The document summarizes Colombia's governmental system from its independence in 1810 to present day. It discusses the 10 constitutions Colombia has had, with the 1886 constitution establishing the current unitary republic. Key topics covered include the division of powers, the role of the executive branch, the Roman Catholic Church's influence, civil liberties, states of emergency, and the establishment of the National Front coalition in the 1950s-70s to end violence.

1. THE GOVERMENTAL SISTEM DIEGO VILLAMIZAR JUAN SEBASTIAN PULIDO R. CARLOS JAVIER MORENO N. DIEGO ALEJANDRO GOMEZ M. 5A 2010

2. MAIN IDEAS Since declaring its independence from Spain in 1810, Colombia has had ten constitutions, the last of which--adopted in 1886-- established the present-day unitary republic. Colombia has had ten constitutions, the last of which--adopted in 1886-- established the present-day unitary republic. These constitutions addressed three important issues: the division of powers, the strength of the chief executive, and the role of the Roman Catholic Church. Issue of a strong central government versus a decentralized federal system was especially important in the nation's constitutional development.

3. In settling the federal-unitary debate, the 1886 Constitution specifies that sovereignty resides in the nation, which provides guarantees of civil liberties. The 1821 constitution authorized the president to appoint all governmental officials at both the national and the local levels. The 1830 constitution further strengthened executive powers by creating the Public Ministry, which enabled the president to supervise judicial affairs. The 1832 and 1840 constitutions allowed the president to assume additional powers during a national emergency. The federal constitutions of 1853 and 1863, however, limited presidential control by granting many powers to the territorial departments, by allowing offices to be filled by election rather than appointment, and by depriving the president of authority to assume additional emergency powers. The 1886 Constitution establishes three branches of government--the executive, legislature, and judiciary--with separation of powers and checks and balances. The Constitution, by noting that labor is a social obligation-- protected by the state--guarantees the right to strike, except in the public service. The Constitution, as amended, also gives all citizens a legal right to vote if they are at least eighteen years old, have a citizenship card, and are registered to vote. The 1886 Constitution restored strong executive powers primarily through the president's ability to invoke a state of siege under Article 121 and a state of emergency under Article 122. A 1961 constitutional amendment also requires that Congress remain in permanent session during a state of siege, although it may not contravene the president's decrees. In contrast, the 1853 and 1863 constitutions, which guaranteed religious freedom and prohibited religious bodies from owning real estate, abolished the church's privileged status.

4. The preamble to the amendments adopted by a national plebiscite in 1957 also notes the privileged position of the Roman Catholic Church, stating that the "Roman, Catholic and Apostolic Religion is that of the nation" and as such is to be "protected" and "respected" by the public powers of the state. The president may also use these emergency measures to raise revenue, adopt short-term economic plans, or override any of the semiautonomous government agencies involved in the crisis. The Constitution has undergone extensive and frequent amendments, the most significant of which included legislative acts in 1910, 1936, 1945, 1959, and 1968; a national plebiscite and legislative decrees in 1957; and economic reform in 1979 The most important constitutional amendments resulted from the Sitges Agreement and the subsequent San Carlos Agreement, drawn up by Liberal and Conservative leaders together at meetings in 1957 The 1936 amendment requires a majority of those present and voting in the first session of the bicameral Congress and a majority of the total membership of both houses in the second session. In May 1957, the two rival parties had united in the National Front coalition, which was envisioned as a bipartisan way to end la violence and dictatorial rule. A president must obtain the consent of the ministers before making such a declaration and specify, in advance, a time period not to exceed ninety days. With the backing of the military, the National Front displaced the repressive regime of General Gustavo Rojas Pinilla (June 1953-May 1957).

5. The 1957 amendments essentially changed the nature of the government from a competitive system characterized by intense party loyalties and political violence to a coalition government in which the two major parties shared power. The 1968 reforms also ended, beginning in 1970, the parity requirement for legislative seats at the municipal and departmental levels. Although the Sitges and San Carlos agreements' provisions for alternating the presidency and maintaining party parity in Congress ended in 1974 when both parties ran candidates for the presidency, parity in the bureaucracy continued for another four years. By the mid-1960s, la violence had been reduced largely to banditry and an incipient guerrilla movement. Second, it provided for parity in elective and appointive positions at all levels of government, including cabinet and Supreme Court positions not falling under the civil service, as well as the election of equal numbers of party members to local, departmental, and national assemblies. Liberal president Julio César Turbay Ayala, who took office in 1978, and Conservative president Belisario Betancur Cuartas--elected in 1982--both gave half of their cabinet positions to rival party members. The constitutional changes, particularly the abolition of the two-thirds majority requirement in both houses of Congress for the passage of major legislation, also affected the powers of Congress and its relationship with the president. This amendment allows the government to intervene in the production, distribution, utilization, and consumption of goods and services in a manner responsive to economic planning for integral development.

6. That February, however, President Barco responded to a wave of attacks by drug traffickers and guerrillas by launching an effort to rewrite the Constitution and make it a more effective weapon in the fight against violence. Municipal elections held in March 1988 determined the party composition of a fifty-member panel, called the Institutional Readjustment Commission, whose purpose was to ask voters to approve constitutional changes in the planned October plebiscite. The Nariño House Accord was suspended in April 1988, however, as a result of a decision by the Council of State (Consejo de Estado)-- the highest court on constitutional and administrative matters-- that the holding of a plebiscite would have raised a constitutional problem. According to the ruling, only Congress may revise the Constitution (a procedure that takes two years). The leaders of various political parties and factions signed a political agreement, called the Nariño House Accord, that signaled a consensus on the need to hold a national plebiscite on October 9, 1988, on the institutional reforms proposed by Barco.

7. DIVISION . OF . POWERS

8. DIVISION OF POWERS DIVISION OF POWERS IS A PARTIE BECAUSE IS A INSTITUTION THAT HELP ORGANIZE THE DEMOCRATIC PROSESS, EACH PARTIE SELECT A CANDIDATE THAT CAN REPRESENTED THE ELECTIONS LOCAL, REGIONAL OR NATIONAL. DIVISION OF POWERS MEANS THE EQUALITY THAT IS NEEDED IN ORDER TO RUN A STATE IN ORDER TO MAINTAIN PEACE AND ESTABILITY BETWEEN SOCIETY IST GOVERMENT. THERE ARE THREE POWERS: LEGISTATIVE, JUDICIARY AND DUDIARY AND EACH POWER HAVE THE POWER TO CONTROL ALL THE OTHERS.

9. CENTRAL GOVERMENT

10. CENTRAL GOVERMENT Central goverment is the goverment at the level of the nation-state. Usual responsibilities of this level of government are maintaining national security and exercising international diplomacy, including the right to sign binding treaties. Basically, the central government has the power to make laws for the whole country, in contrast with local governments. Central government-within this structure are the government ministries and departments and agencies to which the ministers of government are assigned. Central government also works alongside agencies to help with tax collection.

11. ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH

12. The Catholic community is made up of an ordained ministry and the laity; members of either group may belong to organized religious communities. The Church defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity. It operates social programs and institutions throughout the world, including Catholic schools, universities, hospitals, missions and shelters, and the charity confederation Caritas Internationalis. Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest catholic church. It has more than a billion members, over half of all Catholics and more than one-sixth of the world's population, although the number of lapsed Christians is not reliably known. And have some monasteris.

13. CIVIL LIBERTIES

14. CIVIL LIBERTIES . Civil liberties are rights and freedoms that protect an individual from the state. Civil liberties set limits on government so that its members cannot abuse their power and interfere unduly with the lives of private citizens. Common civil liberties include the rights of people, freedom of religion, and freedom of speech, and additionally, the right to due process, to a trial, to own property, and to privacy. The formal concept of civil liberties dates back to the English legal charter 1215, which in turn was based on pre-existing documents namely the English Charter of Liberties, a landmark document in English legal history.

15. COMMON WELFARE

16. The common welfare is a complex concept, which generally can be understood as that of which all citizens benefit or social systems, institutions and social groups of which we all depend on that work in ways that benefit all people. Common welfare help the people to find the benefit to have welfare.

17. Religious freedom

18. Religious freedom is a fundamental right that relates to the choice of every human being to choose their religion, choose no (irreligion), or not to believe or validate the existence of a God and able to exercise its belief publicly, without being the victim of oppression, discrimination or attempt to change it. They have the right to be free

19. State Of emergency

20. The state of emergency is one of the regimes of exception that can dictate the government of a country in exceptional situations. And are situations when state of government live the people in panic when are tnamis and terremotos and airquates. All the important people help the ired people. All the people have to have prevention of this situations of danger.

21. National Front

22. The National Front was an electoral and political coalition between liberal and conservative Colombian force between 1958-1974. By extension it also refers to the historical period of those years. The main feature of this historical period was the agreement on equality between the two parties during this process, since it raised that these should alternate the presidency during his 16 years and an identical amount of parliamentary liberals and conservatives in Congress. The main objective of this political agreement was the reorganization of the country after the dictatorship of General Gustavo Rojas Pinilla.

23. Dictatorial Rule

24. A dictatorial rule is a form of government in which power is concentrated around the figure of a single individual, usually through the consolidation of a de facto government, which is characterized by an absence of separation of powers, a propensity to exercise arbitrarily command for the benefit of the minority that supports it, the absence of any consent by the governed and the impossibility of that through an institutionalized procedure opposition comes to power.

25. Suprime court

26. A suprime court in various countries, provinces and states, is that body exercising functions of a court of last resort, whose decisions can not be challenged, or those of a court of appeal. However, some systems do not use the term to designate its highest-ranking courts and others use it to name the cuts that are not their highest courts, as described. The suprime court have requisites to be in there.

27. congress

28. A congress is a meeting or conference, usually periodic, where members of a body or bodies meet to discuss issues of various kinds, but usually for political purposes. A congress is different from a parliament which is ceded to the legislative initiative. In a presidential system the executive and legislative are distinct divisions. A congress make laws to conform and give the president. And a congress is given by a some cenadores. The Congress of the Republic of Colombia is the country's top legislature. The parliament building is called the National Capitol and is located in the south of the Plaza de Bolívar in Bogotá.

29. Political party

30. A political party is a political organization that typically seeks to attain and maintain political power within government, usually by participating in electoral campaigns, educational outreach or protest actions. Parties often espouse an expressed ideology or vision bolstered by a written platform with specific goals, forming a coalition among disparate interests. this is a group of people who join together because they have similar ideas about things like how to run the country.

31. Council Of state

32. The Council of State is a unique governmental body in a country or subdivision thereof, though its nature may range from the formal name for the cabint to a non-executive advisory body surrounding a head of state. It is sometimes (arguably erroneously) regarded as the equivalent of a privy council. The Council of State is the name of a governmental body in many countries and specifically and in republics.