THE POLITICAL SYSTEM OF UKRAINE

Under the Constitution of Ukraine, the powers of the government are divided into three branches – the legislative, the executive, and the judicial.

The parliament – the Verkhovna Rada is the only body of legislative power in Ukraine. 450 national deputies are elected for four-year term on the basis of universal, equal and and direst suffrage by secret ballot. The Verkhovna Rada elects the Chairman from its membership.

The Verkhovna Rada’s main function is making laws. The other functions of the Parliament are : to call for elections of the president of Ukraine, to hear annual messages of the president from office, to give consent for the appointment of the Prime Minister by the President, to exercise control over the activity of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, etc. The Verkhovna Rada approves the State Budget for the period from January 1 to December 31 and controls the implementation of it.

The President is the highest official of the Ukrainian state, vested with supreme executive authority. The President is elected directly by the voters for a term of 5 years for no more than two consecutive terms. The president ensures sate independence, national security of the sate, human rights and freedoms. He represents the sate in foreign relations, conducts negotiations and concludes international treaties; appoints members of the Cabinet of Ministers as well as heads of local sate administration and discharges them from these positions. The President is the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed forces of Ukraine.

The highest body of the executive power of Ukraine is the Cabinet of Ministers. It is responsible to the President and is accountable to the Verkhovna Rada. The Cabinet of Ministers ensures the implementation of domestic and foreign policy of the State, the execution of the Constitution, as well as the acts of the President, elaborates and implements national programs on the economic, scientific, social and structural development of Ukraine.

Justice in Ukraine is exercised entirely by courts. It is administrated by the Constitutional Court and by courts of general jurisdiction. The Supreme Court of Ukraine is the highest judicial body of general jurisdiction.

UKRAINE’S ECONOMY

Ukraine is rich in mineral resources. It completely satisfies her needs in iron, manganese and titanium ores, as well as in rock salt, cement gypsum, mineral paints, heat resistant clays, bromine, graphite, mercury and uranium.

Steppes and plains compose the most part of the territory of Ukraine (95 percent). The topsoils are mainly black. They are the biggest treasure of Ukrainian land. Twenty five percent of the world’s black rich soils are in Ukraine. Together with the fact that Ukraine’s climate is mainly moderately continental, and the sediments are 300-600 millimeters, it allows for considerable progress in agricultural production after the village is reoriented towards the market economy.

Because of her potential Ukraine is an industrial-agricultural country. Her machine-building potential includes tractors and agricultural machine building, production of diesel locomotives ad railroad cars, automobiles, rockets, sea and river vessels, refrigerators, TV-sets, washing mashines, electric motors, industrial robots, motor-cycles, equipment for metallurgic, chemical, mine and textile industries, appliances and many other complicated products. Well-developed are black and colored metallurgy, chemical, oil and wood processing, and the cellulose-paper industries.

Since its independence Ukraine has confronted economic problems. The situation today is better in one very important respect than it was in the preceding years: inflation, which was running at 3300 percent annually in 1993 has been reduced.

The main lines of reform now need to be introduced. Some of the main requirements are:

- to pursue a macroeconomic policy which will balance government income against expenditures ;

- to close down inefficient factories and to invest in new industries, especially export-oriented;

- to phase out subsidies, particularly to inefficient producers;

- accept that, some decline in total output cannot be avoided in the meantime;

- to introduce a coherent program of privatization, directed not least at the break-up of the very large and poorly managed collectives;

- to stimulate exports, especially hard-currency producing;

- to curb imports so far as possible and to develop import substitution industries;

- to reduce further total energy consumption;

- gradually to introduce free market mechanisms which will eliminate the need for price and wage controls;

- to attract Western investment without sacrificing traditional interests and links with Russia and the CIS;

- to educate and train new generation of managers who have the ability to implement coherent market reforms at all levels;

that Ukraine needs external assistance to tackle its immediate problems is obvious. The government has been able to attract some inward investment.

Date: 2015-01-29; view: 695