British Monarchy and comparison with Turkey

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a constitutional and hereditary monarchy. In practice, it is a democracy operating by a parliament system (a system in which supreme authority is held by the legislature) under a figurehead sovereign who “reigns but does not rule. ” The British parliament system, with a head of state who is not the head of government, has been a model for many other countries. Wales and England (excluding Greater London) are divided into counties and metropolitan counties, which are heavily populated areas. All counties are subdivided into districts.

Each county and district has an elected council (Coleman, 2006). A government reorganization, effective in 1974, greatly reduced the number of local administrative units and redrew county boundaries. Thesis Statement: This study scrutinizes the differences and similarities between British monarchy and the government system of Turkey; thus, it also figures out the differences between constitutional monarchy and republic and gives idea of what absolute monarchy and a constitutional monarchy are. II. Discussion A. Differences and Similarities o British Monarchy Constitution.

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The British constitution is not to be found in any single written document. It is a body of rules consisting partly of written material and partly of established principles and practices known as conventions. It includes historic documents such as Magna Charta, the Petition of Right 91628), and the Bill of Rights (1689). It includes certain basic statutes (laws). And it includes rules established by common law (Winter, 2003). Rules of the constitution can be changed only by an act of parliament or through establishment of a new convention by usage and general acceptance.

Composition of Government. Parliament, although supreme, governs in the name of the Crown (monarch). There are three organs of government—legislature, executive, and judiciary. ? The legislature consists of the two house of Parliament and the Queen (whose formal assent must be given before a bill becomes a law). ? The executive consists of the cabinet and other ministers (officials) of the Crown; administrative departments staffed by Civil Service employees and usually headed by ministers; local authorities; and boards created by statute to operate various industries and services.

The Queen is formally the head of the executive body. The ministry, representing the political party in control of Parliament, is called Her Majesty’s government or the government (Crowl, 2002). ? The judiciary, of which the Queen is nominally the head, is independent of both the legislature and the executive. Crown. The inheritance of the throne goes to the eldest son and his heirs, or if there is no son the eldest daughter and her heirs, or if there are no children to the eldest brother and his heirs. Elizabeth II succeeded her father, George VI, in 1952.

The Queen acts in governmental matters only on the advice of her ministers, and by convention may not refuse to act on such advice. Not only her approval but her participation is required in the conduct of government. She summons and dissolves Parliament, approve bills, and signs state papers. She approves the appointment of all ministers of the Crown and gives her consent to the formation of a cabinet. In doing so, she sometimes has a choice in selecting a new prime minister. In consulting with her ministers she may exercise some influence over policy (Morgan, 2004).

Because of the sovereign’s central role in the function of government British law provides for the appointment of a regent to act in the event that the sovereign is unable to perform the responsibilities of the Crown. As formal head of the British Commonwealth of Nations, the Queen is the symbol of Commonwealth unity. In addition to her roles in government, she is head of the armed forces and temporal head of the Church of England. The Privy Council assist the Queen in issuing Orders in Council and royal proclamations. It is largely an honorary body that acts on decisions made by ministers or Parliament.

It is composed of all cabinet members and more than 300 eminent persons selected, for life, by the Queen upon the recommendation of the prime minister. Parliament. The upper house of Parliament is the House of Lords, in which membership is hereditary or by appointment; the lower is the House of Commons, an elective body. ? The House of Lords has more than 1,000 members, consisting of royal princes (who take no active role), hereditary peers and peeresses, spiritual lords (archbishops and senior bishops of the Church of England), and life by the Queen upon the recommendation of the prime minister).

The life peers include Lords of Appeal, jurists who serve as justices when the House functions as a court of appeal (Crowl, 2002). All hereditary Scottish peers are entitled to seats in the house of lords, but Irish peers ate excluded unless they hold peerages of Great Britain or the United Kingdom. Only about 150 members actually attend. The House of Lords has limited power. It can neither reject nor amend legislation dealing with finances, but can delay other kinds of legislation for one year. The House of Lords thus serves as a check on hasty action by the Commons. Members of the House of Commons, called members of Parliament (M.P. ’s) are elected by universal adult suffrage.

Parliament cannot sit indefinitely, but must be dissolved at least once every five years. General elections are called after it is dissolved (Coleman, 2006). The prime minister is responsible for determining when a general election is held and may call for one at any time within the five-year period. One member is elected from each of 635 constituencies (electoral districts determined by population). A member does not have to live in the constituency from which he is elected. A by-election is held within an individual constituency when a vacancy occurs (Randle, 2001).

The political party or coalition of parties holding the majority of seats in the House of Commons provides the prime minister, usually the acknowledged party leader. The prime minister chooses the other ministers of the Crown and designates certain ones to be members of the cabinet. A small number of ministers are taken from the House of Lords, the majority from the Commons. The largest minority party in the House of Commons leads the official Opposition. The House of Commons normally adopts the bills proposed by the government and affirms its program.

However, if the government follows a course displeasing to the House of Commons, a vote of confidence is taken (Randle, 2001). If it is negative, the government must resign. Generally, Parliament is then dissolved and a general election is held. The Cabinet and the Ministry. Under the leadership of the prime minister, the cabinet and the ministry perform the executive functions in the British government. The cabinet is composed of the most important ministers, usually not more than 20. The ministry includes all heads of administrative departments.

Some are known as secretaries of state, some as ministers, and some by special titles, such as the Chancellor of the Exchequer. There are also ministers who are not department heads. Other members of the ministry are the Lord Chancellor and law officers (Morgan, 2004), deputy ministers known as ministers of state, and junior ministers known as parliamentary secretaries or undersecretaries of state. Judicial System. The House of Lords is the highest court of appeal for civil cases and for certain criminal cases. The Supreme Court of Judicature, composed of the High Court of Justice and the Court of Appeal, deals with important civil cases.

Minor cases are tried in county courts. Criminal cases may be appealed to the Court of Criminal Appeal, after being tried in assize courts or magistrates’ courts (Morgan, 2004). Trial by jury is used for all but minor crimes. Administration of the judicial system is shared by the Lord Chancellor and the home secretary, both members of the cabinet. Defense. The three branches of British armed forces are the army, the Royal Air Force, and the Royal Navy (which includes the Royal marines). Civilian control is exercised by the secretaries of state of war and air and the first lord of the admiralty (Randle, 2001).

All three are responsible to the minister of defense, a member of the cabinet. o Turkey The Republic of Turkey was proclaimed in 1923, with Kemal Atturk as its first president. Far-reaching political, social, and economic reforms were put into effect. Ataturk abolished the sultanate and later exiled all Ottoman heirs. He did away with old traditions associated with the empire—men could no longer wear the fez (a hat), nor women the veil. Women were given political and civil rights equal to those of men. Church and state were separated (Spencer, 2003) , and the property of the mosques nationalized.

Universal education and a new law code were introduced. When many of these changes were not accepted by the people, Ataturk assumed unlimited dictatorial powers. After his death in 1938, the premier, Ismet Inonu, was elected president. By the Montreux Cinvention of 1936, Turkey was given the right to fortify the Dardanelles and Bosporus straits. Treaties of alliance were signed with Great Britain and France in 1939. During World War II, Turkey remained neutral until 1944, when it broke relations with Germany (Weiker, 2001). The following year, it declared war on Germany and Japan.

Turkey has been a republic since 1923 as mentioned earlier. Under the constitution to the Third Republic (1982), executive power is vested in the president, legislative power in the National Assembly, and judicial power in independent course. The president (head of state) is chosen by the national Assembly for a seven-year term. He is assisted by a state advisory council, composed of former presidents and military chiefs of staff. From among the national Assembly (Hale, 2001), the president appoints a prime minister (head of government0, who in turn selects the other ministers to form the Council of Ministers (cabinet).

The national Assembly is composed of 450 deputies popularly elected for five-year terms. The president has the power to dissolve the national Assembly and rule under emergency powers. The judicial system consists of civil, administrative, military, and constitutional courts. The regular civil courts include courts of first instance (courts having original jurisdiction), central criminal courts, and commercial courts. The highest tribunal is the court of cassation, which is a court of appeals (Weiker, 2001). Local Government. Turkey is divided into 67 administrative divisions it calls ils, each named for its chief city.

An il is subdivided into ilces, and these in turn into bucaks. At the head of each il are a governor, representing the central government, and an elected council. Military Affairs. Turkey maintains a regular army, navy, and air force. In addition, there is the Jandarma, a rural police force. Military service is compulsory for all men after the age of 20 for a 20-month period. B. Difference of absolute monarchy, constitutional monarchy and republic. Absolute monarchy pertains to the absolute power of the king or queen as the ruler of the country.

The power has bestowed in him/her to do the things he/she wishes to do. On the other hand, constitutional monarchy is under the ruling of the king however it’s accompanied with the constitution. The king or queen cannot decide for himself/herself or make any moves which are not written under the constitution (Bogdanor, 1997). Every decision should be in line in the constitution of the said country. When we say republic, it pertains to a country in which both the head of the state and the members of the legislature are elected directly or indirectly by the people.

Most of the nations of the world today, including the United States and the Soviet Union, are republics. The rest, in most instances, are monarchies, in which the head of the state (a king, queen, or prince) comes into office through inheritance. III. Conclusion In conclusion, many people are not happy under these kinds of monarchies because they don’t see the function of the royal families anymore. People are all feed up and see that monarchies are a way of showing selfishness to power because only the blood line of the king or queen can inherit the throne and not giving a chance to others.

In 1980 in Turkey, after renewed violence between political factions, the armed forces seized control of the government, disbanded parliament, suspended the constitution, and established a ruling junta of military officers. Within two year, the junta achieved political stability and eased some of the coutnry’s economic difficulties.

Reference:

1. Bogdanor, Vernon (1997). The Monarchy and the Constitution. Clarendon Press. : Oxford.
2. Coleman, Francis (2006). Great Britain: the Land and Its People (MacDonald).
3. Crowl, P. A. (2002). The Intelligent Traveler’s Guide to Historic Britain (St.Martin’s Press).
4. Hale, William (2001). The Political and Economic Development of Modern Turkey (St. Martin’s Press).
5. Morgan, K. O. (2004). The oxford Illustrated History of Britain (Oxford University).
6. Randle, John. (2001). Understanding Britain: a History of the British People and Their Culture (Basil Blackwell).
7. Spencer, William (2003). The Land and People of Turkey, revised edition (Harper & Row).
8. Weiker, W. F. (2001). The Modernization of Turkey: from Ataturk to the present Day (Holmes & Meier).
9. Winter, Gordon (2003). The Country Life Picture Book of Britain (Norton

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