POL214Y1 Study Guide - Intercolonial Railway, Proportional Representation, Representative Democracy
Document Summary
Pol214: summary for cd- chap 5 and er readings 9, 48, 49, 54, 55. Canadian democracy chapter 5: constitution, is the fundamental law of a political system. All other laws must conform to the constitution in terms of how they are made and in terms of their substance. One of these involves the relationship between the state and its citizens. Another involves the distribution of functions and powers between different parts of the state: constitutional government has 3 headings: legislature(making the law), Executive(implementing the law) and the judiciary( interpreting the law): a constitution is then a set of rules that govern political life. These rules take 3 forms: written documents, the decisions ofcourts(common law) or unwritten conventions. Constitutional conventions are thosepractices that emerge over time and are genreally accepted as binding rules of the political system: in canada written documents and the common law- together comprise constitutional law.
