POLS 1150 Lecture 15: Week Five
7 Mar 2017
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Document Summary
Written constitutions: constitution is focused and concentrated into a document, ex. Us, canada (bna act, 1867 & constitution act, 1982) Unwritten constitutions: no single document / series of elements that make up the constitution, ex. Britain (magna carta, 1215 & bill of rights, 1689), new zealand. Structure of a typical constitution: preamble, organizational section, delineates the rights that groups or individuals have, mechanisms to amend the constitution. Right at the beginning of the document that talks in general terms using dramatic language of what they hope their constitution will accomplish, the broad principles. How the governing structure will be set up, how often elections will be held, etc. Unitary state is most common political system with 9 out of 10 countries having this system. Have multiple levels of governments, but lower levels are given power by national level government and can be taken away at whim.
