Working of Institutions Summary Class 9 Social Science Chapter 4

Need for Political Institutions

• The Prime Minister and the Cabinet are institutions that take all important policy decisions.
• The Civil Servants, working together, are responsible for taking steps to implement the ministers’ decisions.
• Supreme Court is an institution where disputes between citizens and the government are finally settled.

Parliament

• In democracies, an assembly of elected representatives exercises supreme political authority on behalf of the people.
  • In India such a national assembly of elected representatives is called Parliament.

Two Houses of Parliament

• In our country, the Parliament consists of two Houses. The two Houses are known as the Council of States (Rajya Sabha) and the House of the People (Lok Sabha).
• The total number of elected members of Lok Sabha is 543+2 Anglo Indian nominated members.
  • The total number of members of Rajya Sabha is 238+12 nominated members.

Executive

• At different levels of any government there are various functionaries who take day-to-day decisions and implement those decisions on behalf of the people.
  • All those functionaries are collectively known as the executive.

Political and Permanent Executive

• The one which is elected by the people for only a specific period of time is called the Political Executive.
  • It signifies the government of a country.
• The one where people are appointed on a long-term basis is called the Permanent Executive or the Civil Services.
  • People working for the civil services are called the civil servants.

Prime Minister

• Prime Minister is the most important political institution in the country.

Powers of the Prime minister

• He chairs Cabinet meetings.
• He coordinates the work of different Departments.
• His decisions are final in case disagreements arise between Departments.
• He exercises general supervision of different ministries. All ministers work under his leadership.
• The Prime Minister distributes and redistributes work to the ministers.
• He also has the power to dismiss ministers.
• When the Prime Minister quits, the entire ministry quits.

Council of Ministers

• Council of Ministers is the official name for the body that includes all the Ministers.
• It usually has 60 to 80 Ministers of different ranks.

Types of ministers

• Cabinet Ministers are usually top-level leaders of the ruling party or parties who are in charge of the major ministries.
• Ministers of State with independent charge are usually in-charge of smaller Ministries.
• Ministers of State or Deputy ministers are attached to and required to assist Cabinet Ministers in their work.

Coalition Government

• A government formed by an alliance of two or more political parties, usually when no single party enjoys majority support of the members in a legislature.

The President

• The President is elected by all the Members of Parliament (MPs) and Members of State Legislative Assemblies (MLAs).

Powers of the President

• The President supervises the overall functioning of all the political institutions in the country.
• All governmental activities take place in the name of the President.
• All laws and major policy decisions of the government are issued in her name.
• All major appointments such as the Chief Justice of India, the Judges of the Supreme Court and the High Courts, the Governors, the Election Commissioners, ambassadors to other countries are made in the name of the President.
• All international treaties and agreements are made in the name of the President.
• The President is the supreme commander of the defence forces of India.
• However, President exercises all these powers only on the advice of the Council of Ministers.

Judiciary

• All the courts at different levels in a country put together are called the judiciary.
• The Indian judiciary consists of a Supreme Court for the entire nation, High Courts in the states, District Courts and the courts at local level.

Independence of the judiciary

• Independence of the judiciary means that it is not under the control of the legislature or the executive.