MUTUC, MARIEL MALIG BSED-ENGLISH I

MIDTERM PERIOD:

ACTIVITY 1

Choose a country or state who is a member of the United Nations and discuss briefly about its
present political system and how it relates politically to other countries. Draw the national flag of
the country you have chosen.

FRANCE
France, in Western Europe, encompasses medieval cities, alpine villages and
Mediterranean beaches. Paris, its capital, is famed for its fashion houses, classical art
museums including the Louvre and monuments like the Eiffel Tower. The country is also
renowned for its wines and sophisticated cuisine. Lascaux’s ancient cave drawings, Lyon’s
Roman theater and the vast Palace of Versailles attest to its rich history.

The politics of France take place with the framework of a semi-presidential system
determined by the French Constitution of the French Fifth Republic. The nation declares
itself to be an "indivisible, secular, democratic, and social Republic". The constitution
provides for a separation of powers and proclaims France's "attachment to the Rights of
Man and the principles of national sovereignty as defined by the Declaration of 1789." The
political system of France consists of an executive branch, a legislative branch, and a
judicial branch. Executive power is exercised by the President of the Republic and the
Government. The Government consists of the Prime Minister and ministers. The Prime
Minister is appointed by the President, and is responsible to Parliament. The government,
including the Prime Minister, can be revoked by the National Assembly, the lower house of
Parliament, through a "censure motion"; this ensures that the Prime Minister is always
supported by a majority of the lower house (which, on most topics, has prominence over
the upper house). Parliament consists of the National Assembly and the Senate. It passes
statutes and votes on the budget; it controls the action of the executive through formal
questioning on the floor of the houses of Parliament and by establishing commissions of
inquiry. The constitutionality of the statutes is checked by the Constitutional Council,
members of which are appointed by the President of the Republic, the President of the
National Assembly, and the President of the Senate. Former presidents of the Republic also
are members of the Council.

The independent judiciary is based upon civil law system which evolved from the
Napoleonic codes. It is divided into the judicial branch (dealing with civil law and criminal
law) and the administrative branch (dealing with appeals against executive decisions), each
with their own independent supreme court of appeal: the Court of Cassation for the
MUTUC, MARIEL MALIG BSED-ENGLISH I

judicial courts and the Conseil d'Etat for the administrative courts. The French
government includes various bodies that check abuses of power and independent agencies.
France is a unitary state. However, its administrative subdivisions—regions, departments
and communes—have various legal functions, and the national government is prohibited
from intruding into their normal operations. France was a founding member of the
European Coal and Steel Community, later the European Union. As such, France has
transferred part of its sovereignty to European institutions, as provided by its constitution.
The French government therefore has to abide by European treaties, directives and
regulations. The Economist Intelligence Unit has described France as a "full democracy"
in 2019. A popular referendum approved the constitution of the French Fifth Republic in
1958, greatly strengthening the authority of the presidency and the executive with respect
to Parliament.

The constitution does not contain a bill of rights in itself, but its preamble mentions
that France should follow the principles of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the
Citizen, as well as those of the preamble to the constitution of the Fourth Republic. This has
been judged to imply that the principles laid forth in those texts have constitutional value,
and that legislation infringing on those principles should be found unconstitutional if a
recourse is filed before the Constitutional Council. Also, recent modifications of the
Constitution have added a reference in the preamble to an Environment charter that has
full constitutional value, and a right for citizens to contest the constitutionality of a statute
before the Constitutional Council. The foundational principles of the constitution include:
the equality of all citizens before law, and the rejection of special class privileges such as
those that existed prior to the French Revolution; presumption of innocence; freedom of
speech; freedom of opinion including freedom of religion; the guarantee of property
against arbitrary seizure; the accountability of government agents to the citizenry.
MUTUC, MARIEL MALIG BSED-ENGLISH I

SPAIN
Spain, a country on Europe’s Iberian Peninsula, includes 17 autonomous regions
with diverse geography and cultures. Capital city Madrid is home to the Royal Palace and
Prado museum, housing works by European masters. Segovia has a medieval castle (the
Alcázar) and an intact Roman aqueduct. Catalonia’s capital, Barcelona, is defined by
Antoni Gaudí’s whimsical modernist landmarks like the Sagrada Família church.

FRANCE and SPAIN are mostly sharing the same political system. Though, there
are some thoughts that are not the same. France–Spain relations are Bilateral
relations between France and Spain, in which both share a long border across
the Pyrenees, other than one point which is cut off by Andorra. As two of the most
powerful kingdoms of the early modern era, France and Spain fought a 24-year war
(the Franco-Spanish War) until the signing of the Treaty of the Pyrenees in 1659. The
treaty was signed on the Pheasant Island between the two nations, which has since been
a condominium, changing its allegiances each six months.

Both nations are member states of the European Union (and both nations utilize
the Euro as currency) and are both members of the Council of Europe, Latin
Union, OECD, NATO and the United Nations.

The entire mainlands of both Gaul and Hispania were possessions of the Roman
Empire. While the term "Spain" may be improper when used to refer to France–Spain
relations before the union of the Crown of Castile and the Crown of Aragon in 1476, there
has always been important relations between what are now France and Spain. One
important feature of those early relations was that counts from the Marca Hispanica
& Navarre fought shoulder to shoulder with Frankish Kings (during the Carolingian
dynasty), to protect Europe from the Al Andalus Muslim kingdom. Barcelona was a
County of the Frankish Empire, under protection of the Franc Imperator. This vassality of
Marca Hispanica and Navarre to the Frankish empire remained effective up to 985. At that
point, because his armies were mobilized in the Verdum's county, Lothair of France and
his Byzantine allies did not assist Navarre & Marca Hispanica in its defense against the
Caliph, implying that they failed to defend Barcelona from the Arabs. Almanzor did not
stay in the cities (the first assault was launched July 6, 985; withdrew their troops July 23),
but this incursion was arguably the first step of a process of independence of the county of
Barcelona from the kingdom of France, and heralded what would become the Aragon
kingdom. While independent of France and integrated in the Crown of Aragon, Barcelona
remained legally a county of France and the King of France retained a de jure right to vote
in the Barcelone Courts in the next centuries. This situation generated numerous territorial
conflicts between the two kingdoms[2] to control what is now the south of France and the
north of Spain (the support of Aragon to the Count of Toulouse, death in Perpignan
MUTUC, MARIEL MALIG BSED-ENGLISH I

of Philip III of France married to Isabel of Aragon, and Albigenses Crusades are some of

the most famous examples) and played a significant political role in the start of the Catalan
Revolt which ended with the treaty of Pyrenees.