Veto
The word veto comes from the Latin and literally means I am opposed . It is used to indicate that part of a group has the right to take a common decision unilaterally. A veto thus gives a capacity not limited of legislative blocking.
Veto in the world and the History
The veto in the beginning was given to the Tribun of the plebs with respect to the laws of the Roman senate .
In the System of Westminster and in the majority of the constitutional monarchies, the capacity of veto is exerted by suspending the royal agreement which is in theory the last capacity, seldom used, by the monarch or his representative.
16th century with 1903, the crowns of France, Germanic Roman Holy roman Empire (then of the Austria) and of Spain could emit a Exclusive against one or more candidates with the papacy.
At the the United States of America the president can put his veto at a law voted by the Congrès of the United States but this right is not absolute. A majority of two thirds of each assembly can pass in addition to. The veto was used for the first time by the president George Washington the April 5th 1792 and the Congress surmounted by it March 3rd 1845. In France the constituent Assembly granted to Louis XVI a suspensive right to veto valid for two legislatures (September 11th, 1789 and confirmed in the Constitution of 1791) with the eyes of the Monarchiens (Mounier) that contributed to weaken the executive compared to the legislature.
In the Safety advice of UNO, the five permanent members (the the United States, the Russia, the China, the France and the the United Kingdom) have a right to veto. If one of these countries puts its veto at a proposal, it is obligatorily rejected.
Typically a veto applies to a part of complete legislation. Some States in the United States granted to their governors the additional capacity of the veto to the line. Its most famous abuse intervened when the governor of the Wisconsin, Tommy Thompson, barring individual letters in the text which to him was subjected gave him a different significance. There are variations. This process is at the same time essential with the democracy, and its worst enemy…
In Poland
To the XVII and the XVIIIe century, in the Polish Diète was applied the principle known as of the “ liberum veto ”, in other words freedom not to agree. For a deputy, it was enough to shout during the meeting: “liberum veto” to stop the meeting and to make invalid all the beforehand adopted decisions. It was enough with one voice and it was not to be a particular deputy: no matter who could block any legislative action. This use, transformed little by little into law, was the consequence of the principle which the promulgation of the laws seemed to require the total unanimity. Very quickly, this veto became a demonstration of a paranoiac direction of absolute equality and had like consequence the anarchy and the collapse of the Polish State. The unimportant deputy (or most corrupted) could block the work of hundreds of others and threaten the future of the Polish nation. The “liberum veto” became the symbol of the deep internal crisis of this State and caused its obliteration of the charts during 120 years.