Comparative Analysis between the Government of Qatar and the United States - Essay Example

Comparative Analysis between the Government of Qatar and United s In the government of Qatar, the sovereign head of had all the authority over everyone else, which is to say that his power was unlimited, until later in 2003 that it became a constitutional monarchy. Usually, the monarch is a hereditary seat or is appointed through a well-defined process from the family or group deemed fit to produce the monarch (Long, Reich and Gasiorowski 8). It has been ruled by the Al Thani family and the current Emir is Sheikh Tamam Ibn Hamad Al Thani. Sharia law is their main source of legislation and is a combination of civil law and Islamic law. The American government on the other hand is a federal government or a national government. Powers are distributed among different members of the government such as the judiciary, executive and legislative arm of government, and headed by a president whose powers are defined by the constitution. The president (head of state) is appointed through voting. The powers and duties of the government arms are defined by acts that are inferior to the Supreme Court. The government structure is based on the idea of federalism which holds that power must be shared. The constitution is the main source of legislation. There is not an independent legislature in Qatar and political parties are forbidden. The constitution adopted in 2003 provided room for election of 30-45 members of the council (advisory). The supreme executive authority in the country is the national council consisting of cabinet ministers and prime minister, and the Emir has powers to appoint and remove them from office. This council starts legislation, which is supposed to ensure successful realization of the goals set by any team assigned to evaluate affairs of the country (Long, Reich and Gasiorowski 8). The laws that they propose are passed to the advisory council which discusses them and passes them to the Emir to be ratified. He has the final say on all issues. The three arms of law in the American government each have their well-defined duties so that none of them is completely independent. The president vetoes legislative bills, is the commander in chief of the armed forces, and is responsible to appoint the members of cabinet who enforce laws (Long, Reich and Gasiorowski 8). The judiciary arm appointed by the president with the approval of the senate views laws and proposes those they find unconstitutional to be overturned. The Supreme Court has 9 members who serve for life. The court system is the governments’ way of judging against civil and criminal cases. There are no organizations forging for human rights in Qatar. Decisions concerning the public are not made transparently; the income and expenditure of the state are unknown, there is no information concerning the states investments or transactions, the national debt size is not known or published, the people hear of the deals the government makes with other states but they have no idea what that means and whether it would be of any benefit to them. There is no information about publicly owned assets such as land; they are basically passed along as gifts or tokens of appreciation. In the United States, human rights are greatly valued and embraced. Citizens are encouraged to know their rights so that they can recognize if these rights are denied, and be careful not to traverse other people’s rights. The United States, for most of its history, has had 2 political parties. Elections are carried out after every 5 years and the members of the political parties decide the viable candidate for presidency. The party that wins the elections controls the senate and the House of Representatives. Human Rights: Gender Issues Human rights concept has been one that has existed for a long time. It started when arguments were made to draw a basis for all the members of human kind. However, then not all members enjoyed the privilege as it often put women and slaves aside (Long, Reich and Gasiorowski 8). The rights were drawn from religious documents that argued these rights to be recognized as innate to all as they came from a higher deity. It was not until several years later that a commune of states set forth a declaration of a number of articles of these rights applicable to all humans. Although the set of rights were not binding to different states, they inspired many of them to adopt them. However, despite the numerous efforts to show the universality of these basic rights such that they are not limited by state, race, sex, place of origin or even culture, the rights have proven to be far from universal as in some states, issues such as culture prevent the adoption of these rights, and most often, the woman is denied these rights. As a result, organizations have been formed whose major focus is the rights of women and solve issues of gender based discrimination all over the globe as noted by Long, Reich and Gasiorowski (8). They enforce regulations and reach out to women who are being oppressed as well as helping those who seek them out. Also fights for gender equality have been launched and are being won in different states through the media and technology. Women are being made aware of their rights and given a voice so that they do not just helplessly watch as their rights are trampled. However, it is not everywhere that these uproars are listened to. In some states like the state of Qatar, women are considered inferior to men. This can be seen all through their systems, for example in the legal system whereby the woman’s testimony is considered an equivalent to half that of a man and in some cases, depending on the issues at hand, it is disregarded. The punishment for an immoral woman is way more than that of a similar male counterpart. They are not allowed to take positions of leadership as argued by Long, Reich and Gasiorowski (8). The government of Qatar has no women in the parliament whereas 16.6% of the members of parliament in America are women. In America, the fight for women rights has won more battles. They are considered part of the society and equal to men. It can be evidenced everywhere including in the government. Policies that were deemed oppressive to women are being revised with time and are becoming fairer by day. Women are becoming more and more aware of their rights and more willing to fight for them. Special gender publications are being made in America and seminars to empower women carried out. The efforts for women rights advocacy are proving to be very fruitful and meet minimal resistance from the government. In Qatar though, policies that are so rigid forbid such behavior accompanied by severe punishments for going against them. It is evident that the political state of a government influences the way in which members thereof live. Although recent developments have seen an improvement in terms of human rights and gender issues, they still face many various challenges in application of the set standards by the international body responsible, among them issues of jurisprudence, institutional issues and to the list, government laws (Long, Reich and Gasiorowski 8). Access to justice for these women continues to be hindered by those systems that have been put in place. How the human rights have been put to practice traditionally by the use of states, may have to be ignored when dealing with advocacy of rights of women in states such as Qatar. Work Cited Long, David E, Bernard Reich, and Mark J. Gasiorowski. The Government and Politics of the Middle East and North Africa. Boulder, Colo: Westview Press, 2011. Internet resource. Read More