Page 223 - Afrika Must Unite

208 AFRICA MUST UNITE
states. He chooses and dismisses his own cabinet, members of
which are responsible to the President and not to the Legislature.
In case of his resignation or death, the Vice-President, ex officio
President of the Senate, assumes the presidency. The presidential
succession is regulated by an act of 1887. Beginning with the
Secretary of State, the succession goes according to the seniority
of the departments.
Legislative power is vested in a Congress consisting of two
houses: a House of Representatives, composed of representatives
in numbers proportionate to the population of each state. They
hold their seats for two years. The senior house is the Senate,
having two members from each of the states, elected for six years,
but in rotating thirds. The supreme judicial authority is vested
in a supreme court, which consists of a chief justice and eight
associate justices, all appointed for life by the President, subject
to confirmation by the Senate. The task of the Supreme Court is
to balance the rights of the citizens with the interpretation of the
constitution.
Defining briefly the nature of the Soviet Union, the constitu­
tion sets out its role as the determinator and director of the union
economy, in which it safeguards ‘the small private economy of
individual peasants and handicraftsmen based on their own
labour and precluding the exploitation of the labour of others’.
It also protects the personal property right of citizens in their
incomes, the savings from them and their personal effects,
including houses, and the right to inherit such property.
The Soviet Union consists of sixteen sovereign republics and
some hundred autonomous republics, autonomous regions and
areas. The first Soviet constitution, adopted in 1924, revised in
1936 and subsequently amended in certain respects, guarantees
equal rights for all citizens regardless of race or nationality.
Every citizen of a Union republic is also a citizen of the U.S.S.R.,
giving dual citizenship.
The Supreme Soviet is the highest organ of power. It is elected
every four years and consists of two chambers: the Council of
the Union and the Council of Nationalities, both of which have
equal rights, and must approve legislation before it becomes
effective. Election to the Council of the Union is by direct vote
on the basis of one deputy for every 300,000 of the population.