Germany and Spain: A History of Two Great Nations

Spain and Germany are both European countries with many similarities and difference in the way their government is constituted and perform their administrative roles. The conventional long Spain is the Kingdom of Spain. Its local name is Espana or Reino de Espana. The capital city of Spain is Madrid while that of German is Berlin. The capital cities in both countries serve as the administrative centers by hosting the government headquarters as well as being the economic hubs for the countries by having several multinational and major economies players in the respective countries have their head offices in the cities. Madrid has located the following coordinates (Molina and Rhodes , 2007) . It lies between forty degrees north and twenty-four degrees north on the latitude and three degrees west and forty degrees west of the longitudinal lines. Madrid is always six hours ahead in time compared to the local time in Washington DC during Standard time. Spain has two time zones inclusive of the Canary Islands. Spain’s daylight saving time one hour on the positive side and begins on the last Sunday in March and ends the last Sunday in October. Geographically, Germany lies between forty-seven degrees and fifty-five degrees North on the main Latitude and two degrees and twenty degrees east on the main Longitude. Just like Madrid in Spain it time is six hours ahead of the local time in Washington DC. Similarly, just like Spain, Germany daylight saving time begins on the last Sunday in March and ends last Sunday in October. The daylight saving time applies only to metropolitan France and not its overseas departments, collectives or territories. This paper seeks to give details of European politics and contemporary issue currently being experienced by the two nations. The paper further aims to discuss a various issue relating to the countries (Frege and Kelly, 2009) . The issue may include but not limited to immigration, economic crisis national pension program or equality issues as many an other matter of interest in the two nations . 

Spain has a parliamentary monarchy system of government. The system of government has been in existence since the country attained self-rule . The current administration is based on a structure that was adopted by the country in the year 1978. The political system rests on a social and democratic system. The national sovereignty of the nation and the supreme decision-making organ is vested on the people of Spain. The power of the government and the state come from the people. The parliamentary monarchy system of governance is a political representative system of governance. The government is democratic with a constitutional monarchy in which the monarch Is the supreme leader of the nation. The prime minister with the official title common reefed to us as the president of the government. The president of the government is the supreme leader in government as asserted by Molina and Rhodes (2007) . The executive powers of the government are exercised by the various arms of government and are interrelated to with the presidential powers. Below the prime minister's rank there exist the deputy prime minister and the ministers in charge of various government departments. Collectively the representatives constitute the cabinet or the council of ministers. Spain’s legislative powers are vested in the General Courts commonly known in Spain as the “Cortes Generales” that is formed by the bicameral parliament consisting of the congress of deputies and the senate (Borzel, 2010) . In Spain, the Judiciary is independent of the legislature and the executive. The judiciary is autonomous and makes its decision basing on the law, and it is not subject to any other arms of government. The Judiciary administers justice on behalf of the kings by having judges and magistrates who interpret the law in the case of a dispute. The Supreme Court is the highest court in the land and ha the jurisdiction to hear any case about Spain and its citizens. The court can not handle constitutional amendment cases as the constitution of the nation has created specifically the constitutional courts to handle all cases related to the country ’s constitution. 

The political system in Spain is a multiparty system with several parties in existence. Although the country is a multiparty state, two sides dominate the countries political arena. The two principal political parties in existence in Spain today are Spanish Socialist Workers Party (SSWP) and the People Party (PP). There also exist other regional parties in Spain (Borzel, 2010) . The local parties include the Basque Nationalist Party with its origin in the Basque Country, Convergence and Union and the Socialist Party of Catalonia. The local parties have always been of significance importance to the national politics of Spain as they contribute significantly to shaping political opinion in the national politics. The parties have also been instrumental in developing the political policies being advanced by the major political parties. Regional parties are always wooed by the dominant political parties to accept their ideas to help them win more political clout on the electorate (Molina and Rhodes , 2007) . The leader of the local political parties have always desired to have the parties play bigger roles in national parties, but the parties manifesto have in some limited their growth. It is typical to find the regional political parties concentrating their political activities in a given region at the expense of selling their ideologies nationwide. The locals to an area are highly identified by the political party in their locality as they advance their interest more than the national political parties. Delegates of the Congress of Deputies are chosen based on proportional representation. The federal government is formed based on the party that has a majority of members of the Congress as the majority in number translates into more confidence in the party as well as more strength required to win political power. Spain has no had coalition government since the introduction of democratic rule in the country’s political scene. The party that fails to have a majority seat in the Congress forms the opposition which they refer to as the minority government. The minority government is tasked with formulating policies and strategies that will keep the national government on its toes and ensure it delivers on its promises while respecting the rule of law (Molina and Rhodes , 2007) . 

Regional governments Spain operate on a system called the state of autonomies. The state of freedoms is a highly decentralized system of political administration that is founded on unbalanced devolution to form the nationalities and regions. The regional nations are all under the central government and have to express loyalty to sovereign rulers and the central government. The national sovereignty is based on the regional states being loyal and submissive to the federal government and not any other country . The right for the central government to exercise and carry out its free activities is enshrined in the constitution on the nation. Each region has a single legislative assembly similar to that of the national government. Similarly, the regional government has their council of ministers and a president who has executive powers. The representatives and the president are elected by the people of the respective state. 

The electoral system n France is based on universal suffrage principles. The suffrage is free to all Spaniards through secret ballot upon attaining the age of eighteen years or older. Election of Cortes Generales is held after every four years of even before in case the prime minister decides to call for an earlier election. Representatives of the Congress of Deputies are chosen through a proportional representation based on a closed party register and the provinces serve as electoral districts (Frege and Kelly, 2009) . In this system, they have registered a multitude of people. According to the sparsely populated areas are over represented as more seats of representatives are given to the sparsely populated regions than they would have if the number of posts is provided according to the percentage of the population. Furthermore, the political system in Spain favors the dominant political parties in the country. The political system has encouraged the formation of smaller but numerous state system, but the nation has had few political parties for many years (Borzel, 2010) . The countries two dominant political parties have had a significant role in the national policy of Spain and influenced major decisions the country has been involved . The dominance of the principal political parties has made the smaller parties be less represented in many important affairs of national importance. 

There have existed numerous domestic and political issues in Spain since time immemorial. Immigration has been an issue of concern for a long with the federal government formulating various laws and policies to tackle the problem . Since the twentieth century, Spain has been having the issue of peripheral nationalism. The debate on whether Spain should be taken as a plurinational federation or is not is still ongoing (Molina and Rhodes , 2007) . The problem seems to lack a comprehensive solution. Every measure the government comes up with does not comprehensively address the issue making the government repeal the laws from time to time to meet the different need and challenges brought about by immigration. Historically, Spain is known to have a variety of diverse and contradictory organizations. The groups exhibit variation in economic and social structures (Molina and Rhodes , 2007) . The difference in the community goes down to having multiple languages, historical developments, cultural norms and political organizing of the people of Spain. Regions that have experienced peripheral national movements include Catalonia, Basque Country, and Galicia. Some groups have been advocating for special recognition of their national identity within Spain while other groups have been pushing to have the right to self-administration , self-determination, and independence. In the year 1978, the constituent assembly sought to establish a balance between divergent views of centralism congenital from the Franco’s regime. Other Spaniard takes Spain as a nation of nations thus they should r estrict people who are coming in to settle whether permanent or temporal. In many occasions, there have been the needs to have the need to ensure the county immigration rules are made more flexible to allow ease movement off communities into and out of the nation. The issue has not been that easy to deal (Frege and Kelly, 2009) . Sometimes debates on whether to allow immigrant into Spain have generated heated debate that has contributed to the lack of a consensus on the whole issue of immigration. The issue of immigration has had its time in court as some people seek the court's interpretation regarding acceptance and non-acceptance of immigrants into the nation. The national government has been instrumental in helping find a lasting solution to the impasse without success. The issue has continued to generate mixed reaction fro t he people across the nation. It hoped that a permanent settlement of immigration-related grievances would be found soon. 

Terrorism has also been an issue of concern in the contemporary Spanish civilization. The issue has been in existence for a while now. The national government has been involved in numerous campaigns against the Basque Fatherland and Liberty . Basque Fatherland and Liberty is an equipped secessionist movement that is believed to have been founded in the year 1959 (Frege and Kelly, 2009) . The campaign was created to oppose Franco and his system of administration. The campaign wanted to advance their self-rule by championing for Basque self-government using unfair and brutal means to achieve power. During inception, the movement was peaceful but started using different methods in agitating for its grievances. Locally in Spain, the movement regard themselves as a gorilla movement, but the world considers their actions and complaints similar to that of terrorists. The regional government has been having a different view of the national government of how to best handle the outlawed movement. The differences in the two governments have led to the sour relationship between the regional government and the federal government. I t was mainly focusing on the Spanish military and security personnel and at time staff When the movement began. Government official sand the security forces beefed up their security to make themselves more secure making the Basque Fatherland Liberty movement unable to accomplish its task. The campaign responded by changing the focus of the attacks as asserted by Frege and Kelly (2009) . The group began to focus on tourist with the intention of having the attention of the government because by disrupting the tourism sector the government would lose revenue and eventually yield to the outlawed group's demands. The movement at some point was involved in malicious activities of bombing government premises without fear of being brought to book. More than eight hundred lives must have been lost as a result of the group engaging in their unlawful acts. 

The political system in Germany is based on the federal parliamentary democratic system. The government is elected by popular vote by having t he people take part in elections, and the party of individual with the highest number of votes wins a particular. During the election, everyone has one vote irrespective of their social status in the community. The structure of the political system is based on the constitution of the country that is called the Grudge sets . The Constitution spells out the right and privileges of the people of Germany as well us their obligations to t he state. The law further defines the structure of government and the role to be played by each state office holder (Frege and Kelly, 2009) . The structure creates the position of the president, the cabinet, the Bundesrat and the judicial systems. The head of government is the president who adds up as the head of state. The federal chancellor is the supreme leader f the government. The chancellor is from the group with a majority of the member in the legislative assembly. The law making the body of Germany is called the Bundestag. The government of Germany is mandated by the constitution to exercise executive powers within the Germany territory (Borzel, 2010) . The government has powers to make laws that will be used to administrate and govern the state. Parliament in Germany is divided into two institutions; there exists the Bundestag and the Bundesrat. For one to be selected as a minister in Germany he or she has to be a member of parliament and constant, seek parliamentary approval to remain in office. For a long time, few political parties have dominated the politics of Germany. The main political parties in Germany for an extended period include Social Democratic Party of Germany (SDPG) and the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and the Christian Social Union of Bavaria (CSU) (Burzel, 2009) . Immediately after the reunification of Germany the leading Green Party of Germany and the Alliance Party became more powerful and formed t he government between t he year ninety ninety-nine and two thousand and five. Other political parties that have had an impact on the political system of Germany include; Party of Democratic Socialism which was famous in East Germany. The party can be said to be a regional party as it concentrated most of its activities in the eastern part of Germany than any other region in the country. Despite that, the party contributed significantly to the shaping of national politics. Later on, the East Germany Socialist Unit Party of Germany dissolved and joined other parties in a forming a bigger union with a greater following all over Germany (Molina and Rhodes , 2007) . The party dissolved and joined the Lie Party natively known as Die Linkspartei which was very popular in the western part of Germany. The two sides discovered the individual existence to join one single but bigger party under the leadership of Oskar Lafontaine. 

Germany is a federal state thus a man of its policies and program are initiated and implemented by the state governments. Currently, Germany has sixteen states commonly know as Lander. Political and economic power in Germany is shared between the federal government and the state government. But the federal government retains much power when it comes to initiating policies and programs of national and international importance (Burzel, 2009) . Issues to do with foreign and international relations are addressed by the federal government . The federal government is tasked with working closely with the state government in initiating economic development across the nation. The federal government under no circumstances can it dissolve the state governments. The existence of state government is protected by the constitution of the land. The constitution provides a mechanism for arbitrating disputes between the federal government and the state governments (Burzel, 2009) . The national government is involved in a matter of national importance such security and preventing the nation from foreign aggression while state government performs activities of local importance to spur economic growth in that country . There has been mutual support between the state government and the federal government towards making each from of government achieves its objectives. The current political system in operation in Germany was set out in the 1949 constitution, and it stayed in effect even after the reunification process (Molina and Rhodes , 2007) . The fundamental laws of the nation seem never to change . The basic code s are commonly referred in Germany as the Grundgesetz. The Germany constitution put freedom and the right to life before any other provision. Everyone including the state government is required to protect human life and guarantee provision of fundamental human rights. Under no circumstances does the law allow taking away of someone’s life or one being denied fundamental rights. The constitution has further clearly divided the duties and responsibilities of the various arms of government. It has clearly defined the powers and responsibilities of the judiciary, the mandate of the executive and its composition as well as the composition and powers of the legislature. In the year 1949, the Grundgesetz constitution was written to correct inconsistencies and issues the Weimar Republic constitution was not clearly elaborating how they should be done . The Republic of Weimar collapsed around the ear 1933, and dictatorship regime of Third Reich came into existence (Frege and Kelly, 2009) . The constitutional developments in Germany were instrumental in ensuring healthy coexistence among the communities by taking into account individual issues of the states. The constitution of Germany has provided the required direction the nation needed in providing the country achieves political, social and economic growth. 

The judiciary in Germany is independent of other arms of governance. The court has been given the power to hear and determine cases by law and not under coercion of people or institution with vested interests. The court system handles its Affairs with the higher level of integrity and at no time are court official allowed to act or behave in any manner that contradicts the provision of the law. Judges and magistrates in Germany are appointed by the Bundestag for a fixed period (Frege and Kelly, 2009) . Being designated for a fixed term helps avoid the judges being forced to interpret the law in a manner that will affect their integrity. They govern the security of tenure to make hem independent in carrying out their duties. The courts have the ability and power to hear and determine criminal and civil cases. The courts are the constitution interpretation organ. Once they hear and decide a case, their verdict is final. Once can only appeal the ruling but not make counter claims to the issue. The court has regional offices all over the country to facilitate court processes while making access justice easier and more affordable. The conventional judicial system in Germany handles both criminal and civil cases (Borzel, 2010) . The court is divided into some categories which include; the Amtsgericht to the local courts, the Landesgericht or the state courts, the Oberlandesgericht also known as the state appeals courts and lastly the Bundesgerichtshof popularly know as the federal supreme criminal and civil court. The judiciary in Germany also has some individual units that handle some specific issues of the law. For example, the Bundesfinanzhof handles tax affairs; Bundessarbeitsgericht handles labor-related disputes; Bundessozialgericht handles social security law and the Bundesverwaltungsgericht tackles issues related to administrative law as started by Molina and Rhodes (2007) . The Supreme Court in Germany is called the Bundesverfassungsgericht federal constitutional court; the court is the highest in authority in decision making in Germany. 

In Germany, the Bundeskanzler also known as the Federal Chancellor heads the Bundesregierung or the federal cabinet. The cabinet is the most active branch of the federal government as it is involved in the daily running of public affairs and it engages the Germans more than any other arm of government. The chancellor can not be removed from office before the four-year term he or she is serving comes to an end. Under exceptional circumstances , the Bundestag is allowed to choose a successor and give him or her mandate to rule the country (Frege and Kelly, 2009) . Special occasion under which the head government can be removed before the expiration of the four-year term is when the Bundestag pass a motion of having no confidence in the sitting president. The motion of censure in Germany is called the Konstruktives Misstrauensvotum. The chancellor has the powers to appoint the vice-chancellor of his or her choice which has to be a member of the cabinet and many times the vice chancellor is given the Foreign Affairs docket (Burzel, 2009) . Many times the government in Germany is a coalition government and in such cases the vice-chancellor is appointed from the minority’s party. The chancellor is required to initiate and provide leader on how policies have to bee formulated and implemented. She or he has to have a wider understanding of the need for the economy as that is what will shape the formulation of policies and their implementation. The chancellor has the prerogative to make changes to the structure and composition of the cabinet if that can help in increasing service delivery to the people. 

Germany like any other European country has had serious immigration challenges. The federal government has heard of developing strategies to meet the needs and challenges that are brought about immigration (Burzel, 2009) . The country is still grappling on how to accommodate immigrants some of who lack the required identification documents. Germany has also been facing terrorism challenges. The government has had to come up with strict security laws to ensure its people are protected . 

References 

Börzel, T. A. (2010). Member states Responses to Europeanization. JCMS: Journal of Common Market Studies, 40(2), 193-214. 

Bürzel, T. A. (2009). Towards convergence in Europe? Institutional adaptation to Europeanization in Germany and Spain. JCMS: Journal of Common Market Studies, 37(4), 573-596. 

Frege, C. M., & Kelly, J. (2009). Union revitalization strategies in comparative perspective. European Journal of Industrial Relations, 9(1), 7-24. 

Molina, O., & Rhodes, M. (2007). The political economy of adjustment in mixed market economies: a study of Spain and Italy. Beyond Varieties of Capitalism: Conflict, Contradictions, and Complementarities in the European Economy, 223-252.