Social 30 project

Political System

Political

System

Iceland is a Democracy with a president as well as a prime minister, with legislative power being shared by the two of them. The president is elected through popular vote by the citizens for a four year term, and has limited power. The president appoints the ministers in the cabinet, and can discharge ministers in the cabinet. With meetings at the State council, the President and the Cabinet discuss matters involving the state as well as bills, and other matters in the parliament. The president has the ability to sign or not sign bills passed by the Parliament, as well as submit bills to the Parliament. Iceland's current president is Guðni Th. Jóhannesson who was elected in 2016. There will be a presidential election in about 4 months in June 2020

The prime minister is the head of government by executing authority along with the cabinet, and is appointed by the president. The prime ministers job is to ensure that all duties of the cabinet are carried out and the legislation and regulations passed by the legislative branch are fulfilled. Iceland's current president is Katrín Jakobsdóttir, and is currently the most trusted politician in government right now.

There are three main branches in Iceland's government, one being the executive branch. The Executive branch is composed by the president, prime minister, and the cabinet of ministers. The legislative branch consists of Althing which is the oldest parliament in the world being in session since 930 AD. The Althing contains 63 seats, with members being elected based off of their party, with each party serving 4 years. Currently the Independence party holds the majority of seats. The Judicial branch consists of the National Court, the Supreme court, and other lower courts.The National Court was created to oversee cases concerning the Cabinet members. The Supreme Court is the highest court the appeals to the country.

Electoral System

Any Icelandic citizen abut 18 has the equal opportunity to vote for their representatives, with every parliament, municipal, and presidential elections being held every 4 years.

In the parliament election, there are 63 members, each being divided into 6 constituencies: Greater capital region, North-east Iceland, North-west Iceland, Norther Reykjavík, Southern Reykjavík, and South Iceland. When voters vote for one of the 6 constituencies, they are voting the ballot that represents their constituency, and each party can run ballots in one or more constituencies.

In municipal elections, the same election system is used as in the parliamentary elections and the parties are normally the same political parties as the ones in parliamentary election. There are 74 municipalities and each voter gets one ballot, and the number of representatives from each party is based off of the results from the elections.

In president elections, citizens over 18 years or up may vote every four years. In order to run for president, you must be 35 years or older. Voters choose from a list of names, and as long as a candidate gets the most votes, they are elected president. If there is only on candidate, the candidate then wins by default.

Electoral System

History:

History

of Rule

Iceland was established in the early 10th century and it was founded by primarily Scandinavian people. In 930 the constitution was founded. its called the Althing and is one of the oldest parliamentary systems in the world. In 1262 Iceland joined a treaty that established a union with Norway's monarchy. In 1918 Iceland was recognized as a fully sovereign state united with Denmark under a common monarchy. Iceland became an independent republic in 1944.

Since 2017, the main political party in power has been the Independence Party which has maintained the largest amount of seats in the Althing's. The Independence Party, the Left-Green Movement and the Progressive Party currently form the coalition government. The Independence party is a liberal-conservative political party. The Independence party is generally right winged, though not as right winged as other parties. It is economically liberal and advocates limited government involvement in the economy, and is socially liberal.

Type of Economy

Except for the economic crisis that Iceland endured during 2008, Iceland has reached high growth, low unemployment, and a good distribution of income. Iceland's economy is a combination of a capitalist structure with free market principles as well as a very successful welfare system. Their traditional economy was dominated by fish, seafood and banking. Iceland became a full European Free Trade Association member in 1970 and entered into the free trade agreement with the European Community in 1973. Under the European Economic Area agreement, there is free cross-border movement of the capital, labor, goods, and services between Iceland, Norway and the EU countries. There are also many other free trade agreement between Iceland and other foreign countries outside of the EEA.

Trade:

Trade

Iceland has been branching out into different manufacturing and service industries such as tourism, software production, and biotechnology. The economy relies a lot on the fishing industry which provides 40% of merchandise export earnings with more than 12% GDP and employs almost 5% of the workforce. The fishing industry is concerned with the declining fish stocks as well as the fluctuation of prices to the main exports of fish, fish products, as well as aluminum and ferrosilicon. Tourism has become one of the main sources of economic growth in Iceland since 2010, as there has been many tourists, with the number of tourists reaching 4.5 times the Icelandic population in 2016. In 2013, Iceland signed a joint application between Chinese and Norwegian energy firms for oil exportation. This along with geothermal and hydro power sources have increased foreign investments in aluminum which has boosted the economy and created interest in high tech firms creating data centers.

Constitutions Sections:

Section I.

States that Iceland is a parliamentary government, and the Althing and the president jointly exercise legislative power and judges exercise judicial power.

Section II.

States where the Presidential Seat is, meetings with the Althingi, and presidential rights.

Section III.

Defines term limits for Althingi members, and that any citizen of Iceland can be elected to the Althingi, except for Supreme Court Judges.

Section IV.

Defines the major issues concerning the activity of the parliament and determines the rights and power of the MPs. Section IV says that nobody is allowed to approve a bill before three readings in the Althing, and Althing meetings shall take place in public unless otherwise approved by the Parliament. The majority of MPs must be present to deal with an issue. Many other parliamentary procedural rules are legally defined according to the 58th article.

Section V.

Says that the judiciary may be established by law, that the judiciary will settle disputes around competence of authorities, and that the judiciary shall be guided solely by law.

Section VI.

Establishes freedom of religion.

Section VII.

Establishes several human rights . It also says that the law shall provide that everybody has a right to health care and education. It says that matters according to taxes are regulated by law, and municipalities may manage their own affairs in accordance to the law. Finally, it gives provisions for amending the constitution.

Constitution

Sections

Human Rights

Iceland is one of the worlds leading countries for human rights. Section VII in their constitution lays out theses rights

Human Rights

International Organizations

North Atlantic Treaty Association (NATO

United Nations

European Economic Area (EEA)

European Council

European Free Trade Association (EFTA)

International Monetary Fund

International Organizations

Iceland is part of a number of international organizations. Their involvement with NATO gives the country protection should they be attacked. In the UN Iceland plays an active role in discussing ocean issues, The law of the sea, and human rights. Being in the EFTA ensures that Iceland can be a free trade country.

Foreign Aid

Iceland has a section of their foreign affair policy called the International Development Cooperation.

The main goal of this is to fight poverty and improved living conditions in the least developed countries around the world. Iceland feels that they need to fulfill their ethical responsibilities and help the less fortunate. Iceland prioritizes issues they think are the most important. The first is the search for more renewable and natural resources, specifically energy and fishing. They also focus on human capital which includes education and health care. The third focus is promoting peace to the international community and encouraging good governance. They put emphasis issues like gender equality and environmental sustainability.

Military

Military

Iceland's military is very small compared to other countries in the world. The have a coast guard which protects Iceland from the sea and sky and they have no standing army. They have a small crisis response unit (ICRU). The ICRU is operated by the ministry of foreign affairs and is a small peacekeeping force made of roughly 200 people that is deployed internationally and has been deployed since 2008. The ICRU has been previously deployed in Yugoslavia, Kosovo, and Afghanistan through NATO missions.