CCSS3 LEGISLATIVE POWER: The Senate (The Upper House)

SUMMARY:

COMPOSITION:

It’s the chamber of TERRITORIAL REPRESENTATION

266 total senators, elected or appointed every 4 years or whenever parliament is dissolved

4 senators are elected from each province (except the islands, which have fewer)

1 senator (+1 more for every million inhabitants) is appointed from each autonomous community

Elections:

It is made up of 266 members: 208 elected by popular vote, and 58 appointed by the regional legislatures. All senators serve four-year terms, though regional legislatures may recall their appointees at any time.

While the Congress of Deputies is chosen by party list proportional representation, the members of the senate are chosen in two distinct ways: popular election by partial block voting and appointment from regional legislatures.

1. Directly elected members: Most members of the senate (currently 208 of 264) are directly elected by the people. Each province elects four senators without regard to population.

Islands are treated specially. The larger islands of the Balearics (Baleares) and Canaries (Canarias) - Majorca, Gran Canaria, and Tenerife - are assigned three seats each, and the smaller islands - Minorca, Ibiza-Formentera, Fuerteventura, Gomera, Hierro, Lanzarote and La Palma - one each; Ceuta and Melilla are assigned two seats each.

This allocation is heavily weighted in favor of small provinces; Madrid, with roughly 6 million people, and Soria, with 100,000 inhabitants, are each represented by four senators.

2. Regional legislatures-appointed members: The legislative assembly of each autonomous community of Spain appoints a senate delegation from its own ranks, with one Senator per one million citizens, rounded up.

Demographic growth increased the combined size of the regional delegations from 51 to 56 in 2008 for the 9th term.

Role: (less than the Congress of Deputies)

The Spanish parliamentary system is bicameral but asymmetric. The Congress of Deputies has more independent functions, and it can also override most senate measures:

Only the Congress of Deputies (not the Senate) can grant or revoke confidence to a prime minister.

In the ordinary lawmaking process, either house may be the initiator, and the senate can amend or veto, the proposal. However, it is then sent back to the Congress of Deputies, which can override these objections with another vote.

Organic laws, which govern basic civil rights and regional devolutions, need an absolute majority of both the Congress of Deputies and the Senate to pass.

However, the Senate has a few exclusive functions:

The senate has certain exclusive functions in the appointment of constitutional posts, such as judges of the Constitutional Court or the members of the General Council of the Judicial Power.

 Additionally, although it has never exercised this authority, the senate is solely responsible for disciplining regional presidents. Only the senate can suspend local governments It exercised this power in April 2006, dissolving the Marbella city council when most of its members were found to have engaged in corrupt practices.

Comprehension Questions:

1. How is the Senate the chamber of “territorial representation”?

2. Explain the two ways senators are chosen.

3. Is this system more favorable to highly populated areas or more rural zones?

4. Who has the exclusive right to discipline regional presidents?

5. What city council was dissolved by the Senate in 2006 for corruption?

CCSS2 Reading on the East-West Schism

The Split that Created Roman Catholics and Eastern Orthodox Catholics

Eastern Orthodox Catholics and Roman Catholics are the result of what is known as the East-West Schism (or Great Schism) of 1054, when medieval Christianity split into two branches.

The Byzantine split with Roman Catholicism came about when Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne, King of the Franks, as Holy Roman Emperor in 800. From the Byzantine viewpoint, this was offensive to the Eastern Emperor and the Byzantine Empire itself — an empire that had withstood barbarian invasions and upheld the faith for centuries. After Rome fell in 476, Byzantium was the only vestige of the Holy Roman Empire.

Charlemagne’s crowning made the Byzantine Emperor redundant (useless, superfluous), and relations between the East and the West deteriorated until a formal split occurred in 1054. The Eastern Church became the Greek Orthodox Church by severing all ties with Rome and the Roman Catholic Church — from the pope to the Holy Roman Emperor on down.

Over the centuries, the Eastern Church and Western Church became more distant and isolated for the following reasons:

·                     Geography: The West encompassed Western Europe and the northern and western areas of the Mediterranean and the East took up Asia Minor, the Middle East, and Northern Africa.

·                     Ignorance: The Byzantine Church knew less and less Latin and even less Latin tradition, and vice versa. So most patriarchs in Constantinople couldn’t read any Latin, and most popes in Rome couldn’t read any Greek. Byzantines in the East used leavened bread in their Divine Liturgy to symbolize the Risen Christ, and Latins in the West used unleavened bread as was used by Jesus at the Last Supper.

·                     Different theologies: Both were valid, but each had its own perspective. The West (Latin) was more practical and, although fully believing in the divinity of Christ, put emphasis on his humanity when depicting Jesus in art — especially by making realistic crucifixes. The East (Byzantine) was more theoretical and, although fully believing in the humanity of Christ, focused on his divinity, which was much more mysterious.

·                     Personalities and politics: Michael Cerularius, Patriarch of Constantinople, and Pope St. Leo IX weren’t friends, and each one mistrusted the other. Cerularius crossed the line when he wrote in a letter that the Latin use of unleavened bread was Jewish but not Christian. He was denying the validity of the Holy Eucharist in the Western Church. Leo countered by saying that the patriarchs had always been puppets of the Byzantine emperors.

In the end, Pope Leo and Patriarch Michael excommunicated each other and their respective churches. But more than 900 years later, in 1965, Pope Paul VI and Patriarch Athenagoras I of Constantinople removed the mutual excommunications.

Comprehension Questions: 1. When did the Great Schism occur? 2. Why did Charlemagne being crowned Holy Roman Emperor offend the Byzantines? 3. How were the theologies different? 4. Who excommunicated each other? 5.When were the mutual excommunications removed?

CCSS2 Unit 4 Power Point

Click on this link to download the Power Point Presentation for Unit 4:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/53685594/CCSS2%20Unit%204%20(2).pptx

CCSS2 Film: The Dark Ages – The History Channel QUESTIONS

Film: The Dark Ages – The History Channel 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2i3rg5Vc-8

 

Questions:

Part 1 “The Dark Ages”:(min.0- 13:30)

1. Who led the sack of Rome in 410 A.D.? What were the people called?

2. What was Aleric’s strategy against Rome?

3. Why did Aleric and his men leave Rome after 3 days?

4. What happened to the nearly two dozen people who became Roman Emperors in a fifty year period during the 3^rd century?

5. How were Goths who were absorbed into the Roman Empire treated by the Romans?

6. What happened to the Roman ruins during the Dark Ages?

7. Why was this time called the Dark Ages?

8. What was the one unifying force in Dark Ages Europe?

Part 2 “The Byzantine Empire”:(min.23:00 – 41:25) 

1. What did people from the Western Roman Empire think of those from the East?

2. What was the disadvantage to the Western Latin side of the split between East and West in the Roman Empires? 

3.What was the Mediterranean Sea called in Rome’s heyday?

4. What behavior made Justinian unpopular?

5. Who convinced Justinian not to flee during the riot?

6. What part of society did Theodora come from? What was her profession?

7. What is Justinian’s Cathedral called?

8. What killed up to half the Byzantine population in 542 A.D.?

9. How did the plague get to Constantinople?

10. How did Justinian’s personality change after he survived the plague?

11. What happened to the territories that Justinian had conquered when he died?

Part 3(min. 13:30 – 23:00)

1. What did Clovis (Frankish King of Gaul) renounce as he embraced Christianity?

2. What did Roman Emperor Constantine legalize in 313 AD?

3. What was Clovis’ new justification for war?

4. What rank in his army did Clovis give to conquered people? 5. What dynasty did Clovis’ kingdom lay the foundation for?

6. What did Clovis do to relatives outside his household? Why?

7. What was the ordeal by boiling water?

Part 4 (min. 51:30 – 1:09:55)

1. What territory did the Moors cross into in 730? (

2. Who was the commander of the Frankish army?

3. Did Abdul Rahman Al Ghafiqi think highly of the Franks’ military power?

4. How long did the armies stay firm, each waiting for the other to make the first move?

5.  What did the Frankish soldiers get from the Moorish camps?

6. Where did the Moors retreat to?

7. Who was Charles Martel’s grandfather (also known as the father of Europe)?

8.  Was the Holy Roman Empire the same as the Western Roman Empire?

9. Who did Charlemagne have to share power with?

10. Was Charlemagne responsible for his brother’s death?

11. Why did Charlemagne condemn 4,500 Saxon tribal leaders to death in Germany?

12. What did the massacre become known as?

13. How many counties did Charlemagne divide his land into?

14. What did Charlemagne study to try to learn to do?

15. How many children did Charlemagne have?

16. Was the fact that Charlemagne had many wives and mistresses extraordinary at that time in history?

17. Who was Charlemagne’s enemy in the last years of his reign?

CCSS3 Unit 10 chart: "The Rights of Citizens in a Democracy"

CCSS2 Course Introduction

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/53685594/CCSS2%20Course%20Intro.pptx

CCSS3 Course Introduction and Current Events Homework

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/53685594/CCSS3%20Course%20Intro%20and%20HW.pptx