The Chamber of Senators comprises of 45 members and is also elected through proportional representation. The Supreme Court of Paraguay is the highest court in the country. The President together with the senate selects the nine members of the Supreme Court through a recommendation process from a Magistrates Council.
The Supreme Court is the highest court in the country. There are also lower courts which include the military courts, Appellate courts, the courts of the first instance, minor courts, and the justices of the peace. Paraguayan government was radically changed by the Constitution of reinforcing a division of power which existed mostly in writing in the previous Constitutions.
Paraguay has 19 departments, and 14 are in the east of Rio Paraguay while the rest are in Chaco region. Article of the Constitution provides:. No member of Congress may be accused judicially for the opinions he or she expresses in the performance of his or her functions.
No Senator or Deputy may be detained, from the day of their election until the day they leave office, unless found in flagrante delicto for a crime that merits corporal punishment. In such a case, the intervening authority shall place him or her under house arrest, shall immediately report the incident to the respective Chamber and the judge with jurisdiction, to whom it shall submit the respective information as soon as possible.
When a criminal complaint is brought against a Senator or Deputy before the regular courts, the judge shall so communicate, with a copy of the record, to the respective Chamber, which will examine the merits of the criminal investigation and, by two-thirds majority, shall determine whether there are grounds for suspending his or her immunity, so as to proceed to trial.
If so, his or her immunities shall be suspended. Among the functions of the legislative chambers is to request reports on matters of public interest from the other branches of government, to summons and question ministers and other high-ranking officials of the central and decentralized public administration, with the powers to censure them and recommend to the President of the Republic or the superior of the public official in question that they be removed.
The functions of the Congress include to oversee to the observance of the Constitution and statutes; to issue the codes and all other statutes, amend them, or repeal them, interpreting the Constitution; to approve each year the law on the General Budget of the Nation; to approve or reject the treaties and all other international agreements signed by the Executive; to make the appointments that the Constitution prescribes and to impeach the President and other high-ranking officials.
The Executive Branch. In case of impediment or absence of the President of the Republic, he or she shall be replaced by the Vice-President, and, lacking a vice-president and successively, the President of the Senate, the Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies, and the President of the Supreme Court of Justice. The Vice-President-elect shall assume the presidency of the Republic if it is vacant prior to or after the proclamation of the President, and shall hold said office until the end of the constitutional term.
If there is a definitive vacancy of the vice-presidency during the first three years of the constitutional term, elections will be called to fill it. If it occurs in the last two years, the Congress, by absolute majority of its members, shall designate the person to fill the post for the rest of the term.
Among the duties and powers of the President of the Republic, the Paraguayan Constitution lists representing the State and directing the general administration of the country; abiding by and enforcing the Constitution and statutes; reporting to Congress, at the beginning of each annual session, as to the activities of the Executive branch, as well as reporting on the general situation of the Republic and plans for the future; being the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces; preparing and submitting the draft annual General Budget of the Nation to the legislative chambers; and enforcing the rulings of the authorities established by the Constitution.
Another function of the President is to choose the Solicitor General Procurador General of the Republic, whose powers and duties are established in Article of the Constitution: to represent and defend, in court or out of court, the property-related interests of the Republic; to give an opinion in those cases and for the purposes indicated by law; to provide legal counsel to the Public Administration in the manner determined by law; and all other duties and powers set by law.
The Judicial Branch. It interprets, abides by, and enforces it. The administration of justice is entrusted to the Judicial branch, whose powers are exercised by the Supreme Court of Justice, the lower courts [ tribunales and juzgados ], in the manner established by this Constitution and the law. Rulings may be freely criticized. According to Article of the Constitution, the Judicial branch enjoys budgetary autonomy, and its budget must be approved by the Congress.
The designation of the members of the Supreme Court of Justice is made by the Senate, with the constitutional agreement of the Executive, after a process of selecting candidates and including them on lists drawn up by the Council of the Judiciary. The Supreme Court of Justice, in turn, designates the members of all other tribunales and juzgados from the list proposed by the Council of the Judiciary.
The Stroessner government placed strict controls on labor unions and maintained low minimum wages. As a result of Paraguayan labor laws, the U. Labor union activism was low in Paraguay until the very late s, when unions began to garner more political influence. The GSP is a trade incentive package making trade between developed nations and developing nations profitable for each party. The s spurred the Paraguayan Workers Confederation and the National Workers Central, and these 3 unions are now strong political interest groups in Paraguay.
The new Constitution of embraced workers' rights, protecting the right to strike and the freedom of association. Despite this political instability, the s were a decade of heavy government involvement in economics. Paraguay liberalized and deregulated much of its economy, eliminating foreign exchange controls, reducing tariffs , establishing tax incentives and exemptions to stimulate foreign investment, creating a stock market, and restructuring the tax system.
Paraguay has South America's least burdensome tax system. There is no personal income tax, business taxes are limited, and there is a value-added tax VAT of 10 percent. Investors in their first 5 years are eligible for tax exemptions of 95 percent and the duty -free import of capital goods.
Corporate taxes are 30 percent but reinvested profit is only taxed 10 percent, which also encourages long-term investment and growth. However, a number of projects aimed at protecting the forests are under study in the Chaco region.
Current Economic Situation In the s and at the beginning of the s Paraguay had a feeble economy and unemployment went up. The government, which had seized power in a coup in February , supported by the Colorado Party, undertook a number of economic reforms privatization and democratized the political system approval of the new constitution in The positive aspects of the new constitution are numerous and important. First of all it restructures the state through a balance of powers between the three branches of government.
Many clauses of this organic law make it one of the most advanced constitutions in Latin America. The constitution institutes decentralization regionalization as a way of making citizens participate fully in the conduct of public affairs, while the country remains a unitary state.
In August a five-year plan was made public : a market economy, including privatization, and mechanisms for social compensation in favor of the most vulnerable sectors would fully come into effect. On-going Decentralization Process Background, Objectives, and Legal Framework The on-going decentralization process was introduced within the framework of this economic and political renewal.
Since international organizations had made recommendations to the government to implement decentralization and to carry out substantial privatization in order to solve the problem of diminishing budgetary resources.
Functions, Resources, and Autonomy of Decentralized Entities The government had new municipal and constitutional laws passed though the scope of these laws were limited.
The intermediate and local levels were assigned new consultation functions but no decision-making, implementation, control or financing functions were assigned them. Also, the intermediate level jurisdictions did not receive the extra resources they need to carry out their functions, and neither did the local level jurisdictions.
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