Like the monarchy, the republican form of government has a long history. It originated in the Ancient world and reached its highest peak in the Athenian Republic. Its highest body was the People's Assembly, elected by the full and free citizens of Athens. The People's Assembly adopted laws, decided issues of war and peace, and acted as a judicial authority. Along with the People's Assembly, there was an elected supreme governing body in Athens - the Council of Five Hundred. His responsibility included managing finances, monitoring the activities of officials, and implementing the decisions of the People's Assembly.

The republican form of government was preserved in the Middle Ages in cities that had the right to self-government (Novgorod, Pskov, Genoa, Venice, etc.).

In France, the republican form of government was finally established only with the adoption of the Constitution of 1875 after the double restoration of the monarchy.

Switzerland and the state of San Marino have this form of government initially. At the same time, the uniqueness of the organization of state power in San Marino lies in the fact that legislative power belongs to the General Council (Generale Consiglio Principe) of 60 life members, of which 20 belong to the nobility, 20 to city citizens, 20 to rural landowners. Vacant seats are filled by the Council itself through co-optation. The executive power is vested in two Capitani Regenti, elected for a six-month term by the Council from among themselves, one of them must be a nobleman.

Most modern European republics acquired this form of government after the military and revolutionary upheavals of the 20th century, associated primarily with two world wars. In South America, the successful armed national liberation struggle of the former colonies against the monarchical metropolises also, as a rule, gave rise to a republican form of government. Similarly, in Africa and Asia, the collapse of the colonial system in the middle of the 20th century. led, with a few exceptions, to the formation of republics.

All other things being equal, a republic is the most democratic form of government, since it assumes that the powers of any branch of government, any of its highest bodies, including the head of state, are ultimately based on the mandate of the people. But the conclusion is true only under other equal conditions. The fact is that there are sophisticated varieties of republic, characterized by the illegitimacy of power. For example, when a coup d'etat occurs in a country, as a result of which a single dictator becomes the head of the state (he can be called anything: president, coordinator, leader, general secretary of the central committee of the party, etc.) or a group of dictators, the form of government can officially proclaim or remain republican, but its democratic essence is destroyed. This also happens in the case when a legally elected or appointed official (president, prime minister, etc.) seizes powers that do not belong to him according to the constitution, refuses to leave his position after the expiration of his term of office - in a word, when he usurps power . This is what A. Hitler did in Germany in 1933, J. Mobutu in Zaire (then Congo) in 1960, the “black colonels” in Greece in 1967, A. Pinochet in Chile in 1973.

Unfortunately, these are not the only examples of such actions. History also knows cases of replacing the monarchy with a republic, which meant the elimination of the democracy that existed under the monarchy. Thus, the same Greek “black colonels” abolished the monarchy in June 1973, but such a “republic” did not add democracy to the country. Some republics of tropical Africa differ little from an absolute monarchy, where, despite the presence of a parliament and formally independent courts, the power of the president is practically unlimited. The change of presidents here usually occurs only as a result of their death or a military coup, and not at all as a result of general elections. Re-elections for a new term are more of a ritual than a real character. In Malawi, for example, the president generally holds office for life. The socialist republics served and serve as a cover for the individual dictatorship of the general first secretary of the Communist Party or the group dictatorship of the Politburo of its central committee.

The term "republic", translated from Latin as “common cause,” denotes a form of government whose legal construction assumes that the sole subject of sovereignty is the people. In a republic, the highest powers of state power must be exercised by officials (president, members of parliament, etc.) elected for a certain term.

Thus, The features of a republican form of government are.

Electivity;

Collegiality of one or more higher state bodies;

Legality;

Short term of legislatures and filling of the highest positions of the executive branch.

Having examined the monarchical form of government, we can conclude that the distinction between a monarchy and a republic according to the criteria of election, collegiality, legality and short-term performance of official duties is very conditional, given that the election of a monarch, as noted, is not a rare exception, that collegiality is characteristic in a republic not for all government bodies (this feature is completely absent in nominal republics).

When a republic and a monarchy are contrasted, then by monarchy we mean a real monarchy, first of all, absolute, which took shape during the period of late feudalism and is really the opposite of a republic. As a type of real monarchies, the ancient monarchies are also adjacent to absolute monarchies, in particular, the Roman Empire of the dominant era, as well as early feudal and class-representative monarchies, in which the power of the monarch was limited by the privileges of vassals or a body of class representation such as parliament, convened by the monarch.

Real monarchies are characteristic of pre-industrial society, while republics and nominal monarchies are characteristic of industrial society.

At the same time, nominal (in particular parliamentary) monarchies are not the opposite of a republican form of government, since, in essence, the organization of state power in a parliamentary monarchy is no different from the organization of state power in a parliamentary republic. Based on this, it is quite appropriate to generally talk about the existence of states with a parliamentary form of government.

Republican ideology is based on the principle of formal equality. The ideologists of republicanism at one time, not without reason, believed that only republican (collective) government could ensure such equality. “The laws of democracy generally strive for the good of the greatest number of citizens, who may make mistakes, but cannot have interests contrary to themselves,” Tocqueville pointed out.

This idea was supplemented by F. Fukuyama, who explained that a republican form of government is possible only in combination with a democratic political regime; Socialism, authoritarianism, and especially totalitarianism are regimes that generally take the republic beyond the scope of the study of forms of government.

Being a sovereign country, Russia independently establishes its own form of government. Thus, the organization of government bodies, as well as the order of their activities, is determined.

The republican form of government in the Russian Federation is established by the Constitution. At the same time, the main feature of such a state structure is considered to be the turnover and election of the head of the country. In this, the republican form of government differs from the monarchical one. With the latter, as is known, power is more often inherited.

In Russia, the republican form of government provides for the rejection of any continuous or independent holding of power, which will be based on individual right. At the same time, the political system is focused on experience and intelligence, and not on achieving an ideal goal, which, as a rule, leads to the establishment of totalitarianism. The Republican also provides for the formation of government agencies in accordance with the coordination of the interests of public administration with the steadfastness of civil freedom. The creation of governing bodies is carried out for a certain (limited) period through free elections.

The republican form of government provides for a democratic system. At the same time, democracy (as equal freedom for everyone) is a complement to the specified system of governance in the country. In turn, the republic in every possible way supports the rise and development of this freedom, equal for all, contributing to the equal distribution of social benefits. At the same time, equal elections, access to education, government positions, etc. are ensured.

There are two presidential and parliamentary.

The main political difference of the first is the concentration of powers of both the head of government and the head of the country in the hands of the President. Other features of this form of government include the extra-parliamentary method of choosing the head of the country. In this case, indirect or direct elections are used. In addition, the presidential republic also provides for an extra-parliamentary method of creating a government.

The system of higher government bodies under the parliamentary system of government is based on the principle of parliamentary dominance. At the same time, the government bears a collective responsibility to it. The government has power as long as it has a parliamentary majority.

Some modern countries with a republican form of government also have some features of a presidential system. Such states, in particular, include modern Russia. The combination of features of the two systems of government is reflected in the presence of the powerful power of the president, while maintaining the typical features of parliamentarism.

From the beginning of the formation of the constitutional system, Russia sought to strengthen the features of a presidential republic. At the same time, while ultimately having a presidential character, the public administration system retains certain external characteristics of a parliamentary country.

Today the Russian Federation has a presidential-parliamentary or (as some sources call it) semi-presidential form of government. The President is elected by popular vote. It has its own prerogatives, which allow it to act independently of the government. At the same time, there is a government that is formed by ministers, has a chairman and is responsible to some extent to parliament.

COURSE WORK
Specialty 030501 “Jurisprudence”
Topic: “Republican form of government. Concepts and signs".

Completed by: student Maslyuk A.V.
Checked by: Associate Professor Lavrinenko N.I.
Submission date: "__" February 2010
Date of defense of the work: “__” February 2010
Grade: ______________

Rostov-on-Don 2010

CONTENT.

INTRODUCTION
The form of the state is one of the most important categories of the conceptual apparatus of the theory of state and law. It is largely determined by the essence of the state and is directly related to the main issue of politics - the question of the organization of state power, its structure. We can say that the form of a state is a structure, a certain model of the internal structure of the state, including its territorial organization, principles, methods of formation and interaction of public authorities, methods of exercising power, ensuring the implementation of a certain state policy. It is easy to see that all of the above affects the most important aspects of the life (functioning) of the state.
The diversity of state forms is explained by a number of reasons. The main ones among them are the following:
- historical traditions of development of national states;
- historical features of the formation of national statehoods;
- the real balance of social forces in the country;
- national composition of the country's population;
- the mentality of the population, expressed in “tolerance” towards the authorities;
- foreign experience;
- standard of living of the population;
- the degree of influence of the former metropolises on the choice of state form in countries previously dependent on them;
- the role of the international community.
The main components of this category are such concepts as “form of government”, “form of government” and “political regime”.
Forms of government are the structure of the highest bodies of state power, the procedure for their formation and the distribution of competence between them. There are two forms of government:
- monarchy (ancient eastern, Roman centralized, medieval early feudal, estate-representative, absolute, modern constitutional);
- republic (Athenian democratic, Roman aristocratic, Spartan aristocratic, medieval city-republics, modern parliamentary, presidential, socialist).
Monarchy (from the Greek “monarchia” - autocracy) is characterized by autocracy, i.e. the ownership of power in the state by one person and a special form of transfer of power from one supreme ruler to another, usually in the order of succession to the throne. History knows several types of monarchy: absolute (or unlimited), constitutional, estate-representative and elective.
A republic (from the Latin “res” - business and “publicus” - public) is a form of government in which the organization and functioning of the highest bodies of state power are based on the principles of election and periodic turnover. In other words, under a republican form of government, the highest bodies of state power are either elected for a certain term and citizens are legally allowed to be elected, or are formed by a national representative institution. In this course work we will try to determine the main features of the republican form of government, the types of republics that exist now, and also talk about the form of government in the Russian Federation.

REPUBLICAN FORM OF GOVERNMENT.
Signs of a republican form of government.

Types of republics.

Anatomy of family regimes (the stability of super-presidential regimes turns into insoluble problems) // Kommersant. 2006. February 7.

1. Anatomy of family regimes (the stability of super-presidential regimes turns into insoluble problems) // Kommersant. 2006. February 7.
August 1979); Angola (José Eduardo Dos Santos from 21 September 1979); Egypt (Hosni Mubarak from October 14, 1981 - in September 2005, with 88.6% of the vote, was re-elected for the fifth time to a 7-year presidential term); Cameroon (Paul Biya from 6 November 1982); Mauritania (Taya Maaouaid Ould Sidi Ahmed from 12 December 1984); Uganda (Museveni Yoweri Kaguta since 26 January 1986); Zimbabwe (Mugabe Robert Gabriel since 31 December 1987); Chad (Debi Idris since December 4, 1990). 1
At the same time, regional political traditions in Latin American countries are directly opposite to African ones. For example, from the end of World War II until December 2005, Argentina and Bolivia each had 30 heads of state, and Brazil, Guatemala, Panama, Ecuador and Haiti - more than twenty.
Women are often elected to senior government positions in a number of countries. You can verify this by reading the following table

President of Liberia Helen Johnson-Sirleaf, elected November 8, 2005.
President of Chile Michel Bachelet, elected January 15, 2006.
President of Finland, Tarja Halonen, elected on January 29, 2006.
President of Ireland Mary McAleese, elected 31 October 1997
President of the Philippines Macapagal-Arroyo Gloria, elected May 10, 2004
Chancellor of Germany Merkel Angela, elected September 18, 2005 2

______________________________ ______________________________ ______
1.Presidents with the longest experience. Top 10 // Kommersant 2005. March 2
2. Vasilyeva A. Favorite women of the voter // Kommersant. 2006. February 1

The process of transfer of power.

1. Operation “Heir” (in Russia there are no mechanisms not only for democratic, but also for non-democratic transfer of power) // Kommersant. 2006. February 13.
2. IMPEACHMENT OF THE PRESIDENT.
The historical experience of a number of states indicates that society cannot be immune from unlawful actions even by state leaders. Therefore, as an administrative and preventive measure aimed not only at preventing, but, if necessary, suppressing unconstitutional actions, in states with a republican form of government, the possibility of impeaching the president of the country (including in Russia) is provided. During the period of official announcement of impeachment, the texts of the constitutions provide for restrictions on the powers of presidents related to the possibility of them introducing special legal regimes or dissolving parliaments.
The procedure for declaring impeachment is of a complicated procedural nature. The time limits and sequence of actions of the initiators of the process (deputies of parliament) determined by law are strictly regulated and controlled by the legislative and judicial branches of government. Therefore, impeachment proceedings are not resorted to very often. However, in recent years, the heads of several states, under pressure from parliament, had to resign early.
On charges of actions contrary to the interests of the country and not in accordance with the constitution, the following were removed from their positions: Brazilian President Fernando Color de Melo (September 29, 1992 on charges of corruption); President of Ecuador Abdalu Bucarama (February 6, 1997, accused of embezzlement of public funds and declared physically and mentally incompetent); Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori (November 21, 2001); Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid (23 July 2001 for a series of corruption scandals).
In early December 2003, a special commission of the Lithuanian Seimas, which investigated the scandalous history of the connection between the country's President Rolandas Paksas and the “Russian mafia,” began an official impeachment procedure, concluding that the president was not fully independent and independent in his actions. He "was and remains vulnerable, which poses a threat to the security of the country." 1
On March 31, 2004, the Constitutional Court of Lithuania, in its conclusion, recognized as fair three of the six previously formulated charges against the president:
- grossly violated the Constitution of the country by illegally granting Lithuanian citizenship to Russian businessman Yuri Borisov, the main sponsor of his election campaign;
etc.............

A republic is a form of government in which supreme state power is exercised by elected bodies elected directly or indirectly by the population for a specified term.

Signs of a republic:

· The state is headed by the president and a collegial representative body (parliament).

· The urgent nature of state power. Election and turnover of the highest bodies of the state. Thus, state power is formed directly by the population (voters).

· The possibility of bringing senior state officials to political and legal responsibility.

· The division of government power into judicial, legislative and executive, including mutual control or as the often used term “checks and balances” and the interaction of all branches of government.

Types of republics.

Presidential republic. It is characterized by the combination in the hands of the president of the powers of the head of state and head of government. A formal feature of a presidential republic is the absence of the post of prime minister, since the president himself directly heads the executive branch. The president forms the government and is the supreme commander in chief. Both parliament and the president are elected directly by the population. It should be noted that the government and parliament are significantly independent and separate from each other. The government is not politically accountable to parliament. Parliament cannot express no confidence in the president. The President, in turn, does not have the right to dissolve parliament. The president has the right to veto laws passed by parliament. Examples of a presidential republic are the USA, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina.

Parliamentary republic. In this type of republic, the president is the head of state with representative functions and formal powers. Executive power is exercised by the government headed by the Prime Minister. The prime minister is appointed by the president from among the ruling party or party coalition”, which has a majority of votes in parliament. A parliamentary republic is characterized by indirect parliamentary elections of the president and a certain supremacy of parliament in the political life of the state, due to the party nature of government. Parliament elects the president, forms the government and carries out control over its activities. Parliament has the right to express no confidence in the government and dismiss it in its entirety or individual ministers. The president, in turn, always acts with the consent of the government. The acts issued by him enter into legal force after their approval by the government or parliament. - Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Israel, Turkey, India, Finland, Greece.

Mixed Republic characterized by a combination of various elements. As institutions of state power, it simultaneously contains the president with real powers, the government, and parliament. Power functions are divided among them in varying proportions. Examples - France, Russia, Yugoslavia.

Currently, there is a tendency towards convergence of different forms of government.

supreme power is exercised by elected bodies elected by the population (but not always) for a certain period. Currently, out of 190 countries in the world, more than 140 are republics.

The republic has the following characteristics:

The existence of a sole and collegial head of state - the president and parliament. Parliament represents the legislative branch. The president's task is to lead the executive branch, but this is not typical for all types of republics.

Election for a certain term of the head of state and other supreme bodies of state power. Thus, the president and parliament must be elected by the people for a certain period.

Legal responsibility of the head of state. For example, according to the Constitution of the Russian Federation, parliament has the right to remove the president from office for serious crimes against the state.

In cases provided for by the constitution, the president has the right to speak on behalf of the state.

Priority of individual rights over state ones. [source not specified 160 days]

The people are recognized as the source of power.

Supreme power is based on the principle of separation of powers, a clear delineation of powers.

The classification of republics is related to exactly how state power is exercised, and which of the subjects of state-legal relations is endowed with more powers. Or, in other words, republics are divided according to three parameters:

how is parliament elected?

how the government is formed,

what scope of powers belongs to the president.

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Today, most countries in the world are republics. Although the republic is considered by many[source not specified 160 days] to be a modern form of government and synonymous with democracy, this is an erroneous opinion based on the fact that historically there were more state entities with a monarchical form of government, where power is inherited.

The first republics arose in antiquity (see “Athenian Democracy” and “Roman Republic”.

In the Middle Ages, on the territory of the modern Russian Federation, the Novgorod Republic and the Pskov Republic existed for a long time (for a short time there were republics in Tver and Moscow.

The Republic of Venice existed in Europe for more than a millennium.

The Dubrovnik Republic is a city-state that existed from the 14th century until 1808.

And the Republic of San Marino, created in 301, still exists today.

In most modern republics, the head of state (mostly the president) is elected by popular vote of the country's citizens or by a popularly elected parliament. The power of the head of state is also limited depending on the Constitution - from fairly solid powers (USA, Russia, France) to purely ceremonial and representative functions (Austria, Germany, Italy).

Unlike the Medieval republics, in many modern democratic states not only the term of office of the president is limited, but also the number of terms itself. The power of the head of state is also limited, although to varying degrees. All citizens of the country have the right to vote in republics. For comparison, in the Republic of Venice, the Doge was elected for life and not by all citizens, and also had practically unlimited powers. However, even now in some countries elections are not universal. In South Africa, until the 1990s, blacks and mulattoes did not have the right to vote.

The institution of nobility has been abolished in the republics. All citizens have equal rights, however, not all permanent residents, even those born on the territory of countries, have citizenship.

Some republics have senators for life (Italy, France), but their seats are not inherited.

However, a republic is not synonymous with democracy. In many countries, officially republics, presidential elections are canceled or take place on an uncontested basis. At the same time, in many monarchy states, democratic institutions are widespread. However, in the republics there are more opportunities for the development of democracy.

A republic is the most common political system today. Monarchy in some countries is just a tribute to tradition