Political Systems in Belgium, Ukraine, Lebanon, Switzerland, Bosnia and Herzegovina - Essay Example

POLITICAL SYSTEMS IN SELECTED COUNTRIES IN EUROPE Belgium political boundary is located in Europe and is a member of the European Union. Most of her people are Flemish speakers. The count of this speaking community is almost 59%. Another language spoken is Walloon whose majority they are French. German language is also a recognized by the state as an official language (Marleen Brans 2013). Belgium was part of a bigger country joined together with Spain, France and Netherlands. During the 1830 Belgian revolution, the present country disintegrated itself from the present United Kingdom and Netherlands. It resulted to the formation of a Belgium kingdom. The revolution was majorly influenced in the basis of religion since the king of Spain had a great Protestants followers and the Belgians were mainly Catholics. Since then, Belgium political life in mainly influenced by religion. Belgium got her independent the same year in October, 1830. The kingdom first ruler was Leopold I who was a Lutheran who came to power in 1831 (Witte 2009). The political power is mainly distributed through the communities. The three communities is bounded by their cultural language they speak. One of them is the Flemish who speaks the Dutch cultural language. Another is a French community who speaks French. The German community also forms a minority Belgium community who speaks German. The political strength is also affected by economic activities of the Belgians. The Flemish is the wealthiest in the kingdom, and they control majority of the economy in Belgium given that most of them have invested in the capital city of Belgium, Brussels. Another region with a heavy investment is the Walloon region. It follows that the economic interest of a community promotes the political activity of the nation (Fitzmaurice 1996). The federal government of Belgium have made several gains both locally and internationally. In the national perspective, the national government is the one who controls the defence, finance, internal security, health, justice and other domestic issues. In the international scene, Belgium holds an EU office. Her political entity is mainly bound by her constitution. Being a member of the EU, her domestic issues are also interfered by her international relations. The country’s major political parties are the Social Conservative whose members are Christians. They are therefore popularly referred as the Democrat Christians. Another political party is a socialist party who mostly look to fight for equality in representation and economic affairs. Another political party is managed by the Right Wing Liberals. This party usually fights for the right of minority in the country. The Prime Minister heads the national government and the Executive. The nation have experienced a good democratic system over the decades. There has been a good democratic field but recently, the existing government was held out due to issues of political and economic concern. For about 535 days, about one and a half years, the nation did not have a legitimate government. The citizens were looking for reforms in the government that would enable an efficient and effective in terms of economic growth. The government is about to be installed as the elections are to be held in 2014. Citizens and the international relations are egger to know the lessons that they can learn from Belgium. Belgium’s political system is so much comparable to other nations such as Ukraine, Switzerland, Lebanon, and Bosnia and Herzegovina (Joel Krieger 2012). Bosnia and Herzegovina have so many similarities with Belgium political system. The country is the ancient territory of former Roman kingdom. The country popularity in the face of the globe is influenced by key leaders. For example between the 15th and the 17th century, it was under Ottoman Empire. Recently, it has been under the Yugoslavian kingdom between 1918 and 1945. The country struggled for independence for about three years where through war, the country got its independence in 1995 from the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia which was the government which replaced the kingdom of Yugoslavia (Ramet 2010). Like Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina is made up of several communities. Bosniaks forms a majority consisting about 48% followed by the Serbs37.1%. Croats and other small tribes consist of about 14.3% and 0.6% respectively. This is according to the CIA data which was conducted on the year 2000. The country’s political system is also influenced by the religion line, the state of Bosnia is a multi-religion state. Muslims religion is the popular consisting about 45%. The Catholics, the Orthodox, the Protestants and other religion forms a bigger contribution in religion. Therefore, the country gives her citizens a freedom of worship. The country’s political system is so much disintegrated (Phillips 2009). The parliament has two houses which are the house of the people and the House of Representatives. To overcome the negative ethnicity, the country’s constitution allows that every tribe from the three major tribes to take an office for eight months. Therefore, the elections are held after every four years and a group of three usually as a team (Eralp 2012). This unique system of governance is comparable with the Belgian’s 535 days without a government. A system of government where one tribe is to lead the country at a time weakens the political field because it is a controlled form of government. Therefore, there are many divisions due to lack of stability. In Belgium, political chaos is a product of the poor economy. Therefore, in both countries there lacks a full realization of democratic rights. The country is a member of the European Union and is an internationally recognized political country. Recently, there have been political protest where the citizens are demanding better leadership that will revive the country’s economy and solve the menace of poverty and unemployment. These are the same issues that the Belgians were looking at when they were protesting over the government of the day. Lebanon is another country in the list with a comparable political system with Belgium. The country’s history can be traced from the 1200 BC. It has been under the leadership of Romans between 64 and 395 BC, and Ottoman between 1516 and 1917. Therefore, the country shares a past political rule with Bosnia and Herzegovina. The country was in the modern rule under a French colony between 1920 and 1943 when it got its full independence. In terms of self-rule, Lebanon is so much younger compared to Belgium. Its population is made up of several ethnicity as well as religious groups. The Arabs are the popular forming about 95% of the total population. The Armenians are the second group with about 4% while other tribes share the remaining 1%. In terms of religion, Muslim is the biggest with a population of 59.7% while christens are about 39%. The rest minor religions is about 1.3%. Official language is Arabic. The international languages like French, English and Armenian are slowly chipping in. Like Belgium, president is the head of the executive and is elected in a democratic election. He acts a symbol of national unity. There is also a parliament that is a house that makes and amends the laws. The parliament is also elected through a democratic process. The political system is so much influenced by the religion rather than the tribes. This is because of the existence of the two major religious groups in an almost equal propositions. They therefore want to influence politics so that each section can manage to benefit from the government in power. To have a united government, a controlled democracy is put in place. The president is always a post of a Maronite Christian. The prime minister who has an almost equal power with the president is served by a Sunni Muslim while the head of parliament is taken by a Shiite Muslim (Salamey 2013). The controlled democracy also goes into the house of legislature where the Christians and the Muslims are guaranteed a 50-50 ratio. The current political issues was a constitutional amendment to ensure that in future, the equal distribution of powers do not change[Oma]. Key figures in Lebanese leadership includes former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri who dominated political power and business in the country. There have been so many challenges in the government such as suicide bombing which are attributed to terrorism (Rolland 2003). Ukraine is another country that has a political background comparable to Belgium. It is a very young nation which got her independent in 1991 from the Russian Empire. The President heads of state while the prime minister heads the government (D'Anieri 2007). The country has experienced hardship in handling its politics since it moved from the USSR (Sharon L. Wolchik 2008). Negative ethnicity have so much influenced political affairs of the nation as well as the economic activities Currently, the country is so much unstable due to the decision to pull out of the European Union and protests against the government is on high. Comparing Belgium with Switzerland, the country’s politics is so much extensive. The executive consists of seven members with the president being elected after a period of five years (McRae 1998). There is a free democracy unlike Belgium where the political system is managed to ensure balance (Christine Trampusch 2011). The recent political issues are the passing of referendum requirements for multinational companies to hire the Swiss nationals in the essence to curb unemployment and eradicate poverty (Skenderovic 2009). References Oma: , (Helwe), Read More