JAC Board Class 9th Social Science Notes Civics Chapter 4 Working of Institutions
→ Introduction
- Democracy is not just about people electing their rulers.
- In a democracy the rulers have to follow some rules and procedures. They have to work with and within institutions.
- In this process we come across three institutions that play a key role in major decisions Legislature, executive and judiciary.
- In this chapter, we will understand how all the institutions together carry on the work of the government.
→ How is a major policy decision taken?
- The government issues hundreds of orders every day on different matters.
- President is the head of the state and is the highest formal authority in the country.
- Prime Minister is the head of the government and actually exercises all governmental powers.
- Parliament consists of the President and two houses, Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha.
- The Prime Minister must have the support of a majority of Lok Sabha members.
- The Government of India had appointed the second Backward classes. Commission in 1979. It was harded by B.P. Mandal.
- The commission gave its report in 1980 and made many recommendations, one of these was that 27 per cent of government jobs be reserved for the socially and educationally backward classes.
→ Need for Political Institutions
- To attend all the tasks, several arrangements are made in all modern democracies. Such arrangements are called institutions. The constitution of any country lays down basic rules on the powers and functions of each institution.
- In our country there are three institutions running the different tasks: (a) The Prime Minister and the cabinet are institutions that take all important policy decisions, (b) The Civil servants, working together are responsible for taking steps to implement the minister’s decisions, (c) Supreme Court is an institution where disputes between citizens and the government are finally settled.
- Institutions involve rules and regulations. Institutions make it difficult to have a good decision taken very quickly. But they also make it equally difficult to rush through a bad decision. That is why democratic government insist on institutions.
→ Parliament
- In India, a national assembly of elected representatives is called Parliament. At the state level this is called State Legislature or Legislative Assembly.
- Parliament is the final authority for making laws in our country.
- Parliaments all over the world exercise some control over those who run the government.
- Parliaments control all the money that governments have.
- Parliament is the highest forum of discussion and debate on public issues and national policy in any democratic country.
→ Two Houses of Parliament
- In our country, the Parliament consists of two Houses. The two Houses are known as the Council of States (Rajya Sabha) and the House of the People (Lok Sabha).
- Lok Sabha (House of the people) or lower chamber: It is usually directly elected by the people and exercises the real power on behalf of the people.
- Rajya Sabha (Council of states) or upper chamber: It is indirectly elected and perform special functions such as interest of various states,regions federal units.
- Our constitution gives some special powers to Rajya Sabha but on the most of the matters the Lok Sabha exercises supreme power.
→ Political Executive
- At different levels of any government, we find functionaries who take day-to-day decisions but do not exercise supreme power on behalf of the people. All those functionaries are collectively known as the Executive.
→ Political and Permanent Executive
- In our country, two categories make up the executive. One that is elected by the people for a specific period, is called the Political Executive. In the second category, people are appointed on a long term basis. This is called the permanent executive or civil services.
- The political executive has more power than the permanent executive.
- This is because the political executive is elected by the people and in a democracy will of people is supreme. They are answerable to the people for all consequences of their decision.
→ Prime Minister and Council of Ministers
- Prime Minister is the most important political institution in the country. The President appoints the leader of the majority party or the coalition of parties that commands a majority in the Lok Sabha, as Prime Minister.
- Council of Ministers is the official name for the body that includes all the Ministers mainly Cabinet Ministers, Ministers of state with independent charge and Minister of State.
- Every ministry has secretaries, who are civil servants.
- No Minister can openly criticise any decision of the government.
→ Powers of the Prime Minister
- As head of the government, the Prime Minister has wide ranging powers.
- He chairs cabinet meetings and coordinates the work of different departments.
- The Prime Minister distributes and redistributes work to the ministers. He also has the power to dismiss ministers.
- However, in recent years the rise of coalition politics has imposed certain constraints on the power of the Prime Minister.
→ The President
- The President is the supreme commander of the defence forces of India.
- The Presidental system
- Presidents all over the world are not always nominal executives like the President of India. In many countries of the world, the president is both the head of the state and the head of the government. The President of the United States of America is the most well known example of this kind of president.
→ The Judiciary
- All the courts at different levels in a country put together are called the judiciary. The Indian Judiciary consists of a Supreme Court for the entire nation. High Courts in the states, District Courts and the courts at local level.
- The judges of the Supreme Court and the High Courts are appointed by the President on the advice of the Prime Minister and in consultation with the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. A judge can be removed only by an impeachment motion passed separately by two-thirds members of the two Houses of the Parliament.
- The Supreme Court and the High Courts have the power to interpret the constitution of the country.
- The powers and the independence of the Indian judiciary allow it to act as the guardian of the Fundamental Rights.
- Courts have given several judgements and directives to protect public interest and human rights. Any one can approach the courts if public interest is hurt by the actions of government. This is called public interest litigation.
→ Democracy: It is a form of government which is chosen by the people to work for their welfare.
→ Legislature: An assembly of people’s representatives with the powers to enact laws for a country. In addition to enacting laws, legislatures have authority to raise taxes and adopt the budget and other money bills.
→ Executive: A body of persons having authority to initiate major policies, make decisions and implement them on the basis of the constitution and laws of the country.
→ Judiciary: An institution empowered to administer justice and provide a mechanism for the resolution of legal disputes. All the courts in the country are collectively referred to as judiciary.
→ Government: A set of institutions that have the power to make, implement and inter pret laws so as to ensure an orderly life. In its broad sense, government administers and supervises over citizens and resources of a country.
→ State: Political association occupying a definite territory, having an organised government and possessing power to make domestic and foreign policies. In common speech, the terms country, nation and state are used as synonyms.
→ Government order: It means any order, judgement, injunction, decree, stipulation or determination issued, promulgated or entered by or with any governmental authority of competent jurisdiction.
→ Office Memorandum: A communication issued by an appropriate authority stating the policy or decision of the government.
→ Parliament: The group of people who are elected to make and change the laws of a country is called the parliament.
→ Lok Sabha: The Lok Sabha or house of the people is the power house of the parliament of India.
→ Rajya Sabha: The Rajya Sabha or council of states is the upper house of the parliament
of India.
→ Reservations: A policy that declares some positions in government employment and educational institutions ‘reserved’ for people and communities who have been discriminated against, are disadvantaged and backward.
→ Supreme Court: The highest judicial court in a country.
→ Political Institution: A set of procedures for regulating the conduct of government and political life in the country.
→ Cabinet: The most important ministers in governments, who have regular meetings with the Prime Minister.
→ High Court: The highest judicial court in a state..
→ Indra sawhney: Indra sawhney became a household name in 1992 after her challenge to Narasimha Rao’s forward quata more led the supreme court to impose a 50% cap on caste based reservations.
→ B.P. Mandal: Bindheshwari Prasad Mandal (B.P. Mandal) was an Indian Politician who chaired mandal commission. He served as Chief Minister of Bihar.
→ V.P. Singh: Vishwanath Pratap singh (V.P. singh) was an Indian politician. He was the 7th Prime Minister of India from 1989 to 1990.
→ Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru: He was an independence activist and subsequently, the first Prime Minister of India and a central figure in Indian politics before and after independence. As the Prime Minister, he exercised many pomets as he had great influence over the people.
→ Indira Gandhi: She was an Indian politician and a central figure at the Indian National Congress. She was the first and, to date, the only female Prime Minister of India.
→ Pranab Mukheijee: He is an Indian politician who served as the 13th President of India from 2012 to 2017.
→ Nerendra Modi: Narendra Damodardas Modi is an Indian politician serving as the current Prime Minister of India since 2014. He was the chief minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014 and is the member of parliament for Varanasi.
→ Justice J.S. Khehar: Jagdish Sing Khehar was the 44th Chief Justice of India. He is the first Chief Justice of India from the Sikh community.
→ Ramnath Kovind: He is an Indian politician currently serving as the 14th President of India, in office since 25 july 2017. Previously he had served as the Governor of Bihar from 2015 to 2017.
→ Coalition Government: A government formed by an alliance of two or more political parties, usually when no single party enjoys majority support of the members in a legislature.