government.doc

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Government

Type: Constitutional monarchy (Juan Carlos I proclaimed King November 22, 1975).

Constitution: 1978.

Branches: Executive--president of government nominated by monarch, subject to approval by democratically elected

Congress of Deputies. Legislative--bicameral Cortes: a 350-seat Congress of Deputies (elected by the d'Hondt system

of proportional representation) and a Senate. Four senators are elected in each of 47 peninsular provinces, 16 areelected from the three island provinces, and Ceuta and Melilla elect two each; this accounts for 208 senators. The

parliaments of the 17 autonomous regions also elect one senator as well as one additional senator for every 1 million

inhabitants within their territory (about 20 senators). Judicial--Constitutional Tribunal has jurisdiction over constitutional

issues. Supreme Tribunal heads system comprising territorial, provincial, regional, and municipal courts.

Subdivisions: 47 peninsular and three island provinces; two enclaves on the Mediterranean coast of Morocco (Ceuta

and Melilla) and three island groups along that coast--Alhucemas, Penon de Velez de la Gomera, and the Chafarinas

Islands.

Political parties: Spanish Socialist Workers Party (PSOE), Popular Party (PP), and the United Left (IU) coalition. Key

regional parties are the Convergence and Union (CIU) in Catalonia and the Basque Nationalist Party (PNV) in the

Basque country.

Spain is aconstitutional monarchywhose government is defined by theConstitution of Spain. This was approved by a general referendum of the

people of Spain in 1978. The final interpretation of the Constitution, in the case of dispute, is the business of theConstitutional Court of Spain.

There are three main institutions known as theCortes Generaleswhich are legally independent:

Thegeneral assembly of representativeswhose controlling faction forms an executive government and proposes legislative changes,

Theassembly of senatorsconsider the wider implications and compatibility of proposed legislation, and

The judicial branch composed of a hierarchy oflaw courtswhich ensure that any proposed or imposed executive enforcement complies

with Spanish andEuropean law.

Contents

[hide]

1 Head of State

2 Heads of

Government

3 Current

government

4 Logo

5 References

6 External links

[edit]Head of State

TheMonarchy of Spainholds the constitutional head of state, which has no executive role, other than appointing officials, requiring

reports of official activities and representing Spain at formal and ceremonial occasions. The king is also thecommander in chiefof

theSpanish Armed Forcesin which capacity he suppressed the23-FSpanish coup d'tat attempt in February 1981.

The KingJuan Carlos Ihas held this position since 22 November 1975. This is a hereditary post, and the1978 Constitution

of Spainis open to both male and female heirs, daughters of a monarch however can inherit only if the monarch has no sons. A

proposal to change the constitution to give equal rights to males and females to inherit the throne has not been decided on yet.
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TheHeir apparentis PrinceFelipe, Prince of Asturias, and some duties of state have been devolved to him.

The MilitaryChief of Staff(Jefe de Estado mayor) isGeneral AdmiralFernando Garca Snchez.

[edit]Heads of Government

President of the Government: sometimes misleadingly called 'the Spanish President' is the first minister, who is elected by the

congress of deputies. The current holder isMariano Rajoy Brey, who was elected 21 December 2011. He (or she) appoints a number of vice-

presidents ordered numerically according to rank and responsible for their respective major ministries such as Finance, Foreign affairs,

Domestic administration and so on.

Minister for the Presidency andVice President: Mara Soraya Senz de Santamara Antn, appointed 21 December 2011

Cabinet

The political division of the Kingdom ofSpainis based on the 8th Title of the Spanish constitutionof 1978, which establishes three

levels ofterritorial organization:municipalities,provinces and autonomous communities,[1]the first group constituting the subdivisions

of the second, and the second group constituting the subdivisions of the last. The State [2]guarantees the realization of the principle of

solidarity amongst all the constituent parts of the country.[2]

The autonomous communities were constituted in exercise of the right to autonomy or self-government that the constitution guarantees

to thenationalities and regions of Spain,[3] while declaring the indissoluble unity of the Spanish nation.[4] The autonomous communities

constitute a highly decentralized form of territorial organization, but based ondevolution, and thus Spain is not afederation,[5] since the

State is superior to the communities and retains full sovereignty.[5]TheConstitutional Court of Spain has labeled this model of territorial

organization the "State of Autonomies".[5]

lectoral process

Suffrage is free and secret to all Spanish citizens of age 18 and older to all elections, and to residents who are citizens of allEuropean

Union countries only in local municipal elections and elections to theEuropean Parliament.

[edit]Congress of Deputies

Elections to the Cortes Generales are held every four years or before if the prime ministers calls for an early election. Members of the Congress of

Deputies are elected throughproportional representationwith closed party lists where provinces serve as electoral districts; that is, a list of deputies

is selected from a province-wide list.[8]Under the current system, sparsely populated provinces are overrepresented because more seats ofrepresentatives are allocated to the sparsely populated provinces than they would have if number of seats are allocated strictly according to the

population proportion.[8][22]

Not only provinces with small population are over-represented in Spain's election system, the system also tends to favors majorpolitical parties.[23]Despite the use ofproportional representation voting system, which in general encourages the development of a larger number of small political

parties rather than a few larger ones, Spain has effectively atwo-party system in which smaller and regional parties tend to be underrepresented. [8]

[24]This is owing to various reasons:

Due to the great disparity in population among provinces, even though smaller provinces are overrepresented, the total number of

deputies assigned to them is still small and tends to go to one or two major parties, even if other smaller parties managed to obtain more

than 3% of the votes - the minimum threshold for representation in the Congress.[24]

The average district magnitude (the average number of seats per constituency) is one of the lowest in Europe, owing to the large

number of constituencies.[25]

The low district magnitude tends to increase the number of wasted votes (the votes that could not affect theelection results because they have been cast for the small parties which could not pass the effective threshold), and in turn increase the

disproportionality (so the number of seats and the portion of votes got by a party becomes less proportional) .[26]It is often regarded as the

most important factor that limits the number of parties in Spain.[23][27][28]This point is advanced when Baldini and Pappalardo compare it with

the case ofNetherlands, where the parliament is elected using proportional representation in a single national constituency. There, the

parliament is much more fragmented and the number of parties is much higher than in Spain.[27]

TheD'Hondt method(a type ofhighest average method) is used to allocate the seats, which slightly favors the major parties when

compared toSainte-Lagu method(another type of highest average method) or the normal kinds oflargest remainder methods.[29][30]It is

suggested that the use of D'Hondt method also contribute to a certain degree, though not as large as the low number of seats per

constituency, to the bipolarization of the party system.[23][27]

The 3% threshold for entering the Congress is ineffective in many provinces, where the number of seats per constituency is so low that

the actual threshold to enter the Congress is effectively higher, and thus many parties cannot obtain representation in Congress despite

having obtained more than the 3% threshold in the constituency.[23]For example, the actual threshold for the constituencies having 3 seats is

25%, much higher than 3%, making the 3% threshold irrelevant. [24][27]However, in the largest constituencies likeMadrid andBarcelona, where

the number of seats is much higher, the 3% threshold is still effective to eliminate the smallest parties.[23]
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The size of the Congress (350 members) is relatively small.[22]It is suggested byLijphartthat the small size of parliament may

encourage disproportionality and so favor the large parties.[31]

[edit]Senate

In the Senate, each province, with the exception of the islands, select four senators usingblock voting: voters cast ballots for three candidates, and

the four senators with the largest number of votes are selected. The number of senators selected for the islands varies, depending on their size,

from 3 to 1 senators. A similar procedure of block voting is used to select the three senators from the three major islands whereas the senators ofthe smaller islands or group of islands, are elected by plurality. In addition, the legislative assembly of each autonomous community designates one

senator, and another for each additional one million inhabitants.

Legislature

Main article:Cortes Generales

Legislative power is vested in the Spanish Parliament, theCortes Generales. (Literally "General Courts",[12]but rarely translated. "Cortes" has been

the historical and constitutional name used since Medieval Times. The qualifier "General", added in the 1978 constitution, implies the nation-wide

character of the Parliament, since the legislatures of some autonomous communities are also labeled "Cortes").[13]The Cortes Generales are the

supreme representatives of the Spanish people. This legislature is bicameral, integrated by the Congress of Deputies(Spanish: Congreso de los

Diputados) and theSenate(Spanish:Senado). The General Courts exercise the legislative power of the State, approving the budget and controlling

the actions of the government. As in most parliamentary systems, more legislative power is vested in the lower chamber, the Congress of the

Deputies.[8]The Speaker of Congress, known as "president of the Congress of Deputies" presides a joint-session of the Cortes Generales.

Each chamber of the Cortes Generales meets at separate precincts, and carry out their duties separately, except for specific important functions, inwhich case they meet in a joint session. Such functions include the elaboration of laws proposed by the executive ("the Government"), by one of the

chambers, by an autonomous community, or through popular initiative; and the approval or amendment of the nation's budget proposed by the

prime minister.[7]

The Congress of Deputies

Main article:Congress of Deputies (Spain)

Faade of thePalace of the Cortes, seat of the Congress of Deputies

The Congress of Deputies must be integrated by a minimum of 300 and a maximum of 400 deputies (members of parliament) currently 350

elected by universal, free, equal, direct and secretsuffrage, to four-year terms or until the dissolution of the Cortes Generales. The voting system

used is that ofproportional representation withclosed party listsfollowingD'Hondt method in which theprovinceforms a constituency or electoral

circumscription and must be assigned a minimum of 2 deputies; theautonomous citiesofCeutaandMelilla, are each assigned one deputy.

The Congress of Deputies can initiate legislation, and they also have the power to ratify or reject thedecree lawsadopted by the executive. They

also elect, via a vote of investiture, the prime minister (the "president of the Government"), before he or she can be formally sworn to office by the

King.[7] The Congress of Deputies may adopt amotion of censurewhereby it can vote out the prime minister by absolute majority. On the other

hand, the prime minister may request at any time avote of confidence from the Congress of Deputies. If he or she fails to obtain it, then the Cortes

Generales are dissolved, and new elections are called.

[edit]Senate

Main article:Senate of Spain

Theupper chamberis the Senate. It is nominally the chamber of territorial representation. Four senators are elected for each province, with the

exception of the insular provinces, in which the number of senator varies: three senators are elected for each of the three major islands Gran

Canaria,Mallorca andTenerife and one senator forIbiza-Formentera,Menorca,Fuerteventura,La Gomera,El Hierro,LanzaroteandLa Palma.

The autonomous cities of Ceuta and Melilla each elect two senators.

In addition, the legislative assembly of eachautonomous communitydesignates one senator, and another for each one million inhabitants. This

designation must follow proportional representation. For the 2011 elections, this system allowed for 266 senators, 208 of which were elected and 58

of which were designated by the autonomous communities. Senators serve for four-year terms or until the dissolution of the Cortes Generales.

Even though the constitution explicitly refers to the Senate as the chamber of territorial representation, as seen from the numbers before, only one-
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fifth of the senators actually represent the autonomous communities.[8]Since the constitution allowed for the creation of autonomous communities,

but the process itself was embryonic in nature they were formed afterthe promulgation of the constitution, and the outcome was unpredictable

theconstituent assemblychose the province as the basis for territorial representation.[14]

The Senate has less power than the Congress of Deputies: it can veto legislation, but is veto can be overturned by an absolute majority of the

Congress of Deputies. Its only exclusive power concerns the autonomous communities, thus in a way performing a function in line with its nature of

"territorial representation". By an overall majority, the Senate is the institution that authorizes the Government to adopt measures to enforce an

autonomous community's compliance with its constitutional duties when it has failed to do so. Since the constitution of 1978 came into effect,

however, this has never occurred.[14]
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