|
Select Your Country |
|
(Beta version!) These links will be active soon :)>> Recommend wdbase.com >> About Us >> Privacy
|
HOME >> WORLD PROFILES >>
Belize
CONSTITUTIONAL BACKGROUND
Belize
CONSTITUTIONAL BACKGROUND
Constitutional and Political Structures Prior to Independence
Constitutional and political development in Belize prior
independence in 1981 can be divided into seven stages. The British
settlement enjoyed its own legislature, called the Public Meeting,
while the crown held executive authority and thus the right to
appoint governors. Social, political, and economic factors,
however, led British Honduras to surrender its elected legislature,
then called the Legislative Assembly, and the legacy of selfgovernance in order to obtain greater security and economic
stability as a crown colony in 1871. The arrangement did not grant
the crown, however, the right to revoke or amend the colony's
constitution, a right which the monarch held in some colonies. The
Parliament of Britain continued to exercise its power to amend
British Honduras's constitution in conjunction with relevant
legislative bodies in the colony. The rise of trade unions in the
1930s and 1940s and the emergence of a mass political party in the
1950s led to the establishment of institutions that would chart
British Honduras's steady course toward internal self-rule and
independence.
Data as of January 1992
