Government and Politics in Europe October 2, 2014

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1 Government and Politics in Europe October 2, 2014
By Hung-jen Wang 王宏仁

2 Today’s Outline What is Europe? (III) (IV) [To continue last lecture]
Comparative political system: Prime Ministers and Presidents

3 What is Europe? (III) Diverse challenges to modern Europe:
Political corruption, de-legitimization, and stability Political extremism, political radicalism, populism, religious fundamentalism, and terrorism. Judicialization of politics Freedom of religious expression Welfare states Immigration issues

4 禁穆斯林戴面紗 歐人權法院挺（2014/07/02，中央社）
　　歐洲人權法院昨天決定，支持法國禁止公民穿戴穆斯林全罩面紗，但也承認這項禁令可能有些過度，也帶點刻板印象。 　　法國在2010年宣布，所有人在公眾場合，不得穿戴遮住全臉的服飾，違反規定者處150歐元（約合新台幣6000元）罰鍰。 　　這項禁令曾引起穆斯林的反彈，因法國的穆斯林信徒約500萬人，而部分婦女外出穿戴只露出雙眼的全罩面紗。 　　一名24歲巴基斯坦裔法國公民狀告歐洲人權法院（European Court of Human Rights），並說穿戴全罩面紗是她個人意願，並未有任何人逼迫她。 　　不過，歐洲人權法院昨天票決以15比2支持法國。歐洲人權法院說明判決指出，禁令的目的為確保開放民主社會價值，包括社會交流的開放性，也鼓勵不同宗教信仰和背景的公民「一起生活」，並未違反宗教自由。 　　包括比利時、西班牙與義大利的部分城鎮，也頒布類似禁令。

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7 What was Europe? (IV) Map of 1914 Europe

8 Map of 1919

9 1919 Germany: Weimar Republic
1920 Germany: Nazi party (National Socialist German Worker’s Party) Crisis of liberal democracy? The Second World War,

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11 Map of 1945 Europe

12 Comparative Political System: Prime Ministers and Presidents

13 Presidential and Parliamentary Government
Presidential government systems: “separation of powers”, and “checks and balances”. Parliamentary government systems: the executive is responsible to the elected parliament.  Parliamentary government is the norm in modern Europe, and it is even true for most Eastern Europe states.

14 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TsAa9 VmwOaI
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15 Who is the “Head of State”?
Under European-style parliamentary government, there is a clear separation between the political executive and the constitutional head of state. Why? States are still headed by monarchs: Belgium, Britain, Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, and Luxembourg (grand duke). States are headed by “president”: such as Germany  They all serve the functions, which are (1) symbolic; (2) procedural; and (3) diplomatic

16 Exceptions Semi-presidential systems: which combine a powerful and directly elected president with a parliament that can make or break the prime minister. [France] Two executives Pose a model to the newly democratizing states of Eastern Europe: ex. Poland However, most of Eastern European states moved to parliamentary government.

17 Semi-Presidentialism in France: “Cohabitation”
“Cohabitation”: different parties controlled the presidency and prime ministership in France. Example: , , the socialist President Francois Mitterrand: two times of “cohabitation” [one is more conflictual, and another is more harmonious] After 2002: the presidential term from 7 to 5 yearsto reduce the chances of the need for cohabitation.

18 Directly Elected Presidents
Austria, Cyprus, Finland, Iceland, Ireland, Portugal, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia. Finland and Poland have in the past come closest to being “semi-presidential” in nature. Austria, Iceland, Ireland, and Portugal: less- powerful presidents

19 Indirectly Elected Presidents
In the other European states, the president is elected indirectly, usually by members of parliament. In none of these countries is the president’s power particularly strong. Nevertheless, it is unwise to write off any president. Examples: the president of Italy (President Cossiga) in the early 1990s; first president of the new Czech Republic (1993) vs. the then prime minister, Vaclav Klaus.

20 Monarchs The outstanding example of a monarchy is Britain.
Other examples: King Baudouin of Belgium, and King Juan Carlos of Spain.

21 The Prime Minister Political chief executive: prime minister, or, chancellor. A European prime minister is not only the chief executive of the state, but also the head of one of the main (or largest) legislative parties. Four facets of the power of prime minister: His/her power is approved by parliament as the political head of the government; His/her power arises from the rather modest role of the head of state (president); His/her massive power is from the combined position as head of both the cabinet and a major political party; His/her power is from the incredible complexity and specialization of the tasks involved in administering any modern state.

22 Three methods to dismiss the prime minister:
An election; A change in the coalition of legislators that originally put the prime minister into office; From within the prime minister’s own party: For example, Margaret Thatcher, UK (1990)

23 The Cabinet The prime minister + the cabinet=the government of the country The cabinet includes a set of ministers, and each minister plays two roles: (1) as head of a government department; (2) as member of the cabinet itself: the doctrine of “collective cabinet responsibility”. For example, Greece

24 Parliamentary Democracy and Legislative Majorities
The executive is responsible to the legislature through two mechanisms: legislative votes of investiture: the government must have the explicit or implicit support of a legislative majority. confidence in the government: “Vote of no confidence” and “vote of confidence”

25 Heads of States and Formateurs
The head of state: To participate in the building of forming a new government. Formateur (Greece, Britain, and Ireland) and informateur (Netherlands)