a temporary form, but in Algeria and Nigeria it lasted for more than ten years. Here military rule is established: supreme power rests on the army.

The search for the best form of government in the state has been carried out since ancient times. However, an ideal model suitable for absolutely all states hardly exists. Russian philosopher and lawyer I. A. Ilyin (1883–1954) wrote on this occasion: “Every people and every country is a living individual with its own special characteristics, with its own unique history, soul and nature. Each nation is therefore entitled to its own, special, individual state form and constitution, corresponding to it and only it. There are no identical peoples, and there should not be identical forms and constitutions. Blind borrowing and imitation is absurd, dangerous and can be disastrous.” Concerning modern Russia, then in terms of the form of government it represents presidential republic with a strong executive branch. This is confirmed, firstly, by the increase in the presidential term from four to six years; secondly, the heads of regions are now not directly elected by the population through direct elections, but are appointed by the parliaments of the constituent entities of the Federation on the proposal of the President of the Russian Federation; thirdly, he also appoints all managers in the system of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, as well as in the system of regions.

The presence of a strong executive branch is confirmed by the powers of the head of the Government of the Russian Federation, who:

1) directs the Government of the Russian Federation and organizes its work;

2) ensures the functioning of the system of federal executive authorities;

3) ensures the unity of the executive power system throughout the country.

Currently, there is a rethinking of the understanding of the form of government, as models of the organization of the highest bodies of state power are emerging that cannot be attributed to any of the models described above. In the modern world, elected monarchs appear (United Arab Emirates, Malaysia) and at the same time presidents for life.