INSTITUTIONS-
The British political system vs The Italian political system
INSTITUTIONS- The British
political system vs The Italian political system
The United Kingdom is a
constitutional monarchy and parliamentary democracy.
Up until the Second World War, Italy was ruled by
kings. But in June 1946, Italians voted to abolish the monarchy in a
referendum, and the country became a democratic republic.
Thus, Italy is today a
parliamentary, democratic Republic.
The UK has no written
constitution: the Constitution is made up of common law (laws established through court
judgments) and legislation (laws passed by the legislature,
parliamentary conventions: there is no single document
that can be classed as the British Constitution.
The Italian Republic, on the
contrary, has a written Constitution which is composed of 139 articles and came into force on 1
January 1948.
In the UK the King is the
head of the state: he is a hereditary member of the Royal family but he has
very few formal powers.
The President of the Italian
Republic represents the unity of the nation and has ceremonial duties. He is elected by the two chambers of
Parliament in joint session for a period of seven years at the end of which he
can be re-elected. He appoints the Prime Minister. He must be a native-born
Italian citizen at least 50 years old.
Both, the queen and our
President, are the commander-in-chief of the armed forces.
Both English and Italian
Parliaments have a Bicameral system.
The English Parliament is
divided into the House of Commons with 650 members and the House of Lords with about
800 members.
The Italian Parliament is
divided into the Chamber of Deputies with 400 members and the Senate of the
Republic with 200 members.
The Italian Chamber of Deputies currently consists of 400 members.
This composition came into effect with the beginning of the 19th Legislature, on October 13, 2022, following the approval of Constitutional Law No. 1/2020 in the 2020 constitutional referendum.
This law reduced the number of deputies from 630 to 400, and the number of senators from 315 to 200.
The reduction in the number of parliamentarians was intended to streamline and improve the efficiency of the legislative assembly. However, it’s important to note that the number of deputies elected abroad remained unchanged at 8, as established by Article 56 of the Italian Constitution.
The main functions of English Parliament
are: to pass law, to vote taxation, to discuss important political issues, to
control the government.
The House of Lords has a
limited power, because its members are not elected by people but they are
either hereditary or appointed for life by the sovereign on the advice of the
Prime Minister (Life Peers). The members are divided into Lords Temporal
(Hereditary Peers and Life Peers) and Lords Spiritual (Archbishops and Senior
Bishops). They examine and revise bills from the House of Commons. The majority are life
peers.There is no upper limit on the total number of members.
As of May 2025, the House of Lords in the United Kingdom comprises approximately 804 eligible members.
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691 life peers: appointed for their lifetime by the monarch on the advice of the Prime Minister or the House of Lords Appointments Commission.
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88 excepted hereditary peers: remaining from the 1999 reform, who retain their seats through elections within the House.
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25 bishops: senior members of the Church of England, known as the Lords Spiritual.
The House of Lords does not have a fixed upper limit on membership, and its size can fluctuate due to new appointments, retirements, or deaths. Recent discussions have focused on reforming the House, including proposals to eliminate all hereditary peers and introduce a mandatory retirement age for members .
Any British, Irish or Commonwealth citizen who is a UK resident and taxpayer over 21 is eligible to be nominated or can apply to become a member.
The members of the House of
Commons are elected by universal adult suffrage. General elections are held
every five years. The UK is divided into 650 areas called
constituencies. The candidate who gets the most votes in each constituency
becomes the MP for that area until the next election.The leader of the party that wins most seats at a general election is
invited by the Queen to form the Government.
Most MPs are members of one of the three main
political parties in the UK - Labour, Conservative and Liberal Democrats. Other
MPs represent smaller parties or are independent of a political party.
The Government is the center
of the executive. The head of the Government is the Prime Minister who is
appointed by the King in England.
Keir Starmer is a British politician who has been serving as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom since July 5, 2024, following a significant Labour Party victory in the general election.
The Cabinet is a coalition
government and they meet at 10 Downing
Street. Government departments are the main instruments for giving effect to
government policy. The principal departments are the Treasury, the Foreign
Office and the Home Office.
The Judicial power is
exercised by the Law Courts, which are divided into Criminal Courts and Civil
Courts.
In Italy, there are three
branches of power in Italy: executive, legislative, and juridical.
The legislative is vested in
the two houses- the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate, which can introduce
bills and holds the majority in the Parliament.
The executive power is in the
hands of the Council of the Ministers, presided over by the President of the
Council - more commonly known as the Prime Minister (officially referred to as
President of the Council).
Giorgia Meloni is the Italian politician who has been serving as the Prime Minister of Italy since October 22, 2022, becoming the first woman to hold the office. She is the leader of the Brothers of Italy (Fratelli d’Italia, FdI) party, a right-wing nationalist party she co-founded in 2012 and has led since 2014.
The ministers are responsible for executing laws and
other political decisions. This is usually done by presenting bills to
parliament, but can also be done by passing decrees - this happens in cases of
urgency, or if parliament gives the council the authority to do so.
The judiciary is independent
of the executive and the legislative branches.It is headed by the High Council
of Judiciary.
The Chamber of Deputies is
elected by direct and universal suffrage by voters who are 18. All voters who
are 25 are eligible to be deputies.
The Senate is elected by
direct and universal suffrage by voters who are 25.
All voters who are 40 on the election
day are eligible to be senators.
There
is a small number of senators for life, appointed "for
outstanding merits in the social, scientific, artistic or literary field"
- and there are also the former
Presidents of the Republic, who are ex officio life senators.
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