The Governments of Europe

I. THE FOUNDATIONS OF THE CONSTITUTION 1. The Importance of Historical Background 1 2. Anglo-Saxon Beginnings 2 3. The Norman-Plantagenet Period 6 4. The Rise of Parliament 11 5...

IX. THE EMPIRE AND ITS CONSTITUTION 1. Political Development Prior to 1848 193 2. The Creation of the Empire 198 3. The Constitution: Nature of the Empire 202 4. The Empire and...

XV. CONSTITUTIONS SINCE 1789 1. A Century of Political Instability 289 2. The Revolutionary and Napoleonic Era 290 3. From the Restoration to the Revolution of 1848 295 4. The S...

XIX. CONSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENT IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 1. The Era of Napoleon 353 2. The Restoration and the Revolution of 1848 358 3. The Achievement of Unification 362 4. T...

XXII. THE CONSTITUTIONAL SYSTEM--THE CANTONS 1. The Confederation and Its Constitutions 405 2. The Nation and the States 411 3. Cantonal Legislation: the Referendum and the Init...

XXIV. AUSTRIA-HUNGARY PRIOR TO THE AUSGLEICH 1. Austrian Political Development to 1815 442 2. Hungarian Political Development to 1815 445 3. The Era of Metternich 450 4. The Rev...

XXVIII. THE GOVERNMENT OF HOLLAND 1. A Century of Political Development 517 2. The Crown and the Ministry 523 3. The States-General and Political Parties 525 4. The Judiciary an...

XXX. THE GOVERNMENT OF DENMARK 1. Development Prior to 1814 553 2. The Rise of Constitutionalism, 1814-1866 556 3. The Crown and the Ministry 559 4. The Rigsdag--Political Parti...

XXXIII. THE GOVERNMENT OF SPAIN 1. The Beginnings of Constitutionalism 603 2. Political and Constitutional Development, 1833-1876 606 3. The Present Constitution 611 4. The Crow...

*1. Political Pre-eminence of Great Britain.*--George III. is reported to have pronounced the English constitution the most perfect of human formations. One need hardly concur u...

*33. Elements of Stability and Change.*--Structurally, the English governmental system was by the close of the seventeenth century substantially complete. The limited monarchy,...

*48. Contrasts of Theory and Fact.*--The government of the United Kingdom is in ultimate theory an absolute monarchy, in form a limited, constitutional monarchy, and in fact a t...

*79. Antiquity and Importance.*--The British Parliament is at once the oldest, the most comprehensive in jurisdiction, and the most powerful among modern legislative assemblages...

*101. Origins.*--With the possible exception of the Hungarian Table of Magnates, the British House of Lords is the most ancient second chamber among parliamentary bodies. It is,...

*119. Sessions.*--Parliament is required by statute to meet at least once in three years;[166] but, by reason of the enormous pressure of business and, in particular, the custom...

*150. Government by Party.*--Intimately connected with the parliamentary scheme of government which has been described is the characteristic British system of government by part...

The preponderating principle in the governmental system of Great Britain to-day is the rule of law, which means, in effect, two things: first, that no man may be deprived of lib...

*202. Napoleonic Transformations.*--Among the political achievements of the past hundred years few exceed in importance, and none surpass in interest, the creation of the presen...

*220. Status and Privileges.*--Under the North German Confederation of 1867-1871 the king of Prussia was vested with supreme command of the federal navy, the functions of Bundes...

In complete contrast with the Bundesrath, which is a purely federal institution, the Reichstag is broadly national. It represents, not the states, nor yet the people of the stat...

*261. Variations of Type.*--Within the bounds of Germany to-day there are twenty-five states and one Imperial territory with certain attributes of statehood, Alsace-Lorraine. Du...

*274. The House of Lords: Law of 1853.*--Legislative authority in the kingdom of Prussia is shared by the king with a national assembly, the Landtag, composed of two chambers, o...

*293. Essential Similarity of Political Institutions.*--The preponderance of Prussia among the twenty-five states comprised within the German Empire is such as to lend the gover...

Among European states of the first order there is but a single republic. In Great Britain the conspicuous success with which monarchy has been tempered with democracy has left t...

Under the French system of government functions of a purely executive nature are vested in the President of the Republic and the Ministry, assisted by a numerous and highly cent...

*352. Sessions.*--By the constitutional law of July 16, 1875, it is required that the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate shall assemble annually on the second Tuesday of January...

The law of France is of highly composite origin. Its sources lie far back in the Roman law, the canon law, and the Germanic law of the Middle Ages. As late as 1789 there had bee...

*386. Italy in the Later Eighteenth Century.*--The dominant forces in the politics of Europe since the French Revolution have been the twin principles of nationality and democra...

*404. Status of the Sovereign.*--The constitutional system of Italy comprises, according to the phraseology of the _Statuto_, a "representative monarchical government." The thro...

Italy differs from other nations of importance in containing what is essentially a state within a state. The capital of the kingdom is likewise the capital of the Catholic world...

Among the governments of contemporary Europe that of the federal republic of Switzerland is unique; and the constitutional experiments which have been, and are being, undertaken...

*467. The Federal Council: the President.*--At the framing of the Swiss constitution, as at that of the American, there arose the question of a single or a plural executive. In...

*485. The Dual Monarchy.*--The dual monarchy Austria-Hungary, comprising a sixteenth of the area, and containing an eighth of the population, of all Europe, is an anomaly among...

*509. Texts.*--The fundamental law of the Austrian Empire,[655] in so far as it has been reduced to writing, exists in the form of a series of diplomas, patents, and statutes co...

*540. Antiquity.*--By reason of both its antiquity and its adaptability to varying conditions, the constitution of the kingdom of Hungary deserves to be considered one of the mo...

*561. The Ausgleich.*--The unique political relation which subsists to-day between the Empire of Austria and the kingdom of Hungary rests upon the Ausgleich, or Compromise, of 1...

Geographical juxtaposition, combined with historical circumstance, has determined that between the two modern kingdoms of Holland and Belgium, widely as they differ in many fund...

*588. The Constitution: Liberalism and Stability.*--The constitution of the kingdom of Belgium was framed, consequent upon the declaration of Belgian independence October 4, 183...

The kingdom of Denmark is among the smallest of European states. Its area is but 15,582 square miles, which is less than one-third of that of the state of New York, and its popu...

*628. Sweden in Earlier Modern Times.*--During the centuries which intervened between the establishment of national independence under the leadership of Gustavus Vasa in 1523 an...

*650. The Fundamental Laws.*--The constitution of the kingdom of Sweden is one of the most elaborate instruments of its kind in existence. It comprises a group of fundamental la...

*667. The Napoleonic Régime and the National Resistance.*--It was the fortune of the kingdom of Spain, as it was that of the several Italian states, to be made tributary to the...

*695. The Napoleonic Subjugation and the Constitution of 1820.*--The government of Portugal at the opening of the nineteenth century was no less absolute than was that of Spain,...