Political Systems
Political system is a system that involves government and its politics. The main goal of this
seminar project is to describe political systems in Finland, Romania and the Czech Republic
and to find some differences between these states.
INTRODUCTION
The Republic of Finland is situated in the Northern Europe. It has some over 5,3 million citizens
and is known as a land of thousands of lakes. Until its Independence 6.12.1917 Finland was
part of the Russian Empire. Finland could become independent because of the collapsing of the
Empire: the Bolsheviks thought that we could join them back anyway after the communist
revolution. This didn’t happen and the Soviet Union tried hard to take us back during the Second
World War. It didn’t manage (maybe they didn’t managed? I t is not grammatically right!) but
had an influence on Finlands political environment until the collapsing of the Soviet Union.
Romania, country in southeastern Europe, occupying the northeastern part of the Balkan
Peninsula. Romania is a land of historic villages and castles, fertile plains, and majestic
mountains. For much of its history, foreign powers, including the Ottoman Empire and
Austria-Hungary, have controlled Romania or parts of it. Bucharest is Romania’s capital and
largest city. Romania was a kingdom from 1881 to 1947. In 1948 Communists took control of
Romania and modeled the government and economy after those of the Union of Soviet Socialist
Republics (USSR, or Soviet Union). In the 1960s Romania’s Communist leaders began to
distance themselves from the Soviet Union and develop independent domestic and foreign
policies. In 1989 Romanians revolted against the dictatorship of Nicolae Ceauşescu, and a
non-communist government was installed.
The Czech Republic is a small state situated in the center of Europe and sometimes it is called
the heart of Europe. It has population about 10 million people. Borders with neighbouring
countries are the mountains. We border on Germany in the west, Poland in the north, Austria in
the south and Slovakia in the east. The country is divided in to three lands: Bohemia, Moravia
and Silesia. The capital and the biggest city is Prague.
After Czech republic was a part of the big Austria Empire, it became an individual republic in
1918 with the first president T. G. Masaryk. This state was destroyed by the German occupation
and it appeared again after World War II. But power was taken over by communists directed by
the Soviet army and it lasted about another 20 years till the "velvet revolution" in 1989. That
resulted the end of communism and in 1993 two new states appeared - the Czech Republic and
the Slovak Republic. The Czech Republic is a democratic parliamentary republic. It was formed
on 1 January 1993 on the basis of separating Czechoslovakia into two countries. Since 2000, it
has developed more efficient government at regional level. The Czech Republic is a member of
the EU, the UN, NATO, the Visegrad Group, the OECD and number of other important
international organisations.
PRESIDENT
In Finland the President is elected in every six years by direct vote. There will be two rounds if
necessary. The same president can be rule only two consecutive terms, so Tarja Halonen who
was at first elected in the year 2000 can’t be a candidate on the election next year. In Finland
the President can be a member of a political party during his/hers term. The President has the
supreme executive power together with Government. He/she appoints the Prime Minister and
the other ministers according to Prime Ministers suggestions. He/she also appoints the highest
officials. He/she conducts foreign policy together with Government and signs the new laws. The
vote took place last time in 2006 and the turnout percentage was 77,2.
The President of Romania is the head of state of Romania. The President is directly elected by
a two-round system for a five-year term (since 2004, after the Constitution was modified in
2003). An individual may serve two terms. During his/her term in office, the President may not
be a member of any political party. The President of Romania has the right to name the Prime
Minister at his discretion after consulting the political parties in the Parliament and if his
proposals are turned down by the Parliament two times in 60 days, except for the last 6 months
of neither the first or second term, the President can dissolve the Parliament and call for early
elections.
The current President of Romania is Traian Băsescu, since 20 December 2004. On 20 April
2007 he was arguably suspended from office. He re-assumed the office on 23 May 2007 after a
referendum was held. He was re-elected on 6 December 2009 for a second 5 year term that
started on 21 December 2009.
The President of the Republic is the head of state, represents the state in external relations,
negotiates and ratifies international treaties, receives heads of diplomatic missions and appoints
and dismisses heads of Czech diplomatic missions. The President's term of office is five years.
No one may be elected more than twice in succession. Any citizen who is at least forty years old
may be elected President of the Republic. The President appoints and dissolves the
Government and accepts the resignation of the Government or members thereof. He convenes
and dissolves the Chamber of Deputies. He has the right of veto, i.e. he is entitled to return
passed laws to the Parliament. He concludes the legislative process by signing laws that have
been passed. The President holds important powers in relation to the judiciary. He appoints
judges and is entitled to grant amnesties. The President is the chief commander of the armed
forces and has the right to appoint and promote generals.
GOVERNMENT
In Finland Government consists of Prime Minister and other ministers. At the moment there are
18 ministers besides the Prime Minister. Nine of Governments at the moment 19 ministers are
women. Government has the supreme executive power with President.
The role of the Government is sanctioned by the Constitution and by relevant laws. The
Government exercises "general leadership of the public administration", elaborates strategies to
implement the government platform, exercises legislative initiative, negotiates international
treaties, represents the Romanian state both internally and externally, names prefects and
presents information and documents to the Chambers of Parliament as requested. In Romania
there are 16 ministers except the Prime minister, and just one of them is a women.
The Government of the Czech Republic is the supreme body of executive power and consists of
the Prime Minister, Vice Prime Ministers and Ministers. The Government is accountable to the
Chamber of Deputies. After parliamentary elections, the President appoints a new Prime
Minister and Ministers. Within 30 days the Government presents its case to the Chamber of
Deputies and asks for a vote of confidence. If an absolute majority of members present in the
Chamber of Deputies casts a vote of confidence, the Government has obtained the confidence
of the chamber. If it receives a vote of no-confidence, it must resign and the President of the
Republic appoints another person to assemble the Government. If this new Government fails to
win the chamber’s confidence, the President of the Republic appoints a new Prime Minister on a
proposal from the chairperson of the Chamber of Deputies. If this third attempt fails, the
President of the Republic dissolves the Chamber of Deputies and calls early elections.
The Government meets once a week. The Prime Minister organizes the Government’s activities,
acts in its name and performs other activities. The Government takes decisions on issues of
national importance. A government decision requires the approval of an absolute majority of all
members of the Government.
PARLIAMENT
Parliament is unicameral and has 200 members in Finland. It is elected every four years by
direct, proportional, secret ballot. Parliament enacts laws and approves the State Budget. Much
of Parliaments everyday work takes place in different kinds of committees. The most important
of these is the Grand Committee, which for example discusses about the EU issues. The
speaker of the Parliament can’t vote, so the votes will never be even-steven if everyone votes
yes or no. In the election this year women were selected more than ever and now 86 members
of Parliament are women. Last time the Parliament was elected on spring 2011 and the turnout
percentage was 70,4.
The Parliament of Romania is made up of two chambers:
● The Chamber of Deputies
● The Senate
Prior to the modifications of the Constitution in 2003, the two houses had identical attributes. A
text of a law had to be approved by both houses. If the text differed, a special commission was
formed by deputies and senators, that "negotiated" between the two houses the form of the
future law. The report of this commission had to be approved in a joint session of the
Parliament. After the 2003 referendum, a law still has to be approved by both houses, but each
house has designated matters it gets to deliberate before the other, in capacity of "deciding
chamber". If that first chamber adopts a law proposal (relating to its competences), it is passed
on to the other one, which can approve or reject. If it makes amendments, the bill is sent back to
the deciding chamber, the decision of which is final.
In 2009, a referendum was held to consult the population about turning the parliament into a
unicameral body and reducing the number of representatives to 300. Although the referendum
passed, the results are not binding, a referendum explicitly mentioning the modification of the
constitution being required to achieve this
Legislative power in the Czech Republic is vested in a bicameral Parliament. The Parliament
consists of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate. The Parliament issues laws, ratifies
international treaties and elects the President. The Chamber of Deputies may pass a vote of
censure against the Czech Government.
The two parliamentary chambers are autonomous. They are formed on the basis of different
voting systems: principle of proportional representation (the Chamber of Deputies) and
majority-rule system (the Senate ). The members of the two parliamentary chambers have terms
different lengths of their office– four years (members of the lower house hold) and six years
(senators). The Chamber of Deputies has 200 members; the Senate has 81 senators.
All Czech citizens aged 18 or over can vote in parliamentary elections. Every Czech citizen at
least 21 years old may be elected to the Chamber of Deputies and every Czech citizen at least
40 years old may be elected to the Senate. Nobody may at the same time be a member of both
parliamentary chambers.
LOCAL AUTHORITIES
In Finland the most extensive and important system of self government are the municipalities.
Municipalities are selfgoverning entities and their history goes back in time more than a 1000
years and in the beginning of the year 2011 there were 336 municipalities. They are responsible
of basic services for citizens, such as social welfare, health, education; and fundamental
security. The municipality council is elected every 4 years by local elections. It is the supreme
decision-making body in the municipality. It elects members to the municipal court and
committees, that ensures the responsibilities according to the law will be taken care of. The
municipality court prepares matters for the council and puts councils decisions into effect. Last
time the municipality council was elected in 2008 and the turnout percentage was 61,2.
Besides the municipalities there is also state local administration such as the Police, the
Prosecutor, Local Register offices, Tax offices, Employment offices, The Customs and Legal aid
offices. Regional administration in Finland is nowadays divided between two offices. Regional
State Administrative Agencies take care of such things as environmental protection, public
safety and safe and healthy living and working environment. There are six of these offices in the
whole country. Centres for Economical Development, Transport and Environment for example
foster regional development, promote entrepreneurship, ensure safe transport operations and is
in charge of labor force immigration in fifteen offices.
Romania's administration is relatively centralised and administrative subdivisions are therefore
fairly simplified.
According to the Constitution of Romania, its territory is organized administratively into
communes, towns and counties:
● At the county level: 41 counties, and one city with special status (Bucharest, the
national capital)
● At the town/commune level: 103 cities and 211 other towns (for urban areas), and 2827
communes (for rural areas). City status is accorded to larger towns, but it does not give
their administrations any greater powers.
Below communal or town level, there are no further formal administrative subdivisions.
However, communes are divided into villages (which have no administration of their own). There
are 13,092 villages in Romania. The only exception is Bucharest, which has six sectors, each
with an administration of its own.
There are every 4 years election for the local administrations.
The development regions of Romania refers to the eight regional divisions created in
Romania in 1998 in order to better co-ordinate regional development as Romania progressed
towards accession to the European Union. The development regions correspond to NUTS
II-level divisions in European Union member states. Despite becoming increasingly significant in
regional development projects, Romania's development regions do not actually have an
administrative status and do not have a legislative or executive council or government. Rather,
they serve a function for allocating European Union PHARE funds for regional development, as
well as for collection of regional statistics. They also co-ordinate a range of regional
development projects and became members of the Committee of the Regions when Romania
joined the EU on January 1, 2007.
Regional government has been developing in the territory of the Czech Republic since 1848.
However, in the 20th century it was severely disrupted. It was not restored until after 1989. The
Czech Constitution gives citizens the right to self-government in units defined as municipalities
and regions.
Regions
In the Czech Republic are fourteen higher territorial self-governing units. The first elections were
held in 2000 and the regional authorities have been exercising their powers since 1 January
2001. The supreme regional body is the assembly and adopts decisions by an absolute majority
of all members. The assembly issues decrees which are regarded as legislation of general
application valid within the region. The region is headed by a president (hejtman) , or by the
mayor in the case of the City of Prague, who is elected by the assembly from among its
members.
Municipalities
Municipal assemblies, elected by general equal, direct and secret ballot on the principle of
proportional representation for four-year terms, are the basis of municipal self-government.
Elections to municipal assemblies do not overlap with elections to regional assemblies; they are
separated from each other by a two-year gap. Meetings of members are public. A municipality is
headed by a mayor, who is elected by the assembly from among its members.
PARTIES
In Finland there are 14 registered parties at the moment. Eight of them got to the Parliament on
the last election in 2011. There are four “big parties” at the moment. The biggest one is The
National Coalition Party that has 44 representatives in the Parliament. Second party is The
Social Democratic Party that has 42 representatives. Third biggest party is “The Finns” (the
party hasn’t got any official name in English yet) that upraised the most after the last Parliament
elections: now they have 39 representatives and in the last parliament only five. They are the
most interesting party in Finland at the moment. They are for example against immigration and
some of the comments of the representatives are even racist. The fourth if the big parties is The
Centre Party that has 35 representatives and was the biggest loser of the last election.
After the last election on spring 2011 the texture of the Parliament changed dramatically when
The Finns came out to be the biggest winner of the election. The National Coalition Party had
many difficulties forming the Government and in the end The Finns and The Centre Party
stayed in the Opposition and other six parties formed the Government. It has already come
clear that the Government can’t work very efficiently when there are six different parties from
both left and right. On June two representatives were separated from the Left Alliance
Parliamentary Group (they are in the Government) because their personal opinions were
against. These two persons now sit in the Opposition as well. The situation is tricky and the next
election in 2015 will show if the citizens will take all this or will the consistency of the Parliament
change dramatically again.
In the annex, there is a list with the most important parties in Romania.
The Liberal-Democratic Party is the successor of The National Salvation Front, a political
formation born as a large mass movement in December 1989, during the Revolution.
From a socialist doctrine, the party has now taken a Christian-democratic approach, being
situated on the centre-right area of the political spectrum. Once the most vocal opposition party,
the Liberal-Democratic Party has become the largest governing party, with most representatives
in the Romanian Parliament. According to its status, it aims to provide and assure “a political
and social climate, favourable to the development of human personality, creativity and
progress”. Yet, the latest decisions the party has taken in order to combat the economic crisis
has led to it losing its popularity. After he was named President, Traian Basescu retired from the
party leadership and put the current Prime Minster Emil Boc in his place, a nomination only on
paper, analysts claimed. Traian Basescu is still the shadow leader of the party, often interfering
in its decisions and actions.
The Social Democratic Party is the main opposition party in Romania. After the defeat suffered
in the last presidential campaign, PSD has regularly tried to overturn the current government
through censorship motions, but without success, due to the low number of parliamentary seats.
The President is Victor Ponta, ex-Vice President of PSD and ex-minister for the Relation with
Parliament during Emil Boc’s first cabinet.
The Main Political Parties of the Czech Republic are Civic Democratic Party, Czech Social
Democratic Party , Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia, TOP 09 and Public Affairs. Civic
Democratic Party (ODS) is center-right oriented and has 53 seats in Parliament. Czech Social
Democratic Party (ČSSD) is center-left oriented, promotes a typical social democratic agenda
and has 56 seats in Parliament. Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia (KSČM) is left
oriented and has 26 seats in Parliament. TOP 09 is new center-right oriented party and has 41
seats in Parliament. Public Affairs (VV) is also new party and has 21 seats in Parliament. The
Czech Republic has multi-party system.
CONCLUSIONS
The role of the presidents from these three countries is similar, the only thing that differs is the
time of mandate.
As it can be seen from our paper, each of these three states, have one form of leading -
democracy. It is obvious that democracy doesn't have a perfect formula but it is rather
customized for the needs and the beliefs of the people from a particular place.
The main influence for it's particularities are the historical moments that shaped the needs of
people or sometimes they have set up fears that made the people behave in a particular way.
The best example is the Germans who are trying to avoid with any cost the occurrence of hyper
inflation again.
Another interesting difference is related with the number pf the parties that are registered in
these three countries for example in Finland there seems to be a party for every opinion -
therefore people are better represented. Another thing that can be inferred from here is the
better involvement of people in the political life of the country and bigger budgets.
Finally in Czech Republic there is still a party with a communist doctrine. We think that this can
be because a part of the elderly population stills identify them self with the ‘socialist idea’.
REFERENCES
http://www.indexmundi.com/romania/
http://www.gov.ro/
http://www.parlament.ro/
http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/who-is-who-political-parties-in-romania
http://www.psp.cz/
http://www.eu2009.cz
http://www.suomi.fi
http://finland.fi/Public/default.aspx?contentid=160111
http://www.tpk.fi/public/default.aspx?culture=en-US&contentlan=2
http://web.eduskunta.fi/Resource.phx/parliament/index.htx?lng=en
ANNEXES
Romanian Parliamentary groups
PD-L The parliamentary group of the Democrat-Liberal 121 membe
Party rs
PSD The parliamentary group of the Social Democrat Party 91 membe
rs
PNL The parliamentary group of the National Liberal Party 60 membe
rs
UDMR The parliamentary group of the Democratic Alliance of 21 membe
Hungarians in Romania rs
Minoriti The parliamentary group of the national minorities 17 membe
es rs
Progresi The progressist parliamentary group 18 membe
st rs
Members without membership to a parliamentary 4 membe
group rs
These are the 8 development regions in Romania, which (with the exception of Bucureşti-Ilfov)
are named by their geographical position in the country:
● RO1 – Macroregiunea 1:
○ Nord-Vest – RO11; 6 counties; 2,737,400 inhabitants; 34,159 km²
○ Centru – RO12; 6 counties; 2,638,809 inhabitants; 34,100 km²
● RO2 – Macroregiunea 2:
○ Nord-Est – RO21; 6 counties; 3,836,875 inhabitants; 30,949
○ Sud-Est – RO22; 6 counties; 2,932,124 inhabitants; 35,770 km²
● RO3 – Macroregiunea 3:
○ Sud – RO31; 7 counties; 3,458,759 inhabitants; 34,450 km²
○ Bucureşti-Ilfov – RO32; 1 county and Bucharest; 2,198,285 inhabitants; 1,821
km²
● RO4 – Macroregiunea 4:
○ Sud-Vest – RO41; 5 counties; 2,394,895 inhabitants; 31,211 km²
○ Vest – RO42; 4 counties; 1,958,648 inhabitants; 32,028 km²
