Look through text 3 and say what the main difference between confederation and federation is.

Text 3

CONFEDERATION

Switzerland is considered by many to be the most democratic country in the world. It is also one of the world's most successful na­tions in economic terms. The Swiss people have the highest per-capita incomes in the world, and Switzerland is consistently rated among the top ten nations in terms of quality of life.

The key to Swiss success is not to be found in natural resources (which are in extremely short supply); nor does it lie in the tempera­ment of its 6.4 million people, who are essentially no different from the Germans, Italians and French in the remainder of Europe. It lies rather in Switzerland's political institutions, which ensure that ordi­nary citizens are involved in political decision-making, and that no one interest group is able to benefit unduly at the expense of another.

Switzerland is small – about one quarter the size of the US State of Ohio – and it is divided into 26 areas called cantons. The cantons are comprised of approximately 3000 communes.

The matters of common interest include foreign policy, national defense, federal railways and the mint. All other issues – education, labor, economic and welfare policies and so on – are determined by the governments of the cantons and communes. Each canton has its own parliament and constitution and they differ substantially from one another. The communes, which vary in size from a few hundred to more than a million people, also have their own legislative and ex­ecutive councils. The cantonal and communal governments are elect­ed by the citizens resident in their areas of jurisdiction.

A central or federal government links the cantons into one uni­fied country, but this central government controls only those affairs which are of interest to all the cantons. The Swiss Government con­sists of the seven members of the Federal Council who are elected by the United Federal Assembly (the Parliament) for a four-year man­date. The President of the Swiss Confederation is elected for one year and is regarded as Primus inter pares, or first among equals, for this period. She leads the meetings of the Federal Council and undertakes special representational duties. In 2007 this office is held by Micheline Calmy-Rey.

The national parliament consists of two houses: the popular house, which is elected by proportional representation under a system of free lists which allows all shades of political opinion to be ex­pressed; and the Council of States, which has two representatives from each canton and one from each half-canton, is elected in most cases by a simple majority.

Four political parties dominate the central government. None has a clear majority in either house and they are all represented in the cabinet (the national executive). Instead of the adversarial system com­mon to many democracies, Swiss political groups have to work to­gether to achieve consensus. A different president is elected by mem­bers of the central government every year.

The federal government's jurisdiction is limited to those areas specified in the constitution. Once approved by both houses, new leg­islation is also subject to approval by the people in an optional refer­endum. The citizens have a six-month period during which a referen­dum can be called by any individual or group able to obtain 50,000 signatures on a petition. If the proposed legislation is rejected by a sim­ple majority vote, it falls away.

Notes:

per-capita income	- доход на душу населения
unduly	- чрезмерно
canton	- кантон
commune	- коммуна
mint	- выпуск денег
the United Federal Assembly	- Объединенная Федеральная Ассамблея
the popular house	- Национальныйсовет
the Council of States	- Советкантонов

 

12. Answer the questions:

1) Where can the key to Swiss success be found?

2) How many cantons (communes) is Switzerland divided into?

3) What issues are determined by cantons(communes)?

4) What are cantons (communes) governed by?

5) What affairs does the central government control?

6) How many members does the Swiss Government consist of?

7) How many years is the President of Swiss Confederation elected for?

8) What does the national parliament consist of?

9) What is new legislation subject to?

10) When does the proposed legislation fall away?

 

It's interesting to know

· Read and render into English (Russian).

Aristotle

In his book Politics, the Greek philosopher Aristotle asserted that man is, by nature, a political animal. He argued that ethics and poli­tics are closely linked, and that a truly ethical life can only be lived by someone who participates in politics.

Like Plato, Aristotle identified a number of different forms of gov­ernment, and argued that each «correct» form of government may devolve into a «deviant» form of government, in which its institutions were corrupted.According to Aristotle, kingship, with one ruler, de­volves into tyranny; aristocracy, with a small group of rulers, devolves into oligarchy; and polity, with collective rule by many citizens, de­volves into democracy. In this sense, Aristotle does not use the word «democracy» in its modern sense, carrying positive connotations, but In its literal sense of rule by the demos, or common people.

 

ТЕМА № 21. CIVIL SERVICE

Word List

devastating	огромный, поразительный, уничтожающий
unchallenged	не вызывающий возражения
merit	заслуга
non-partisan	внепартийный, беспартийный; беспристрастный
probity	честность, неподкупность
propriety	соблюдение норм поведения и морали
framework	структура, строение; рамки
to codify	систематизировать
ethos	характер, преобладающая черта, дух
to underpin	поддерживать, подкреплять
implicit	подразумевающий, имплицитный, скрытый
explicit	ясный, точный, подробный
Assumption	предположение
diligent	прилежный, старательный, исполнительный
advancement	продвижение
gifted	способный, талантливый
amateur	непрофессионал, любитель
to call for	нуждаться, требоваться
to herald	уведомлять, извещать, объявлять
incarnation	воплощение, олицетворение
landmark	веха, поворотный пункт, ориентир
to take shape	формироваться
hierarchy	иерархия
grade	ранг
gross-cutting	комплексный
to tackle	пытаться найти решение каких-л. вопросов
senior	вышестоящий, главный, стоящий рангом выше
agenda	план мероприятий, программа работы; повестка дня на собрании
to set out	излагать
devolution	передача или переход (прав, власти, обязанностей, имущества и т.п.)
delegation	делегирование, передача полномочий, функций
aspiration	сильное желание, стремление
to challenge	ставить под вопрос, оспаривать, призывать к рассмотрению
red tape	волокита, бюрократизм
incentive	поощрения (материальные)
reward	премия, вознаграждение
to empower	давать (официальное) разрешение; помогать, оказывать поддержку; уполномочивать
Cabinet Secretary	секретарь кабинета (государственный служащий высокого ранга, Великобритания)
joined up	непредвзятый; с широким видением проблемы
core	основной, центральный
competence	способность, данные, знания

 

Text 1

CIVIL SERVICE

In the UK, the term «civil service» describes those working for lite central organs of government–an analogy in Russia would be Federal Ministries, Committees and agencies. It includes 300,000 staff working in local and regional offices of those organizations, but ex­cludes, for example, local government workers, the health service, fife service, police, etc.

The UK Civil Service has a long tradition, dating back to the re­forms that followed from a devastating critique of Civil Service practices published in 1854. Since then, a number of guiding principles have remained unchanged (if not, perhaps, unchallenged) to this day. These include:

· fair and open competition for jobs on the basis of merit;

· a largely career-based, «permanent» civil service giving honest, impartial and non-political (i.e. non-partisan) advice to the Government of whatever party happens to be in power;

· high standards of probity and propriety in all professional ac­tivities.

Secondly, there are also some key features of the British State that have shaped the face of the Civil Service.

· The UK has long been a unitary state with power residing cen­trally in the Westminster Parliament. This remains true, al­though there is now some limited devolution to regional juris­dictions (the Scottish Parliament, National Assembly for Wales and Northern Ireland Assembly).

· The «first past the post» electoral system means that two main parties dominate politics,- with the party in government being usually able to develop and push through its own programs, including administrative reform.

· There is no codified, written constitution and a minimal fra­mework of administrative law – most of the (significant) transformation of the Civil Service in the 1980s was achieved without recourse to law, and by Ministers and civil servants acting within their existing powers.

· The UK has a strong civil society and private sector–Thiopened up the possibility of privatization of State resources in a way which is not always a valid or realistic option for countries with less developed, non-State sectors.

For the first 30 years after World War II, the UK Civil Service grew considerably in numbers but changed little in culture. In its rather cozy and protected world, the service continued to be monolithic with a prevailing ethos that–with the exception of some special services–all functions could be organized in more-or-less the saw way. There was a general understanding about what the «rules» were underpinned by an implicit assumption that civil servants, by definition, acted in the public interest and not in their own private, per sonal interests.

For most, the civil service offered a career for life. For the han working and diligent, advancement came (eventually). The primar function of most senior grades was to provide policy advice to Ministers, and this was still seen as a civil service monopoly.

By the 1960s, however, there was widespread concern about Briiain's changing place in the world and the uncompetitiveness of in economy. In 1968 the Fulton Report addressed this perceived skill deficit, seeking to replace the more intuitive judgments of the sc called «gifted amateur» with harder managerial and technical skills The report called for:

· more professional Civil Service, challenging the role of the gifted amateur;

· modern a managerial skills;

· senior levels more open to talent from the lower ranks an from the outside.

Heralded as radical at the time, the Fulton Report ultimatel failed to remodel the civil service in any significant way. It did, however, disturb the status quo and left institutional landmarks in the shape of a new Civil Service Department to handle pay and improve personnel management, and the first incarnation of the Civil Service College.

The concept of «New Public Management» began to take shape The impact on the Civil Service was stark. In the period from 1976 ь 1999:

· The number of civil servants reduced by 40% – from 751,000 (working in monolithic departments, with their main focus on policy advice to Ministers) to 460,000. 78% of these worked in 138 new Executive Agencies and equivalents, managed by «con­tract» with their Departments and focusing on service delivery;

· The old uniform departmental hierarchies–with 15 general grades from permanent secretary (the highest) to clerical as­sistant (the lowest)–had been abandoned. A new Senior Civil Service was formed from the top 5 grades and career-managed from the centre. All other pay and grading was decentralized to Departments and agencies, and the central Civil Service Department had been abolished.

· Many services had been privatized altogether (for example IT).

In efficiency and cost reduction terms, the reforms were a success, httt there were some critical weaknesses. In particular:

· Reforms concentrated on management issues but neglected policy advice.

· The strong focus on efficiency and targets for individual or­ganizations meant that «cross-cutting» policy issues were harder to tackle.

Since taking power in 1997, the New Labour government has built on the previous government's management reforms, not abandoned them. The new government's policy for the future civil service was first set out in a policy «White Paper»–Modernizing Government (March 1999). The paper had three aims:

· Ensure policy making is more joined up and strategic. This has involved strengthening the strategic capability at the Centre of government.

· Make public service users the focus, by matching services more closely to people's lives. This has focused on arranging the de­livery of services in ways that make sense to the citizen, rather than being driven by the division of departmental responsibili­ties, and making full use of information technology advances.

· Deliver high quality and efficient public services. Departments now sign up to Public Service Agreements (PSAs). These 3-year, published agreements set out in detail the outcomes peoplecan expect from departmental expenditure, and explicit performance and productivity targets for each program.

The Civil Service senior management board, led by the Cabinet Secretary, set out their own program of reform measures. This included stronger leadership; improved business planning; better performance management; new targets for increasing the number of women and ethnic minority staff in the Senior Civil Service; and more openness to people and ideas, with more senior posts being openly advertised, and more interchange between civil servants and other sectors. Since the reelection of the Labour Government in June 2001, modernization has moved up. The Prime Minister put improvement of public services at the top of the political agenda, and saw the election result as «an instruction to deliver.» He set out 4 principles of public service reform:

· It is the Government's job to set national standards designed to ensure that citizens have the right to high quality services wherever they live.

· These standards can only be delivered effectively by devolution and delegation to the front line, emphasizing local solutions to meet local needs.

· More flexibility is required to respond to customer aspirations. This means challenging restrictive practices and reducing red tape; more flexible incentives and rewards for good performance; strong leadership and management; and high quality training and development.

· Public services need to offer expanding choice for the customer

· UK Civil Servants must be experts not only in the traditional skills of policy formulation and briefing, but also in managing successful implementation of those policies (project and program managing are now core competencies for the Senior Civil Service), and in working with colleagues across government.

 

EXERCISES