Documents for "Foreign Government Agencies":

• Admiralty in British government, department in charge of the operations of the Royal Navy until 1964. Originally established under Henry VIII, it was reorganized under Charles II. Five lords commissioners...

• Althing [Icel.,=general diet], parliament of Iceland. This assembly, the oldest in Europe, was convened at Thingvellir, SW Iceland, in 930. It was dissolved in 1800, was revived as an advisory body to the...

• Bundestag lower house of the parliament of the Federal Republic of Germany. It is a popularly elected body that elects the chancellor, passes all legislation (subject to executive veto on budget matters),...

• Canadian Mounted Police see Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

• Commons, House of see Parliament.

• Cortes representative assembly in Spain. The institution originated (12th-13th cent.) in various Spanish regions with the Christian reconquest; until the 19th cent. the local cortes of Leon, Castile,...

• Dáil Éireann [Irish,=diet of Ireland], the popular representative body of the Oireachtas, or National Parliament, of the Republic of Ireland. The second, smaller chamber, the Saenad Éireann, or Senate, has very...

• diet parliamentary bodies in Japan, Poland, Hungary, Bohemia, the Scandinavian nations, and Germany have been called diets. In German history, the diet originated as a meeting of landholders and...

• Exchequer, Court of in English history, governmental agency. It originated after the Norman Conquest as a financial committee of the Curia Regis. By the reign of Henry II it had a separate organization and was...

• Folketing national parliament of Denmark. Formerly the lower house of the bicameral Rigsdag, it became the sole parliamentary body in 1953. It shares legislative power with the monarch, who can dissolve the...

• Foreign Legion French volunteer armed force composed chiefly, in its enlisted ranks, of foreigners. Its international character and the tradition of not revealing enlistees' backgrounds have helped to surround...

• House of Commons see Parliament.

• House of Lords see Parliament.

• Houses of Parliament see Westminster Palace.

• Institut de France cultural institution of the French state. Founded in 1795 by the Directory, it replaced five learned societies that had been suppressed in 1793 by the Convention. These were the French Academy (governing language and literature; founded by Richelieu, granted letters patent 1635); the Académie royale de Peinture et de Sculpture (fine arts; founded 1648 by Charles Le Brun, reorganized 1663...

• Lords, House of see Parliament.

• Northwest Mounted Police see Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

• orders in council in British government, orders given by the sovereign on the advice of all or some of the members of the privy council, without the prior consent of Parliament. Orders in council, first so named in...

• Parliament legislative assembly of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Over the centuries it has become more than a legislative body; it is the sovereign power of Great Britain, whereas...

• politburo the former central policy-making and governing body of the Communist party of the Soviet Union and, with minor variations, of other Communist parties. It was first created on the eve of the...

• Rigsdag see Folketing.

• Riksdag national parliament of Sweden, formed in 1866. Originally a two-chamber legislature, it became a single chamber body in 1971. Representation in the chamber is proportional. Members are elected by...

• Royal Canadian Mounted Police constabulary organized (1873) as the Northwest Mounted Police to bring law and order to the Canadian west. In 1920 the name was changed to the present title. The corps, which gained a romantic...

• Scotland Yard headquarters of the London Metropolitan Police. The term is often used, popularly, to refer to one branch, the Criminal Investigation Department (CID). Named after a short street in London, the...

• soviet primary unit in the political organization of the former USSR. The term is the Russian word for council. The first soviets were revolutionary committees organized by Russian socialists in the...

• Storting national parliament of Norway, dating from 1814. Its members are elected by direct universal suffrage for a four-year term, and representation is proportional. The Storting elects one fourth of...