Are certain democratic institutions more or less democratic than others - Essay Example

Russia is a federal presidential government with the executive power split between the President and the Prime Minister, however, President is the supreme head (Hale, 2006, p. 243). Two chambers represent the legislative system, the State Duma (lower house) and the Federation Council (upper house) (Chaisty, 2006, p.73). The Federation Council acts as a voice of Russia’s federated entities, and it forbids political factions. The Council is not directly elected, and consists of representatives from federal entities.

It works with the lower house to complete and vote on draft laws. In addition, the Federal Council has special powers to declare presidential election, impeach the president and decides on the use of military forces outside Russia’s jurisdiction. However, the State Duma is the lower house and it consists of 450 deputies elected for terms of five consecutive years. Any Russian of age 21 years is eligible to run for parliamentary seat in the state Duma. The deputies are elected from party lists through proportional representation.

State Duma first considers all the bills. Immediately the majority in Duma State passes the bill, a draft law is returned to the Federation Council. If the Council rejects the bill, the two chambers form a commission to work out a compromise. Norway is a constitutional monarchy having a parliamentary democratic system of governance. The head of state is the King whereas Prime Minister is the head of government (Wardahl, 2011, p.379). The government structure consists of three branches, the Executive Branch, the Legislative Branch, and the Judicial Branch.

Norway has a unicameral legislature. The parliamentary system consists of the Stortinget that has two significant functions. It enacts legislation and approves the national budget. Stortinget also votes on proposals and the bills introduced by the Executive Branch. It monitors the executive and