Composition of Government : Comparative Study of the Composition of Armenian Governments Since Indep

1
Composition of Government Comparative Study of
the Composition of Armenian Governments Since
Independence.

• Presented by Lusine Hakobyan

2
Government

• The Social purpose of the state is to assure the
  unity of the society and the development of the
  main spheres of life by means of subordination.
• The social will of the subjects of the social
  life is the essence of the state.
• The subjects of the social life give birth to the
  government.
• A government is identified by means of its PM and
  the participating parties the maximum length of
  time of a government is one standard election
  period. If there is a change in either of these,
  there is a new government.

3
Government

• Executive branch of government is the historical
  core of a political system.
• The political executive was and is the seat of
  authoritative power in any political system.
• The existence of a political executive to
  discharge leadership and formulate policy in
  short to governis discernible in all models of a
  political system.

4
Government

• France Revolutionaries - simple executor - the
  legislature was the head of the system, the
  executive - simply the hand that executed its
  orders.
• USA - the term executive applies to the President
  and his
• collaborators.
• De Gaulle insisted that that adjective
  executive applied solely to the government.
• Britain - the word refers not only to the
  government itself, but also the administration
  placed under it.
• The Government may equally apply to the whole
  collection of institutions, rules, and procedures
  by which the country is run.

5
Three types of executive government in modern
democracies

• Cabinet Government
• The Presidential system
• Assembly or parliamentary

6
Types of Government

• Executive systems can be fluid and hybrid
• 1. Presidential-parliamentary
  
• 2. Semi-presidential

7
Cabinet Government

• Political leadership is entrusted to a prime
  minister and a group of colleagues who head the
  important departments of government.
• The composition of the cabinet in large part
  reflects the balance of political power in the
  legislature, which in turn is the product of
  legislative elections.
• A test of whether cabinet government really
  exists is whether the cabinet accepts collective
  responsibility to parliament for the policies it
  pursues.

8
Parliamentary System

• Coalition

Prime Minister
Selects and ousts
Cabinet
Parties Parliament
Parties
Parties
guides
elect
Ministries
Voters
Voters
9
British Cabinet

• No discretion in appointing PM. Specific
  circumstances the presence of a leader whose
  position is uncontested, and an electoral victory
  that is undisputable in parliamentary
  democracies the role of Head of State in
  selecting a PM has become marginal.
• Unwritten rule is that a PM should choose his
  Ministers from the ranks of MP, and appointments
  of individuals outside Parliament are
  exceptional.
• Consists of members of Parliament (most in the
  Commons, a few in Lords), who are high up in
  their parties and are important political
  figures, have lots of experience, are picked up
  by PM for political qualifications. PM usually
  take care to see both parties represented in the
  cabinet.
• collective responsibility
• Although the key to allocation is, in principle
  a simple arithmetical rule, in practice the
  situation is far more complex
• 
  Yves Meny

10
British Cabinet

• Lord Chancellor (member of Lords, heads
  judiciary)
• Foreign secretary
• Home secretary (internal governance, including
  police)
• Chancellor of the Exchequer (treasury)
• Environment secretary
• Defense secretary
• Education secretary
• Transport secretary
• Social Security secretary
• Agriculture secretary
• Employment secretary
• Northern Ireland secretary
• Welsh secretary
• Scottish secretary
• National Heritage secretary (preservation of
  buildings and monuments)
• Citizens Charter secretary (privatization of
  public services)

11
The Presidential system

• There is a singe head of the political executive
  who is elected to office directly by the people.
• The president usually combines the roles of head
  of government and head of state.
• The president appoints the members of the
  administration who are regarded as members of the
  executive branch.

12
Presidential System
President
Parliament
chooses
Cabinet
elect
elect
Ministries or Departments
Voters
13
USA Government

• Many Ministers are chosen from outside Congress.
  They are the Presidents men. Those from
  Congress resign their seats there on confirmation
  of their Cabinet appointments.
• Consists of presumed experts from universities,
  law offices and business, mostly politically
  unknown and without experience in winning
  elections or serving in Congress. USA departments
  are firmly fixed by statute and change only after
  great deliberation.

14
Assembly or parliamentary

• Elected legislature is politically dominant and
  is able, paradoxically, to wrest executive power
  from the executive branch. Today assembly
  governments are rare anywhere in the world.

15
Presidential-parliamentary

• Presidential-parliamentary government is a safe
  choice
• Pure presidential system generates a zero-sum
  game parliamentary systems, increase total
  payoffs, with many parties and their candidates
  winning influence even while losing elections.
• The mixed presidential-parliamentary system
  produces a greater rotation of leaders, with more
  frequent changes of prime minister and cabinet
  reshuffles, than either a strong presidential of
  strong parliamentary one.

16
Semi-presidential

• Semi-presidential system is characterized by
  constitutionally powerful presidency.
• Its Achilles heel, however, is the possibility
  that parties of the left and right would capture
  different institutionsthe presidency and the
  legislaturethereby generating political tensions
  and even constitutional crisis over whether the
  president or the prime minister and government
  really embodied executive power.
• Some episodes of this kind of cohabitation have
  established the convention that under such
  political circumstances the strong presidency
  envisaged by the constitution will be set aside
  in favor of a diminished semi-presidential
  system.

17
Semi-Presidential system
President
chooses
Parliament
can censure
Premier
Cabinet
elect
elect
guides
Voters
Ministries
18
French Government

• The French President chooses a premiere, who in
  turn picks a cabinet.
• Ministers do not have to be approved by the
  Parliament but usually are. A cabinet not to the
  liking of parliament could be censured and
  ousted.
• The President has the power to dismiss the
  Premier (The French president is strong and
  durable the French Premier comes and goes).

19
French Government

• A Deputy chosen to be a minister must resign his
  seat.
• The ministers do not have to be members of
  parliament many are experienced administrators
  and apolitical technicians, who have never been
  elected.
• A considerable proportion of government
  Ministers, including two Prime Ministers, have
  been selected from outside parliament. Tradition
  however demands that experts recruited in this
  way should, sooner or later, enter the political
  arena to receive confirmation in their posts from
  universal suffrage.

20
French Government

• Ministries are almost ad hoc combinations of
  existing French agencies and bureaus, which
  change according to the policy goals of the
  executive.
• No cabinet change is final all positions could
  be repeatedly divided, combined and reshuffled.
  In general, left-wing governments seek large and
  specialized cabinets since they propose major
  changes under government supervision
  conservative governments, usually like smaller
  cabinets as they do not plan to remake society.
• Such repeated change sounds chaotic , but the
  career civil servants in the bureaus change very
  little the changes are at the very top the more
  it changes, the more it stays the same.

21
Three stages of government type in Armenia

• There was no President, only NA and Prime
  Minister (Parliamentary)
• The institute of President was established, and
  the PM became kind of an assistant to President
  on economic issues. This stage is characterized
  by frequent dismissals of PMs. (Presidential)
• The emergence of Miasnutyun alliance that swept
  to a landslide victory in the May 30
  parliamentary elections. The bloc controls the
  majority of seats in the new parliament, which
  elected Demirchian as its speaker (New political
  situation).
• 
  Vazgen Manukian

22
RoA Constitution

• Article 55
• The President shall, on the basis of the
  distribution of the seats in the NA and
  consultations held with the parliamentary
  factions appoint as PM the person enjoying
  confidence of the majority of the Deputies.
• The President shall appoint to and dismiss from
  office the members of the Government upon the
  recommendation of the PM.

23
RoA Constitution

• Article 85
• The Constitution and the laws shall define
  the powers of the Government. The structure of
  the Government shall upon the recommendation of
  the Government be defined by the law. The
  procedure for the organization of operations of
  the Government and other public administration
  bodies under the Government shall upon the
  submission of the Prime Minister be defined by
  the decree of the President of the Republic

24
Prime Ministers (Armenia)

• Vazgen Manukyan 13.08.90 22.11.91
  NDM
• Gagik Arutyunyan 22.11.91 30.07.92
  None
• Khosrov Arutyunyan 30.07.92 02.02.93
  None
• Hrant Bagratyan 02.02.93 04.11.96
  PNM
• Armen Sarkissian 04.11.96 20.03 97
  None

25
Prime Ministers (Armenia)

• Robert Kocharyan 20.03.97 10.04.98
  None
• Armen Darbinyan 10.04.98 11.06. 99
  None
• Vasgen Sarkissian 11.06.99 27.10.99
  Republican
• Aram Sarkissian 03.11.99 02.05.2000
  Republican
• Andranik Markaryan 12.05.00 Present
  Republican

26
Cabinet Durability

• A cabinet that stays in power for a ling time is
  likely to be dominant vis-à-vis the legislature,
  and a short-lived cabinet is likely to be
  relatively weak.( Durability also is an indicator
  of regime stability)
• Paul V. Warwick a parliamentary system that
  does not produce durable governments is unlikely
  to provide effective policy making, to attract
  widespread popular allegiance, or perhaps even to
  survive over the longer run.
• Paradox of stable policy with unstable cabinets
  in France is explained by civil servants system.
• Mattei Dogan cabinet stability is not a valid
  indicator of the health and viability of the
  democratic system the major reason is that in
  most systems with seemingly unstable cabinets,
  there is a highly stable core of ministerial
  personnel.

27
Prime Ministers

• In 1990 Armenia was facing the historical
  necessity of institutional change transition to
  market economy and political plurality. The
  period of 1990-1995, the period of revolution
  brought social difficulties and dissatisfaction.
  Nevertheless the continuity of change was very
  important, and the most appropriate possibility
  to tranquil public dissatisfaction and possible
  unrest was to dismiss government (not to threaten
  President, NA, or even bring to a new coupe).
  Prime Minister has always been the diverters of
  politics.
• Kh.
  Harutunian

28
Current Structure of Armenian Government
29
Current Structure of Armenian Government

• 1.National Security Service
• 2. State Committee for Real Estate Cadastre
• 3. State Tax Service
• 4. State Customs Service
• 5. The Police of the Republic of Armenia
• 6. Department for the Management of State
  Property
• 7.State Committee for Physical Culture and Sport
• 8. General Department for Civil Aviation

30
Armenian Government 1991

• Prime Minister, 6 State Ministers (coordinate
  the activities of ministries having overlapping
  jurisdictions), Ministers, the Heads of State
  Inspectorates and State Departments.
• Council of Ministers included the following
  ministries agriculture, architecture and urban
  planning, communications, construction, culture,
  defense, economics, education, energy and fuel,
  environment, finance, food and state procurement,
  foreign affairs, health, higher education and
  science, industry, internal affairs, justice,
  labor and social security, light industry,
  national security, natural resources, trade, and
  transportation.
• Some has been eliminated later due to transition
  to market economy and some overlapping some
  ministries merge with others.

31
Armenian Government 1995

• 1. National Security
• 2. Health
• 3. Trade, Services and Tourism
• 4. Justice
• 5. Industry
• 6. Foreign Affairs
• 7. Environmental Protection
• 8. Agriculture and Food (eliminated in 1996)
• 9. Economics
• 10. Energy (- fuel)
• 11. Communication

32
Armenian Government 1995

• 12. Education and Science ( merged)
• 13. Culture, Youth and Sport
• 14. Interior Affairs
• 15. Defense
• 16. Social Security, Employment, Migration and
  Refugee problems
• 17. Information
• 18. Transport and Communication
• 19. Urban Planning
• 20. Finance

33
Armenian Government 1995

• 21. 7 State Departments ( Emergency Statistics
  Tax Inspectorate NA Relations for relations
  with CIS,EU and International Organizations
  Territorial Administration).
• 22. Chief of Staff
• Economic reforms continued and a new
  privatization and price liberalization programme
  was launched in March 1995.

34
Armenian Government 1996

• Ministry of Inferior Affairs National Security
• Ministry of Privatization and Foreign Investment
• Social Security - Employment, Migration and
  Refugee problems
• Ministry of Territorial Administration
• 2 Departments (Emergency or Special Situations)
  Statistics, State Register and Analysis )
• Trade Services and Tourism Industry in
  1997(very correct and justified decision)

35
Armenian Government 1997

• 1.Trade, Services and Tourism Economy and
  Economic DevelopmentTrade and Economic
  Development.
• 2.Privatization Foreign Investments
  Privatization Ministry.
• 3.Economics Finance Ministry of Economic and
  Finance (The policies of privatization,
  denationalization, management of state property
  has been implemented separately of unified due to
  suggestion and decision of PM)
• 4.The department for Special Sitiuations has
  been eliminated from the Governmetn Sructure.

36
New Armenian Cabinet 1998

• Darbinian said that his ministers would be
  selected on the basis of their professionalism,
  regardless of their party affiliation.
• Multi-party government was formed. (Communist,
  Republican, ARF)
• The Ministry of Coordination of Industrial
  substructures ( actual vice-premier, coordinating
  the decisions of industrial ministries)

37
The Public Sector Reform Commission

• - Functional analysis was carried out in all
  ministries, government agencies to identify and
  eliminate overlaps and redundancies, as well as
  disharmony in functions and structural units.
• - Civil service was placed in all ministries
  (with the exception of the Ministry of Foreign
  Affairs of RA and Ministry of Defense of RA)
• Considerable part of government agencies - over
  21 entities - were merged within relevant
  ministries or integrated with them as a separate
  agency, inspectorate or a structural subdivision.
• - Several entities within ministries and
  government subsidiary bodies were re-organized
  into state non-commercial organizations. Public
  administration functions were delegated to
  corresponding governing bodies.
• - Based on the type of functions, different
  agencies and inspectorates were formed within the
  ministries as separate units based on functional
  criteria to provide for service provision,
  streamlining, monitoring and inspection
  activities

38
The Public Sector Reform Commission

• This was supposed to allow
  ministers, in their capacity of Cabinet members,
  to concentrate upon the decision of strategic
  matters, as well as to ensure verticality in
  public governance and to lay down terms of
  reference for each member of government, to
  specify the range of those bodies where civil
  service was due to be introduced.
• Subsequently, in accordance with the RA law on
  civil service, all of civil service job titles
  were to be described, classified and assessed by
  separating the political, discretional and
  technical functions and setting apart the
  maintenance staff.

39
Power Ministries

• The National Security Service (NSS) has undergone
  a number of changes to its status and power since
  independence. Firstly, it was renamed the
  Department of National Security. Then it merged
  with the MOI in 1996 to form the Ministry of
  Internal Affairs and National Security, but
  became a separate Ministry again in 1999. At the
  end of 2002, its status was changed again, it was
  made an adjunct body to the Government answering
  directly to the President.
• Ostensibly, this was done to
  bring Armenia into line with European standards.
  However, it is worth noting that in effect, the
  President had succeeded in bringing this
  important part of the security apparatus firmly
  under his own personal control, as the police are
  no longer answerable to anyone but him. The
  Council of Europe has criticized parts of the Law
  on Police, which Armenia is now expected to
  revise again
• 
  Avagyan and Hiscock

40
Armenian Government 1999

• In a dramatic step, Kocharian split in two the
  powerful ministry of interior and national
  security, until now headed by one of his closest
  allies, Serzh Sarkisian (no relation to Vazgen
  Sarkisian). Serzh Sarkisian was left in control
  of the new national security ministry (the former
  KGB). The interior ministry was given to Yerevan
  Mayor Suren Abrahamian, who is allied with the
  prime minister.
• 1. State Revenues (to separate the budgeting
  policies and tax compliance)
• 2. Statistics (change in status)
• 3. Transportation
• 4. Post and Telecommunications
• 5. Operative problems (eliminated in November)
• 6. 4 assistants to PM
• 7. State committee of PR.
• 8. Ministry of Infrastructure Coordination

41
Armenian Government 2000

• The government restructuring reduced the number
  of ministerial portfolios from 24 to 17. It was
  staged in a bid to urge all political parties to
  join forces with the government in tackling
  Armenia's ongoing economic and social crises.
• Robert Kocharians appointment of a new Prime
  Minister in mid-May has generally been received
  as a squandered opportunity to revive Armenias
  economy.

42
Armenian Government 2000

• New Ministries State Property Coordination of
  Territorial Administration and Urban Planning
  (split in a short time).
• Split of Ministry of Health and Social Security
  into two.
• Split of Ministry of Agriculture and
  Environmental Protection into two.

43
Armenian Government 2002

• Department of Information and Publishing
  Agency in the Ministry of Culture, Youth and
  Sport.
• 20 Ministries and 11 adjunct Departments,
  Committees, Agencies, Services (Real Estate,
  Nuclear Energy and Radiation Security, Emergency,
  Customs, Migration and Refugees, Public Health,
  State Procurement, Water issues, Seismic
  Protection, Standards and certification, Civil
  Aviation sport in 2003)

44
Armenian Government 2005

• By merging three governmental adjunct bodies, the
  Ministry of Territorial Administration was
  recreated (Extraordinary situations, Migration
  and Refugees, Water Supply Department)

45
Interview with Kh.Harutunian

• Any government is in place for the ultimate goal,
  which is (at least should be) its citizens
  well-being and dignified life. For that goal it
  should provide people with public services,
  without which people cannot lead dignified
  life, and which cannot be provided by any one
  else. Ministries are government entities
  coordinating the concerns of public life in
  separated areas, which enable to implement
  separate and independent policies in particular
  sphere.

46
Three factors determining the structure of
government.

• Independent area, and expectations of people from
  that area.
• No more than 7 to 11 direct contacts of Prime
  Minister.
• Public consensus.
• Kh. Harutunian

47
Optimal Structure for Governmnet

• Management Theory.

Prime Minister

State Minister
State Minister
State Minister
State Minister
Block of Ministries
Block of Ministries
Block of Ministries
Block of Ministries
48
Interview with Vazgen Manukian

• The ministries should coordinate rather than
  govern.
• The optimal structure of government should be
  not more than 10.
• Vazgen Manukian

49
Interview with Gagik Martirosian

• The structure of Government is dynamic phenomena,
  which demands change due to different needs of
  society and different stages in development of
  the country. The ministries can merge and split,
  be established and eliminated due to the
  imperatives of social life. Hence, the structure
  of government is never static. The structural
  change could be also the result of decision of
  particular political bodies(2003 coalition), or,
  unfortunately (though rarely) could be done on
  favor to a particular person.

50
Conclusion

• Several aspects of government institution tend to
  be durable over time, but the composition of
  government is a reflection of temporary forces
  and the structure of it - reflection of social
  needs. It should be reached a political consensus
  over the issue of the structure of government as
  a result of compromise of all active political
  forces. A stable, not frequently changing
  structure is preferable, because it is impossible
  to change the structure of expectancies. The
  structure of the government should be provided
  and defined either by constitution or by
  political consensus.

51
Conclusion

• The problems that require solutions dont
  decrease or increase in number due to the
  attitude of the PM of President. They just can be
  prioritized by the Head of Government, changing
  their rank, status and order of implementation.
  The Ministry is a tool for implementation of
  certain policies, in order to reach the goal -
  the enhancement of happiness of people and
  national security.

52
Thank You