Government

What is Government?

Yes,it is the group of people with the authority to govern a country or state.

Types of government:

1.Monarchy:It is ruled by the monarch, who makes all governance decisions, and power is transferred to clans in this system.

Ex:Saudi Arabia

2.Dictatorship:The person (Dictator) who governs and rules a region by making all decisions alone and sometimes without consulting anyone.

They are not elected.

Ex: Germany had a dictatorship with Hitler as dictator.

Do you believe that dictators still exist?

An organization name 'Borgen project' had identified 8 dictators in the world.

3.Military system of government:Powerful people generally tends to control all the things around them by their huge military weapons like war plains and missiles.

The chief of the arm forces who takeover the government and start ruling it.

Ex: Myanmar is under military rule.

4.Democracy or Democratic form of government:It is the word derived from the Greek word demoKratia.(Demo=People and kratia=rule)

It happens by the elections.

And which does not resemble above discussed governments.

Democracy is the form of government where elected representative holds power.

Are you still able to recall the word constitution?

What is the constitution of India?

• It is the basic rule book of a country.
• Ideals of the country these are generally define the state of perfection.
• It defines how country should function and it is having main principles of governance.
• It explains the powers of leaders.

Union executive:It is composed of the president, prime minister and his council of ministers.

President:

President is the head of the Indian republic and he is called the first citizen of the country and his official residence is the rastrapathi bhavan located in New Delhi.

• The president is elected by the elected members of the both houses of parliament and members of legislative assemblies of all states.

Qualifications to contest president elections:

1.Minimum Age 35 years old.

2.Qualifies to become a lok sabha member.

3.Tenure-5 years

Roles of president:

• Appoints the leader of the majority party in the lok sabha as prime minister.
• On the advice of the prime minister he appoints the other ministers like defense minister,railway minister etc.,
• The assent of the president is necessary for any bill to become an act.
• He holds the supreme commands of the defense forces.
• He has the power to declare the war or peace.
• He has the power to appoint the judges of the supreme court and the high court.

Parliament:

Parliament of the India consist of president of the India and two houses namely called loksabha and rajyasabha.

The sessions of the parliament are held in parliament house,new Delhi.They do discuss on the public issues and make laws which are applicable to India. whenever necessary the parliament also amend or remove the existing laws.

Loksabha:

It is called lower house of the parliament because which is present on the ground floor of the parliament.

• The members of loksabha are directly elected by the citizens of India who are the above age 18.
• Max seats in loksabha are 552.
• Term of the leader is 5 years.

Speaker:

• Members of the lok sabha are controlled by speaker.
• He is head body of the loksabha.
• He conducts proceedings.
• He conducts discussions and involves in law making process.

Eligibility criteria to become a lok sabha member:

1.One should be a citizen of India.

2. At least he/she should be with age 25.

3.Not have been sentenced to imprisonment.

4.Should not be declared as insolvent(Any person who is unable to pay off his debts called insolvent)

 Rajya sabha:

  It is called as upper house of the parliament because it is located at    the first floor of the parliament.

• Max seats are 250 in rajya sabha.
• The members are not directly elected by the citizens.
• 238 members elected by the state legislative assembly and remaining 12 members are nominated by the president.

Eligibility:

1.Must not be less than 30 years.

2.Term 6 years

3.A person must be insolvent.

Vice president:

• The Vice president is chairman of the rajya sabha.
• Vice president has been elected by the both houses of the parliament.
• He must be over 35 years of age.
• Qualifies to become president
• Tenure 5 years.
• Role:He is supposed to discharge the functions of the president during his absence.

Members of lok sabha and rajya sabha collectively called as MP's member of parliament.

Leader of the opposition:Government needs a feedback on different sources regarding their performance so our parliament has created the position called leader of the opposition has an important role in the parliament.He is supposed to review the policies and programs of the government.

Powers of the parliament:

• Legislative powers:The main function of the parliament is to make laws.

• Financial powers:The prime minister and his ministers cannot spend the government's money without the permission of the parliament.Every year,the govt must present and discuss the financial bill in the lok sabha.
• Administrative powers:The parliament has the right to demand answers and explanations about the actions of the government and the prime minister with his council of ministers are answerable to the parliament.

• Power to amend the constitution:If there is a need to change law in the constitution of the country felt,it can be amended or changed.The authority to amend the constitution lies with the parliament of India.

Features of Indian constitution:

Constitution assigns the work and power to the central,state and local governments.

Before going in details of functions of all these governments we should know about the term 'Federalism'

Federalism is the word derived from the Latin word foedus which means alliance.

India states are not part of any alliances they are the integral part of the entire country.No one has right to separate from India.

Different levels of the government have been created and distribute the power from the constitution.

• Central government 
• State government 
• Local government

Lets have a detailed discussion of each government and their duties.

1.Central government :

India is the union of the states.

The union of India is governed by the union government or central government.

The central government takes care of countrywide issues and natural issues like defense,communications,banking and printing the currency etc.,

The Three Organs of the central government are:

A.legislature(make laws):The laws made by the legislature are implemented by the other two organs of the government called executive.

The members of the loksabha and rajyasabha are part of the legislature of the central government.

B.Executive(Implement laws):It runs the day to day administration of the country.It takes decisions for the country according to the constitution and laws framed by the legislature and the executive of the central government is formed by the prime minister and his ministers.

C.Judiciary(Interprets laws):Interprets existing laws and gives judgments. It works independently.The supreme court of the India is the judicial organ of the central govt.

2.State Government:

The state government elected by the people takes care of local issues and regional issues  like police,agriculture,healthcare and markets etc.,

State assembly have legislative council and legislative assembly.

Similarly the state government also having three organs:

1.Legislature(Legislative assembly):Make laws for the state and it is composed of governor and the legislature.It consists of upper and lower house.

Where upper house contains nominated and indirectly elected members.

And the Lower house members are elected by the state assembly elections by the all citizens above the age of 18 years

living in the state can vote.

• It is the house of the elected representatives of the people.
• There are 224 seats legislative assembly.
• And we call them as MLAs
• Members in legislative assembly have the right to vote during the election of the president.
• MLA's elect one among themselves as the speaker of the house.
• The term of members is 5 years.

MLA's Eligibility:

• Citizen of India.
• should be older then 25 years.
• should not be a govt employee.
• should not be an insolvent.

Legislative council: The members in council are 75.

We called them as MLCs

Among 75 few members are nominated by the governor others are elected by the members of the legislative assembly,local bodies registered graduates and teachers.

The membership of the legislative council is not more than 1/3rd of the legislative assembly.

Council of ministers responsible to the assembly when the majority policies of the government are found unsatisfactory,they may pass no confidence motion and which is a scenario where more than half of the members of the assembly vote against the continuation of the chief minister and his ministers.If this proposal to dislodge the government is passed,the council of ministers have to resign.

MLC term-6 years and they should not be less than 30 years of age.

2.Executive: It Consist of governor of the state and chief minister and his council of ministers.

Governor is the constitutional head of the state executive.

The president nominates the governor for the term of the 5 years.

Eligibility for governor:

1.Citizen of India.

2.Should be at least 35 years age.

3. Shouldn't be MP/MLA

Powers of governor:

• After legislative assembly elections completion the governor appoints the chief minister(Leader of the party)
• Based on the chief minister advice the governor appoints the rest of the ministers.
• Governor will review and approve the state bills passed in legislative assembly.
• The central government runs the states of India through their governors.
• Chief minister is the key to the state government.
• Chief minister have the power to allocate or change  departments to the ministers or completely drop them from the government.

3.Judiciary: It is formed by the high court and other courts of the state.Interprets existing laws and gives judgments.

3.Local government:

Above central and state governments are free to frame laws and citizens need to follow both govt set of laws.

Where as local governments are there to take care of village,city level issues.

They look into the streams like drinking water,garbage collection,Public health centers,Parks and street lights in the streets etc.,