by Alexander Glebow,
Group IX-26,
26th February, 2012
Summary
Constitutional Government
The article “Constitutional Government” written by Joseph Toynbee describes the contemporary political systems that combine constitutionalism and democracy, their importance in modern societies and influence.
Actually, constitutional government is a complex system. There are many state organs that are subjected to reciprocal controls. They need to cooperate in order to carry out a single political course of the country. The main advantage of constitutionalism and democracy is that people are able and have a right to express their own political view by voting during elections.
Moreover, parties are thought to be key institutions in such political systems. Through a party any citizen can express his opinion in accordance with one or another problem and can have an opportunity to contact authorities.
Talking about present-day states we can truly say that the vast majority of all states in the world have constitutions that were written in the twentieth century. This is true of states such as Italy, Germany and Japan. All these countries were defeated during the Second World War. Successor states of the Soviet Union are also worth mentioning.
The oldest nations that inherit constitutions written before the twentieth century are the United States and Great Britain. Britain is taken as the classic example of the parliamentary system. It possesses no written constitution but instead it has statute of law, common law and conventions. Integration of powers is the main principle.
Turning back to the United States we see that their system of government is described as constitutional democracy. In the contrast to Great Britain the US presidential system is based on the doctrine of separation of powers.
In fact, the fame of constitutional democracy was once so high that people thought it would be acceded by all countries. History remembers everything and...