CCSS3 Unit 10 Power point (without "Territorial Organization of Spain")

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/53685594/CCSS3%20Unit%2010%20without%20territory.pptx

CCSS2 Unit 12 from CCSS1

Here is what you need to study from Unit 12 for the exam on October 20th:

CCSS3 Project on Unit 10: Conceptual Maps

Instructions:

The project has two components: a book of conceptual maps (done as a group) and the presentation and explanation of the concepts represented (done individually). 

First Component: Conceptual Maps: Working in groups of four, you will have to visually represent the concepts we have discussed in Unit 10: Political Organization and the State.  Create a separate conceptual map to represent each of the concepts below. Please present your work on A4 sized (normal) paper. You may not include any written words.  All concepts must be represented by symbols, photos or images of some kind.  

Second Component: Individual Presentations: Each student will have to be prepared to explain all the concepts represented, although in reality he will only present one.  On the due date of the project, I will choose which student explains which conceptual map.  The student will have a maximum of two minutes to present.

Concepts:

1. The characteristics of democratic states (including the difference between republics and parliamentary monarchies).

2. The division of powers in Spain

3. How laws are passed in Spain

4. The Congress of Deputies

5. The Senate

6. The Government (Executive Power)

Grading: Each of the two components will account for 50% of the mark for this task.  In other words, the mark will be the average of the group grade and the individual grade.

Group Grade: The Conceptual maps: You will be evaluated on two aspects: clarity and creativity.  Adding pretty colors and details is a waste of your time and will not result in a higher mark. “Clarity” means that the work is coherent and easy to understand. “Creativity” means that your project stands out from the other groups’ in some way. You will have two class hours to work on it and the group’s behavior will be a factor in this part of the mark.

Individual Grade:  You will have to explain what each image stands for and how they fit together. You will be evaluated on knowing the concepts and expressing yourself coherently and correctly.  I suggest you practice explaining each one. You will not be allowed to exceed the 2 minute time limit.

Due date: 

3ºB: Monday, October 20^th

3ºA Tuesday, October 21^st

3ºC Wednesday, October 22^nd

No late projects will be accepted. The mark will be a “0”. 

CCSS3 Unit 10: The Judiciary of Spain

Constitutional principles:

The Spanish Constitution guarantees respect for the essential principles necessary for the correct functioning of the judiciary:

Impartiality: to guarantee the assured effective judicial trusteeship to all citizens by the Constitution, judges must remain impartial in cases that they judge and must abstain from cases that they have no reason to enter into.

Independence: courts and tribunals are independent of all authority or people in the exercise of jurisdictional power.

Immobility: judges and magistrates are immobile and cannot be moved, suspended, separated or retired without cause and with guarantees established by law.

Responsibility: judges and magistrates are personally responsible for their disciplinary infractions and crimes committed in the exercise of their office; this responsibility can only be demanded by the established legal disciplinary tract, without interference by the executive or legislative branches of the government or through ordinary legal proceedings.

Legality: in the exercise of their jurisdictional functions, judges and magistrates are subject to the Constitution and to the rest of the laws just as other branches of government and citizens are.

The judiciary can be organized into different levels of territorial organisation. They are (from smallest to biggest): the judicial districts (which are the basic unit of the judiciary, covering one or several municipalities), the provinices, the autonomous communities, and the national-level courts.

 National Level Courts: The Supreme Court, The Constitutional Court, and the Audiencia Nacional

(1)The Supreme Court of Spain (Tribunal Supremo) is the highest judiciary body in Spain. It covers all jurisdictional orders and its rulings cannot be appealed, except to the (2)Constitutional Court, when one of the parties claims that their constitutional rights have been infringed. The (3)Audiencia Nacional, based in Madrid, has jurisdiction over the entire territory of the nation. It is composed of three halls that cover: (a) criminal jurisdiction (in cases pertaining to crimes against the Spanish Crown, terrorism, organized crime, counterfeiting and crimes committed in more than one jurisdiction), (b) administrative jurisdiction (in appeal cases against resolutions of ministers, secretaries of state, the Council of Ministers and the chiefs of staff of the armed forces, and (c) social jurisdiction (which involves cases pertaining to collective bargaining agreements that cover more than the territory of one autonomous community). The Audiencia Nacional also has specialized courts dealing with criminal inquiries, penitentiary surveillance and juvenile cases.

Officers of the court: Judges and magistrates

The Spanish Judiciary is a professional judiciary whose members are public servants divided into the three categories of judge, magistrate, and supreme court magistrate.

Entrance to the judiciary is limited to Spanish nationals who hold a Bachelors Degree in Law issued by a Spanish university. Applicants must pass a competitive state exam, a state exam with contest of merits, or a contest of merits. Selected applicants enter the Judiciary School where they take mandatory courses over a year, as well as carrying out practical courses as associate judges in courts and tribunals of the different jurisdictional orders. Candidate passing this course are then sworn in as judges, who work in alone in a courtroom. After three years they can become magistrates, which work on tribunals with other magistrates. Magistrates of the Supreme Court can be drafted in a contest of merits between prestigious jurists and lawyers with more than fifteen years of professional experience.

Judges and magistrates are banned from membership of political parties and trade unions, from issuing messages of congratulation or censuring public powers or official corporations, and from attending public meetings or rallies in their role as members of the judiciary.

Governance

Governance of the Spanish Judiciary is assigned to the General Council of the Judiciary (Consejo General de Poder Judicial or CGPJ). This constitutional body, although not a court in itself, is responsible for overseeing the work of all courts and tribunals of Spain, as well as of allocating judges and magistrates to each of them.

The General Council is composed of 20 members, twelve of who must be judges and magistrates and the remaining eight other jurists (lawyers, professors etc.) of renowned competence and with more than fifteen years professional experience. Of the twelve judges, six are elected by the Congress of Deputies and six by the Senate by three fifths supermajority from a list of thirty-six candidates proposed by professional associations of judges and magistrates according to the size of their membership or any independent candidate who obtains the endorsement of two percent of their colleagues. Of the eight jurists four are elected by the Congress of Deputies and four by the Senate by three fifths supermajority.

Questions: 1. What does it mean that judges must be “impartial?” 2. What is “immobility?” 3. What are the three national-level courts? 4. What is the difference between the Supreme Court and the Constitutional Court? 5. What kinds of cases does the Audiencia Nacional deal with? 6. What is the difference between a judge and a magistrate? 7. How are Supreme Court Magistrates chosen? 8. Who watches over the Spanish judiciary? 9. How are those people chosen?

CCSS2 Questions p.74-75

1. How was the territory divided in the Carolingian Empire?

2. What were counties?

3. What were counts?

4. What were counts in charge of?

5. What were marches?

6. What were marquises?

7. What were marquises in charge of?

8. Why was the position of palace inspector created?

9. Who were the missi dominici?

10. What did they do?

11. What was the main economic activity in the Carolingian Empire?

12. To whom did the large estates belong?

13. What does it mean that they were self-sufficient?

14. Was trade important in the Carolingian Empire?

15. What does it mean that society was organized hierarchically?

16. Who was at the top of society?

17. Who was at the bottom of society?

18.  Explain the manorial system.

19. What did the manorial system give rise to?

CCSS3: LEGISLATIVE POWER: Congress of Deputies (The Lower House)

Summary:

COMPOSITION

-300-400 members (currently 350)

-Elected every 4 years in general elections or whenever parliament is dissolved.

-Elected using a mathematical proportional representation formula.

DUTIES

-Passes  laws

-Approves general State budgets

-Controlls government action by asking for explanations or presenting a motion of censure to vote out the PM.

Elections:

It has 350 members, elected by popular vote on closed party lists by proportional representation in electoral districts matching the Spanish provinces using the D'Hondt method.

Each province is considered an electoral district and each is guaranteed at least 2 seats.  Ceuta and Melilla each get one.  This accounts for 102 seats, ranging from 36 in Madrid to 2 in Soria. After the vote, seats are assigned based on the outcome using the D’Hondt System, a mathematical formula of proportional representation.

Political Role:

1.The Congress accepts or rejects the Prime Minister, proposed by the King with an absolute majority vote (or, after 48 hours, with a simple majority).

2.The Congress of Deputies can present a “moción de censura” or reject a “cuestión de confianza,” obligating the Prime Minister to step down.

(Note: “moción de censura” is when 1/10 of the Congress of Deputies expresses their lack of confidence in the PM and presents an alternate candidate.  If an absolute majority votes in favor, the PM must step down and the new candidate takes his place.  The “cuestión de confianza” comes from the PM himself when he wants to confirm that he has support of the Congress of Deputies.  If he does not attain the majority vote, he must call snap (early) elections.).

3. The Government (by custom, not law) presents a state of the nation speech, where the PM talks about how things are going in the country and representatives from the party groups have the chance to respond and ask questions.

Legislative Function

1.It can initiate legislation or receive the initiative from the Government, the Autonomous Communities or citizens.

2. It can make amendments to all types of initiatives.

3. It can override the amendments or veto of the Senate on legislative initiatives.

Current Composition

Comprehension Questions:

1. How often are deputies elected?

2. Explain the election process.

3. Explain what happens with  a “moción de censura.”

4. What is a “cuestión de confianza”?  What is the Congress of Deputies role in it?

5. Which is more powerful: the Senate or the Congress of Deputies?

CCSS3: EXECUTIVE POWER (The Government)

The President of the Government of Spain, (Spanish: Presidente del Gobierno) formally known by English-speaking nations and formally translated by the European Commission Directorate-General in English as Prime Minister is the head of Government of Spain. The current office is established under the 

Mariano Rajoy Brey of the People's Party has been the prime minister since he was sworn in on December 21, 2011, after winning the 2011 general election.

Royal nomination and congressional confirmation

Once a general election has been announced by the king, political parties nominate their candidates to stand for the presidency of the government. An outgoing president who is not running in that election remains in office as a caretaker until their successor is sworn in.

Following the general election of the parliament, the king meets with and interviews the political party leaders represented in the Congress of Deputies, and then consults with the Speaker of the Congress of Deputies (officially,Presidente de Congreso de los Diputados de España, who, in this instance, represents the whole of the Cortes Generales and was himself elected from within the Congress to be the Speaker) before nominating his candidate for the presidency. The current speaker is Jesus Posada.

Often minor parties form part of a larger major party, and through that membership it can be said that the king fulfills his constitutional mandate of consulting with party representatives with Congressional representation.

Constitutionally, the monarch may nominate anyone he sees fit as his prerogative to form a government. In practice, however, due to the need for the Prime Minister to command the confidence of the Congress of Deputies, the Prime Minister is usually the political leader whose party commands the most seats in the Congress.  For the Crown to nominate the political leader whose party controls the Congress can be seen as a royal endorsement of the democratic process— a fundamental concept enshrined in the 1978 Constitution.

By political custom established by Juan Carlos I since the ratification of the 1978 Constitution, the king's nominees have all been from parties who maintain the largest number of seats in the Congress. However, there is no legal requirement for this. In theory, the largest party could end up not ruling if rival parties gather into a majority, forming a coalition--though this has never happened at the national level. As political activity in Spain has effectively coalesced into a two-party system between PSOE and PP, the two major parties usually adopt some aspects of the minor party platforms in an effort to attract them into parliamentary pacts to gain a majority over their rival party in the event that no party is able to command an absolute majority of the Congress by themselves.

The monarch's order nominating a presidential candidate is countersigned by the Speaker of the Congress, who then presents the nominee before the Congress of Deputies in a process known as a Congressional Investidure (Investidura parlamentaria). During the Investiture proceedings the nominee presents his political agenda in an Investiture Speech to be debated and submitted for a Vote of Confidence (Cuestión de confianza) by the Congress, effecting an indirect election of the head of government.

After the nominee is confirmed, the Speaker of the Congress formally reports it to the king. The king then appoints the candidate as the new President of the Government. The king's order of appointment is countersigned by the Speaker.

If no overall majority was obtained on the Vote of the Confidence, then the same nominee and program is resubmitted for a second vote within forty-eight hours.  Following the second vote, if confidence by the Congress is still not reached, then the monarch again meets with political leaders and the Speaker, and submits a new nominee for a vote of confidence.  If, within two months, no candidate has won the confidence of the Congress then the King dissolves the Cortes and calls for a new general election.

Once appointed, the President of the Government forms his government whose ministers are appointed and removed by the King on the president's advice. 

Constitutional authority

Title IV of the Constitution defines the government and its responsibilities. The government consists of the President of the Government and ministers of state. The government conducts domestic and foreign policy, civil and military administration, and the defense of the nation all in the name of the king on behalf of the people.

  The government also has the right to propose laws to parliament and to pass a decree law (decreto-ley), which is a norm with the force of law dictated by the government in exceptional and urgent situations. It must be approved by the Congress of Deputies by a vote within 30 days or it is no longer considered valid.

QUESTIONS: 1. Explain the process by which the President of Government is elected. 2. How does the king’s choice for President of Government reflect his support for the democratic process? 3. How is the speaker of the Congress of Deputies chosen? 4. How are the ministers and their ministries decided upon? 5. What are the government’s responsibilities? 6. What is a decree-law? What happens if it is not passed by the Congress of Deputies within 30 days?