CLIL - Democracy

126 6. Il Parlamento CLIL - DEMOCRACY 1. DIRItto AUDIO Fill in the blanks in the text below using the following words. world three citizens courts President elections parliament Democracy is the government of a community in which all 1. have the right and opportunity to participate. In a democracy, the people are sovereign. In democracies, the tasks of the state are divided into 2. branches: the executive (sometimes also called simply Government ), which is responsible for the formulation and execution of policy; the legislature (also called parliament, representative or national assembly), which is responsible for the approval of legislation and taxation and the scrutiny of the executive; the judiciary (or the 3. ), which is responsible for securing the observance of the law. 4. constitute the key democratic device through which citizens choose between candidates for public office, and authorise those elected to act on the public s behalf during their period of office. Countries around the 5. practice democracy through different types of institutions. A parliamentary democracy is a system of government in which citizens elect representatives to a legislative parliament to make the necessary laws and decisions for the country. The 6. directly represents the people. Parliamentary democracies may be both constitutional monarchies (if a monarch is the head of the state) and parliamentary republics, where a President is the head of state. A few examples among the many parliamentary democracies in the world are Canada, Great Britain, Italy, Japan, Latvia, the Netherlands, and New Zealand. In a presidential democracy, the leader is called a 7. , and he or she is elected by citizens to lead a branch of government separate from the legislative branch. A few examples among the presidential democracies in the world are the United States of America, Argentina, Colombia, Costa Rica, South Korea. It is important to remember that both systems of government are democracies. 2. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. Answer the following questions. What is democracy? Why are elections important? What are the three branches of the government? What is parliamentary democracy? What is presidential democracy? Is a parliamentary republic a democracy? Which countries have a presidential form of government? 8. Which countries have a parliamentary form of government?