Primary Institutions of Democracy, Study Notes, Material - KVS (PRT & TGT)

PRIMARY INSTITUTIONS OF DEMOCRACY

 OVERVIEW

The term “Democracy” is derived from the Greek language, in which the word ‘demos’ means citizen living within a particular city or state or common people and ‘Kratos’ means rule or power or strength.

Democracy is not just about how people elect their leaders or rulers but it’s also about how the rulers follow some procedures and directive. Rulers have to work with and within institutions. In this topic, we will try to understand the working of institutions in a democracy.

Here we will discuss the three institutions which play an important role in making and implementing these decisions that are – Legislature, Executive and Judiciary. The basic objective here is to understand how these three institutions work together to carry on the work of government.

NEED FOR PRIMARY INSTITUTIONS

• Governing a country involves various activities. For example- the government is responsible for providing facilities for education and ensuring security to the citizens and health facilities to the entire citizen.
• The government collects taxes and spends the money thus raised on defence, development programmes and administrations. It formulates and implements welfare schemes.
• Some people have to implement their decision and some have to take a decision on how to go about activities. If any disputes arise there should be someone to determine what is wrong and what is right. It is important that everyone should know their responsibility and if the key person of these responsibility changes than it should be ensured the work should continue with the new appointees.
• Democracy works well when the work assigned to the institutions are performed successfully.

 LEGISLATURE OR LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY

An elected group of people who have the power to make and change laws in a state or country is called Legislative or Legislature Assembly or we can say that the legislative or legislature assembly is responsible for ratifying the laws of the state and operate the government by providing the money.

 PARLIAMENT       

• Parliament makes laws and holds the government accountable for its policies, actions and spending.
• Parliament is the centre of any form of democracy.
• Parliament holds or controls the money the governments have.
• In most countries, public money is spent only when the parliament sanctions it.
• Parliament is the highest forum of debate and discussing the issue which is faced by the public and the policies which are to be implemented and laws to be formed.
• Parliament is a bicameral legislative which is composed of the President of India and the two houses: the Lok Sabha (House of the people) and the Rajya Sabha (Councils of States).   

 TWO HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT   

• As we know parliament plays a central part in modern democracies, therefore most of the countries have divided the role and powers of the Parliament in two parts.
• They are called Chambers or Houses.
• One House is usually elected directly by the people and exercises the real power on behalf of the people and the second house is usually elected indirectly and performs some special functions.
• Here President of India is not the part of either house, therefore all laws made in the house came into force when it gets assent by the President.       

 RAJYA SABHA (COUNCILS OF STATE)

The Rajya Sabha (Councils of States), is the Upper House of the Union Parliament.

1. Composition of the Rajya Sabha

Rajya Sabha – maximum strength – 250 members out of these 238 are to be the representative of the states and the remaining 12 members are too nominated by the President. At present, the Rajya Sabha has 245 members, 12 nominated and 233 elected

    2. Method of  Election

The members of the Rajya Sabha are elected indirectly by the people. The people of each state elect the members of their state legislative assembly who elect the members of Rajya Sabha.

• Qualifications for the membership of Rajya Sabha
• Must be the citizen of India
• Above the age of 30 years
• One must not hold any office of profit under any government.
• Should not be bankrupt.
• One should not have been disqualified under any law of the parliament.

    3. Tenure

• The Rajya Sabha is a quasi-permanent House.
• After every two years, one-third of its member retires.
• The tenure of each member of the Rajya Sabha is 6 years.

   4. Chairman and Deputy Chairman of the Rajya Sabha

• The Vice President of India is the ex-officio Chairman of the Rajya Sabha.
• During the absence of the Vice-President, the deputy chairman of the Rajya Sabha presides over the meetings.

 LOK SABHA (HOUSE OF THE PEOPLE)

The Lok Sabha (House of the People) is the Lower House of the Union Parliament.

1. Composition of Lok Sabha

Lok Sabha – total seats 552 – contestable seat – 545 – 530 directly elected from the states – 13 from UT and 2 are nominated by the president (Anglo-Indian Community).

    2. Method of Election

The members of the Lok Sabha are elected through General elections, held on the basis of Universal Adult Franchise.

• Qualifications for the memberships of Lok Sabha
• Citizen of India
• 25 years of age or above
• Must be a voter for any parliamentary constituency of India
• The Independent candidate needs ten proposers.

    3. Tenure

The normal term of the Lok Sabha is 5 years but the President of India can extend its tenure for a period of one year at the time of emergency.

 EXECUTIVE INSTITUTIONS

An institution that is responsible for carrying out or executing the laws. In a democratic country, there are two categories in this institution one is that which is elected by the people for a specific period which is called Political Executive and the second is the people who are appointed on a long term basis. They are Permanent Executive or Civil Servant. In this institution, we include Prime Minister, President, Civil Servants and many more.

JUDICIARY INSTITUTIONS

Institutions that provide the mechanism for the resolution of disputes or we can say that all the courts at different levels put together are called judiciary. In India judiciary consist of Supreme Courts for the entire nations, High Courts in the states, District Courts and the courts at local levels. Supreme Courts are considered as the highest courts of appeal whose decisions are binding on all other courts of the country. It can hear appeals against the decisions of the High courts.

 This article tends to be beneficial for the following exams - REET, UPTET, CTET, Super TET, DSSSB, KVS, etc.

Note: All the study notes are available in Hindi as well as the English language. Click on A/अ to change the language.

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