Seth Warren Heath

Exam 3 Notes

Pol Sc 220

Council of Ministers – The Council of the Union (Council, sometimes referred to as the Council of Ministers) is the European Union's main decision-making institution. It consists of the ministers of the fifteen Member States responsible for the matters on the agenda: foreign affairs, farming, industry, transport or whatever. Despite the existence of these different ministerial compositions depending on the matter in hand, the Council is nonetheless a single institution.

Each country in the Union in turn holds the chair for six months. Decisions are prepared by the Committee of Permanent Representatives of the Member States (Coreper), assisted by working parties of national government officials. The Council is assisted by its General Secretariat.

Following the entry into force of the Treaty of Amsterdam, the Secretary-General acts as High Representative for the common foreign and security policy. He is assisted by a Deputy Secretary-General appointed by unanimous decision of the Council, who is responsible for running the Council's General Secretariat.

Qualified majority voting in the Council now applies to most of the new provisions (incentive measures in employment and social policy, public health and fraud prevention) and for the adoption of the framework programme on research. Some observers feel that qualified majority voting should have been extended further to avoid the risk of stalemate that is always present when decisions are taken unanimously. Given the prospect of the enlargement of the Union, Belgium, France and Italy considered that extension of qualified majority voting was a matter of crucial importance and made a declaration to that effect which is attached to the Final Act of the Intergovernmental Conference. The debate will continue at a new intergovernmental conference that is due to be convened at least one year before the membership of the Union exceeds twenty in order to carry out a comprehensive review of the composition and functioning of the institutions.

European Council – The European Council is the term used to describe the regular meetings of the Heads of State or Government of the European Union Member States. It was set up by the communiqué issued at the close of the December 1974 Paris Summit and first met in 1975 (in Dublin, on 10 and 11 March). Before that time, from 1961 to 1974, the practice had been to hold European summit conferences. Its existence was given legal recognition by the Single European Act, while official status was conferred on it by the Treaty on European Union. It meets at least twice a year and the President of the European Commission attends as a full member. Its objectives are to give the European Union the impetus it needs in order to develop further and to define general policy guidelines.

European Parliament – The European Parliament is the assembly of the representatives of the 370 million Union citizens. Since 1979 they have been elected by direct universal suffrage and today total 626 distributed between Member States by reference to their population. Parliament's main functions are as follows:

It considers the Commission's proposals and is associated with the Council in the legislative process, in some cases as co-legislator, by means of various procedures (co decision procedure, cooperation procedure, assent, advisory opinion etc.);

it has the power of control over the Union's activities through its confirmation of the appointment of the Commission (and the right to censure it) and through the written and oral questions it can put to the Commission and the Council;

it shares budgetary powers with the Council in voting on the annual budget, rendering it enforceable through the President of Parliament's signature, and overseeing its implementation.

It also appoints an Ombudsman empowered to receive complaints from Union citizens concerning maladministration in the activities of the Community institutions or bodies. Finally, it can set up temporary committees of inquiry, whose powers are not confined to examining the actions of the Community institutions but may also relate to actions by Member States in implementing Community policies.

The Treaty of Amsterdam has simplified the various legislative procedures by virtually doing away with the cooperation procedure (it still applies in a few cases coming under the Title on economic and monetary union) and considerably extending the codecision procedure.

In accordance with the Amsterdam Treaty, the number of Members of the European Parliament may not exceed 700. If this ceiling is to be observed after the next enlargement, the principle of degressive proportionality currently used to share out seats between Member States will have to be modified by the 2000 Intergovernmental Conference. The Commission has therefore asked Parliament to draw up a proposal on the subject. The options are an adjustment of the principle currently in use or application of strict proportionality.

Members are elected on national or regional lists according to country. The possibility of a number of Members being elected from European lists is under discussion.

European Commission – The European Commission is a body with powers of initiative, implementation, management and control. It is the guardian of the Treaties and the embodiment of the interests of the Community. It is composed of twenty independent members (two each from France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom and one each from all the other countries), including a President and two Vice-Presidents. It is appointed for a five-year term, by agreement among the Member States, and is subject to a vote of appointment by the European Parliament, to which it is answerable, before it can be sworn in. The Commissioners are assisted by an administration made up of directorates-general and specialized departments whose staff are divided mainly between Brussels and Luxembourg.

In adopting the Treaty of Amsterdam, the Intergovernmental Conference took note, in a declaration, of the Commission's intention to prepare a reorganization of tasks among the Commissioners and at the same time to embark on a corresponding reorganization of its departments.

The new Commission, which took office on 23 January 2000 for a five-year term (until 22 January 2005), has launched wide-ranging reforms in the institution with a view to modernizing its working methods and procedures and ensuring a truly collegiate decision-making process, while delegating more in specific areas (e.g. regional policy). The importance attached by the Commission to reform is reflected in the White Paper adopted on 1 March 2000.

The European Court of Justice (ECJ) is the judicial arm of the EU. Each member country appoints one judge to the court. The ECJ is responsible for the law that the EU establishes for itself and its member states. It also ensures that other EU institutions and the member states conform with the provisions of EU treaties and legislation. The court has no direct links with national courts and no control over how they apply and interpret national law, but it has established that EU law supersedes national law.

Historically, the ECJ has declared both for and against EU institutions and member states. Its assertion that EU law takes precedence over national law, and the fact that there is no appeal against it, have given the ECJ a powerful role in the EU and have on occasion drawn criticism from both national governments and national courts.

Historically the ECJ had a very high caseload, but this was eased in 1989 when the Court of First Instance was created. This court hears certain categories of cases, including those brought by EU officials and cases seeking damages. Rulings by the Court of First Instance may be appealed to the ECJ, but only on points of law.

Reasons for EU entry – The primary reason that countries want to enter into the EU is for economic reasons.

Treaty of Rome – The 1957 Treaty of Rome - signed by France, Germany, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg - established the European Economic Community. Along with the Paris and Euratom treaties it is one of the foundation stones of the European Community. Often referred to simply as the Treaty, it has been amended several times to take account of new member states joining the EEC. Most recently it has been updated by the Maastricht, Amsterdam and Nice Treaties. Once a treaty has been signed, it must be ratified by all the member states before it comes into force.

Member States of the EU – Ireland, United Kingdom, France, Portugal, Spain, Italy, Greece, Austria, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Finland.

Supranational – When people that are members of higher office in the EU are supposed to look at what is best for the EU and not for their native country.

Euro – Euro notes and coins came into circulation on 1 January 2002 and, after a brief period with old and new in use side-by-side, national notes and coins were withdrawn. A month after the introduction of the new currency more than 95% of cash transactions were being made in euros. The euro area currently comprises 12 EU member states: Belgium, Germany, Greece, Spain, France, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Austria, Portugal and Finland.

Democratic deficit – The democratic deficit is a concept invoked principally in the argument that the European Union suffers from a lack of democracy and is becoming remote from the ordinary citizen because its method of operating is so complex. The view is that the Community institutional set-up is dominated by an institution combining legislative and government powers (the Council) and an institution that lacks democratic legitimacy (the Commission - even though its Members are appointed by the Member States, subject to a vote of approval by the European Parliament, and collectively accountable to Parliament).

The view that the Community suffers from a democratic deficit should diminish after the entry into force of the Treaty of Amsterdam, which provides for an extension of the European Parliament's powers and a regular supply of information to national parliaments. The Treaty also states that it "marks a new stage in the process of creating an ever closer union among the peoples of Europe, in which decisions are taken as openly as possible and as closely as possible to the citizen".

European Agriculture Policy – Common Agricultural Policy (CAP)The CAP supports agriculture in EU member countries. Some EU members complain that the CAP is too expensive, but the countries that receive the largest percentage of CAP funds are reluctant to agree to reform. The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) was established by the 1957 Rome treaty that created the European Economic Community. The policy reflected the contemporary belief in the economic importance of agriculture. Memories of the economic hardships that followed the two world wars led the EEC founders to believe that member states should be able to feed their populations from their own resources.

The CAP was intended to stabilize agricultural markets, improve productivity, and ensure a fair deal for both farmers and consumers. It has three major elements: a single market for agricultural products with a system of common prices to producers across the EU; preference for EU producers through a common levy on all agricultural imports from abroad; and shared financial responsibility for guaranteeing prices.

Macarthur – under the guidance of U.S. general Douglas Macarthur, the supreme commander for the Allied powers, the Japanese were subjected to the most sweeping program of reform they had experienced since the Meiji Restoration.

Mixed-member proportionality – Mixed Member Proportional (MMP) systems, as used in Germany (see Germany: The Original Mixed Member Proportional System), New Zealand (see New Zealand: A Westminster Democracy Switches to PR), Bolivia (see Bolivia: Electoral Reform in Latin America), Italy, Mexico, Venezuela, and Hungary, attempt to combine the positive attributes of both majoritarian and Proportional Representation (PR) electoral systems. A proportion of the parliament (roughly half in the cases of Germany, Bolivia, and Venezuela) is elected by plurality-majority methods, usually from single-member districts, while the remainder is constituted by PR lists. This structure might on the surface appear similar to that of the Parallel systems described earlier; but the crucial distinction is that under MMP the list PR seats compensate for any disproportionality produced by the district seat results. For example, if one party wins ten percent of the national votes but no district seats, then they would be awarded enough seats from the PR lists to bring their representation up to approximately ten percent of the parliament.

In all but one of the seven countries using MMP, district seats are elected using FPTP, while Hungary uses the Two-Round system previously described. Italy's method is considerably more complicated, with one-quarter of the parliamentary seats being reserved to compensate for wasted votes in the single-member districts. In Venezuela there are 102 FPTP seats, 87 National List PR seats and 15 extra compensatory PR seats. In Mexico 200 List PR seats compensate for the usually high imbalances in the results of the 300 FPTP seats, but an extra provision states that no single party can win more than 315 parliamentary seats, and if they receive less than sixty percent of the vote the maximum becomes 300 seats.

House of Representatives – House of Councilors – Japan's legislature, the National Diet, comprises two houses-a lower House of Representatives and an upper House of Councillors. Under the electoral system that came into effect in January 1994, the House of Representatives has 500 members, 300 of whom are elected in single-member districts (geographical areas that each have one representative). The remaining 200 are elected by proportional representation from a list of candidates selected by the political parties. The maximum term of office for representatives is four years. Their term may be shorter, however, if the prime minister or members of the House of Representatives decide to dissolve the house before the term is up in order to hold a general election. The House of Councillors has 252 members, of whom 100 are elected by proportional representation from a national constituency and 152 are elected from Japan's 47 prefectures. Councillors' term of office is six years, with one-half of the members elected every three years. The upper house is not subject to dissolution.

A bill becomes law if a majority in each house approves it. However, if a bill does not receive upper-house approval, it can still be passed into law if two-thirds of the lower house approve it on a second vote. If the upper and lower houses disagree over approval of the budget, the selection of the prime minister, or adoption of treaties with foreign countries, the decision of the lower house becomes law after 30 days without a second vote. For this reason the House of Representatives is the more powerful of the two bodies.

Single Non Transferable Vote – Many political analysts believed that Japan's pre-1994 electoral system contributed to the strength of factions. From 1925 to 1994 voters elected Diet members from medium-sized, multimember districts (geographical areas that have more than one representative). Most parties put forward candidates for more than one of the available seats, but each voter could vote for only one candidate. Under this system it was possible for a single popular candidate to win such a large percentage of the vote that the party's remaining candidates might lose to minority party candidates. In this case, the number of seats the party controlled in the Diet would not reflect its popular support within the district. Parties were thus forced to organize intensively at the local level during elections in order to encourage voters to distribute their votes evenly among the party's candidates. Furthermore, in order to win votes, candidates had to distinguish themselves from their party's other candidates, often by developing a personal following, or faction. Although the system was thought to ensure greater representation for minority parties, the cost of local organization and factionalism was great.

In 1994 the Diet adopted a number of electoral reforms. These included restrictions on the fundraising activities of individual politicians and the introduction of a mixed system of single-member electoral districts and proportional representation. The reforms give the party power, at the expense of factions, over political candidates. The effect of the reforms on factions nevertheless remains uncertain. The turmoil of party politics since the early 1990s largely reflects the instability of factions, rather than that of parties or politicians. Many of the newly created conservative parties were factions within the LDP before 1993. Since then they have been reconstituted as separate political parties. These parties continuously change and realign themselves, but they are dominated by a relatively constant group of leaders.

Decent from Heaven – In Japan this is the term that is used to describe the transition that some people make from the Bureaucracy to Private Industry.

Nanking – Where atrocities where committed by the Japanese during WWII.

Factions – Japanese politics have long been characterized by strong political factions. During the years of LDP dominance, many observers felt that political competition among the LDP factions was more significant than that among the different parties. Factions have been accused of creating negative effects such as raising the cost of elections, fostering influence-peddling, and promoting individual politicians rather than beneficial public policies.

LDP – The conservative political parties, which became unified as the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) in 1955, favored close ties with the United States. They supported limited rearmament but hoped to revise the security treaty to provide for greater equality between the two countries.

Emperor – Japan is a parliamentary democracy. An emperor acts as functional head of state, although his official status under the constitution is the "symbol" of the Japanese nation and its people. Japan is a unitary state, in which the authority of the central government is superior to that of the country's prefectural governments. However, Japan's 47 prefectures and several thousand city, town, and village governments enjoy a significant degree of autonomy over local affairs.

Koizumi – Prime Minister of Japan now. (2002)

Article 9 – the most radical article of the new constitution was Article 9, under which Japan renounced war and the use of force to settle international disputes, and pledged not to maintain land, sea, or air forces to that end. Although this "peace constitution" was originally drafted in English by American occupation officials, it was debated and ratified by the Japanese Diet.

MITI – Government influence over private business decisions also continued in an indirect manner. In the high-growth era, the government guided the economy through clear laws and powers, such as the open import restrictions of the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) or the official list of favored industries for bank loans of the Ministry of Finance (MOF). In recent decades, ministries have tended to use informal "administrative guidance" (gyôsei shidô) instead. This guidance takes the form of suggestions or directives that do not have the force of law. Businesses generally comply voluntarily with administrative guidance; if they do not, ministries may punish them indirectly by enforcing unrelated regulations. MITI used administrative guidance in the 1980s to encourage Japanese auto manufacturers to cooperate with voluntary export restrictions requested by the United States. The effectiveness of administrative guidance varies widely from industry to industry. In general, its power has diminished over time.

Japanese Executive – Executive power in Japan is vested in a cabinet, headed by a prime minister. The prime minister is elected by the Diet and typically is the leader of the majority party in the Diet. The prime minister has the power to appoint and dismiss other cabinet members. If the Diet passes a vote of no confidence, the prime minister must either resign or dissolve the lower house of the Diet and hold a new general election in hopes of winning majority support in the legislature. In addition to the prime minister, the cabinet consists of the heads of 12 ministries and the directors of 9 administrative agencies.

Japanese Miracle – The change to democracy and the incredible success that it has had economically.

PM in Canada – The executive head of government is the prime minister, the leader of the party in control of Parliament. Canada's parliamentary system is modeled on that of Britain, where the prime minister must be elected from a local riding like any other member of the House of Commons. The prime minister derives his or her executive position by being head of the party, which in nearly all cases votes as a bloc. This is unlike the American system, for example, where the chief executive (the president) is elected separately. In cases where no one party has a majority in Commons, the governor-general chooses the leader most likely to win support from other parties. If a prime minister resigns as leader of the party before an election, the new party leader automatically becomes prime minister until an election can be held.

Quebec – The Conservative Party dominated Québec politics from 1867 to 1897. Subsequently, the Liberal Party was in power continuously from 1897 to 1936. For the next 40 years the Liberal Party alternated as majority party with the Union Nationale, a party of French Canadians. From 1976 to 1985 the Parti Québécois (PQ), another French Canadian party, held office. The Liberal Party was returned to office in 1985. In 1990 several members of Canada's parliament broke with the established parties to form the separatist Bloc Québécois as a counterpart to the PQ. It quickly became a political force both in regional and national politics.

Governor General (Canada) – The head of state is the monarch of Britain. The monarch is represented in Canada by the governor-general, who has no political power.

Provinces – Canada comprises ten provinces, each with a separate legislature and administration. The government of each province is similar in structure and function to that of the national government. The monarch is represented in each province by a lieutenant governor, who is appointed by the governor-general on the recommendation of the prime minister. The functions of the lieutenant governor, like those of the governor-general, are primarily ceremonial. Each province except Québec has a unicameral, or single-chamber, legislature, called the legislative or provincial assembly. It is elected at least once every five years but may be dissolved at any time. The provincial legislature functions in much the same way as the House of Commons. Québec has a bicameral, or two-chamber, legislature called the National Assembly. Québec's appointed upper house, called a legislative council, is similar to the federal Senate.

Equalization – A clause in the Canadian constitution that provides for transfer payments from richer to poorer states.

Senate – The members of the Senate are appointed, nominally by the governor-general but in effect by the prime minister. Once appointed, a senator may stay in office until age 75. Appointment to the Senate is considered an honor and is frequently granted for political service in the national or provincial government. To be appointed, a senator must own a certain amount of property, be over the age of 30, and reside in the province he or she represents.

Senators are appointed on the principle of regional representation. There is a total of 104, but four more or eight more can be added under exceptional circumstances as long as they are drawn equally from Québec, Ontario, the Maritimes, and the western provinces.

The Canadian Senate is more closely related in function to the British House of Lords than to the U.S. Senate. It has the power to initiate legislation, except for finance bills, but mainly acts as the chamber of "sober second thought," scrutinizing the legislation initiated in the House of Commons. It has the right to amend or delay passage of bills passed by Commons. It also has the power to veto bills but rarely exercises it. Another important function of the Senate is the Special Senate Committee, through which social and economic issues important to the country are thoroughly investigated, often leading to changes in government policy.

House of Commons – Members of Commons are directly elected by the Canadian voters. There is no uniform interval between national, or general, elections, but by law they must be held at least once every five years. Each province and territory is divided into ridings, and each riding elects one member. The total number of seats is reapportioned periodically on the basis of the national census. Each riding contains, on the average, about 100,000 voters. The reapportionment after the census of 1996 fixed the membership at 301. Ontario has 103 members, Québec 75, British Columbia 34, Alberta 26, Saskatchewan 14, Manitoba 14, Nova Scotia 11, New Brunswick 10, Newfoundland and Labrador 7, Prince Edward Island 4, Northwest Territories 1, Nunavut 1, and Yukon Territory 1. When a seat becomes vacant between general elections, a by-election is held in that riding to fill that seat.

To qualify for election to the House of Commons, a candidate must be a Canadian citizen and at least 18 years of age. But, unless running as an independent, a candidate must go through a nomination process at the party level first. A candidate or member does not have to live in the riding he or she represents, but most do.

In practice, Commons is the key legislative branch, where most important bills are introduced; all money bills must originate in Commons. The prime minister and most of the cabinet are members of Commons. Tradition decrees that if a government loses the support of a majority of Commons, it must surrender power or call a general election. Therefore, members of the party in power rarely vote against government policies. Dissent within the party is expressed in private meetings or party caucuses, but the party usually presents a solid front in Parliament.

All political parties in the House of Commons that do not support the government are known collectively as the opposition. The minority party with the most seats in Commons is known as the Official Opposition and has special privileges. The leader of the Official Opposition is one of the most important and visible figures in the House of Commons. In the Canadian parliamentary system it is the duty of the opposition to oppose the party in power. Government programs and bills submitted to Parliament are subject to close scrutiny and criticism by members of the opposition. The prime minister and his cabinet must be ready at all times to explain and defend the government's program or actions to the opposition.

Royal Commissions – Set up to resolve policy problems.

Liberal Party (Canada) – one of Canada's two main political parties. The Liberals have dominated Canadian national politics for much of the 20th century, thus earning their nickname of "the government party." The party grew out of several reform groups that arose in the early 19th century in the legislatures of the then British colonies of largely French-speaking Lower Canada (now Québec province) and English-speaking Upper Canada (now Ontario province). Prior to the 1840s, the chief reform that these groups sought was responsible government. This meant government by elected bodies, as opposed to government by a governor and council who were appointed in Britain and who could not be turned out of office by Canadian voters. More broadly, the reformers opposed traditional antidemocratic sources of authority.

Canadian Cleavages – These cleavages are largely geographic and economic in nature.

BJP – Bharatiya Janata (Indian People's) Party (BJP), which promotes Hindu nationalism and supports socialistic economic goals. The BJP became the largest single party in the Lok Sabha in 1996 and retained that position in the 1998 elections. The party's main supporters tend to be middle-class Hindu voters, who see the BJP as having greater discipline and integrity than the Congress or Janata Dal parties.

Health policy – In 1979 a federal government study found that doctors in some provinces were charging patients an extra fee to supplement the amount they were paid by the government plan. The study determined that these supplemental user fees had created an unequal system that threatened to limit access to health care for low-income citizens. The Canadian Parliament responded to these concerns by passing the Canada Health Act in 1984. This legislation reaffirmed the government's commitment to a universal, comprehensive, and publicly administered health insurance system. Today, the Canada Health Act continues to define the central principles of the Canadian health care system.

President – The head of state of India is the president. The role of president, modeled on the British constitutional monarch, is largely nominal and ceremonial. Most powers assigned to the president are exercised under direction of the cabinet. The president's major political responsibility is to select the prime minister, although that choice is circumscribed by a constantly evolving set of conventions (for example, that the leader of the party with the largest number of seats in parliament should be given the first opportunity to form a government).

The president is elected for a five-year term by an electoral college consisting of the elected members of the national and state legislatures. The president is eligible for successive terms. The vice president is elected in the same manner as the president and assumes the role of the president if the president is incapacitated or otherwise unable to perform his or her duties.

Congress – Indian National Congress, political party that led the struggle for India's independence and later dominated the country's government. Founded in 1885, the Congress originally advocated limited democratic reforms under British rule. Beginning in 1905, it called for swaraj, or self-government, and in 1920 it adopted the strategy of nonviolent resistance to the British devised by Mohandas K. Gandhi. By 1929, led by Jawaharlal Nehru, the Congress was demanding total independence. During World War II it refused to support the British war effort, launching instead a "Quit India" campaign that led to violent confrontations and prison terms for nearly 60,000 of its supporters. After India gained independence, in 1947, the Congress controlled the central government and most of the Indian state governments for 20 years. In 1955 it adopted a program of democratic socialism. The party split in 1969, but the dominant faction (the New Congress Party) remained in office under Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. Voted out in 1977, it again split. Gandhi's Congress (I) Party (I for Indira) regained power in 1980, holding it until 1989, and then again from 1991 to 1996. Corruption allegations plagued the party in the mid-1990s, contributing to a loss of power in 1996.

Castes – Caste (social), rigid social system in which a social hierarchy is maintained generation after generation and allows little mobility out of the position to which a person is born. The term is often applied to the hierarchical hereditary divisions established among the Hindus on the Indian subcontinent (see India: The People of India). The word caste was first used by 16th-century Portuguese traders; it is derived from the Portuguese casta, denoting family strain, breed, or race. The Sanskrit word is jati. The Sanskrit term varna denotes a group of jati, or the system of caste.

Untouchables – entirely outside the social order and limited to doing the most menial and unappealing tasks-were those people of no caste, formerly known as Untouchables. (In the 1930s Indian nationalist leader Mohandas Gandhi applied the term Harijans, or "children of God," to this group.) The Untouchables were the Dravidians, the aboriginal inhabitants of India, to whose ranks from time to time were added the pariahs, or outcasts, people expelled for religious or social sins from the classes into which they had been born.

House of the people – Council of States –The constitution vests national legislative power in a parliament of two houses: the Lok Sabha (House of the People), the lower house, and the Rajya Sabha (Council of States), the upper house. The Lok Sabha consists of 545 members directly elected by universal adult suffrage, except for two members who are appointed by the president to represent the Anglo-Indian community. The number of seats allocated to each state and union territory is proportional to its population. The term of the Lok Sabha is limited to five years, but the president may dissolve the house upon the advice of the prime minister, or upon defeat of major legislation proposed by the government. A provision of the constitution that was intended to expire after ten years, but which has been consistently extended, allocates reserved seats to the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes in proportion to their share of the population.

Members of the Rajya Sabha are elected by the members of the state legislative assemblies, except for 12 presidential appointees who have special knowledge or practical experience in literature, the arts, science, or social services. The elected members are chosen by a system of proportional representation for a six-year term; one-third of the Rajya Sabha is chosen every two years. A two-thirds majority is required for some constitutional amendments to pass; some amendments also require ratification by one-half of the states.

India – The Republic of India is a federal republic, governed under a constitution and incorporating various features of the constitutional systems of United Kingdom, the United States, and other democracies. The power of the government is separated into three branches: executive, parliament, and a judiciary headed by a Supreme Court. Like the United States, India is a union of states, but its federalism is slightly different. The central government has power over the states, including the power to redraw state boundaries, but the states, many of which have large populations sharing a common language, culture, and history, have an identity that is in some ways more significant than that of the country as a whole.

Gandhi, Indira Priyadarshini (1917-1984), Indian politician, who served as prime minister of India from 1966 to 1977 and from 1980 to 1984. Gandhi's controversial political career ended when she was assassinated by Sikh extremists.

Nehru – A charismatic nationalist leader, Jawaharlal Nehru fought for Indian independence from British rule for nearly three decades beginning in the late 1910s. He was deeply involved in the political opposition and was imprisoned numerous times for civil disobedience. The nationalist movement achieved its goal when India gained its freedom at midnight on August 14, 1947. Upon Britain's withdrawal, Nehru became independent India's first prime minister.

Missing Women – The cultural and economic reasons the suggest why there is such a large disparity between the female population numbers in India compared to that of other nations in the world.

Dominant Party – The Congress party has led India up until the mid 90’s at which time allegations of corruption were made.

British Raj – The British imperial rule of India until August 14, 1947.

Paradoxes of Indian Democracy – The anomalism of poverty and democracy and a poor country that has a civilian led military.