Editing Politics of Spain (section)

==Legislature==
{{Main|Cortes Generales}}
Legislative power is vested in the Spanish Parliament, the {{Lang|es|[[Cortes Generales]]|italic=no}} (literally "General Courts",<ref name=cia>{{cite web |url=https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/spain/ |title=Spain|work=[[The World Factbook]]|publisher=[[Central Intelligence Agency]] |access-date=30 March 2014}}</ref> but rarely translated as such). "Cortes" has been the historical and constitutional name used since Medieval Times. The qualifier "General", added in the Constitution of 1978, implies the nationwide character of the Parliament, since the legislatures of some autonomous communities are also labeled "Cortes".<ref name=sinopsis66>{{cite web|url=http://www.congreso.es/consti/constitucion/indice/sinopsis/sinopsis.jsp?art=66&tipo=2|title=Sinópsis artículo 66 de la Constitución Española (December 2003, updated 2011) |last=Alba Navarro|first=Manuel|publisher=[[Cortes Generales]]|access-date=19 February 2012}}</ref> The {{Lang|es|Cortes Generales}} are the supreme representatives of the Spanish people. This legislature is bicameral, made up of the [[Congress of Deputies (Spain)|Congress of Deputies]] ({{langx|es|Congreso de los Diputados}}) and the [[Senate of Spain|Senate]] ({{langx|es|Senado}}). The General Courts exercise the legislative power of the State, approving the budget and controlling the actions of the government. As in most parliamentary systems, more legislative power is vested in the lower chamber, the Congress of the Deputies.{{sfn|Encyclopædia Britannica}} The [[President of the Congress of Deputies|Speaker of Congress]], known as "president of the Congress of Deputies" presides a joint-session of the {{Lang|es|Cortes Generales}}.

Each chamber of the {{Lang|es|Cortes Generales}} meets at separate precincts, and carry out their duties separately, except for specific important functions, in which case they meet in a joint session. Such functions include the elaboration of laws proposed by the executive ("the Government"), by one of the chambers, by an autonomous community, or through popular initiative; and the approval or amendment of the nation's budget proposed by the prime minister.<ref name=countrystudies/>

===The Congress of Deputies===
{{Main|Congress of Deputies (Spain)}}
[[File:Congreso de los Diputados (España) 14.jpg|thumb|Façade of the [[Palacio de las Cortes, Madrid|Palace of the Cortes]], seat of the Congress of Deputies]]
The Congress of Deputies is made up of a minimum of 300 and a maximum of 400 deputies (members of parliament) – currently 350 – elected by universal, free, equal, direct and secret [[suffrage]], to four-year terms or until the dissolution of the {{Lang|es|Cortes Generales}}. The voting system used is that of [[proportional representation]] with [[closed list|closed party lists]] following [[D'Hondt method]] in which the [[provinces of Spain|province]] forms the constituency or electoral circumscription and must be assigned a minimum of 2 deputies; the [[autonomous cities of Spain|autonomous cities]] of [[Ceuta]] and [[Melilla]], are each assigned one deputy.

The Congress of Deputies can initiate legislation, and they also have the power to ratify or reject the [[decree law]]s adopted by the executive. They also elect, via a vote of investiture, the prime minister (the "president of the Government"), before being formally sworn to office by the King.<ref name=countrystudies/> The Congress of Deputies may adopt a [[motion of censure]] whereby it can vote out the prime minister by absolute majority. On the other hand, the prime minister may request at any time a [[vote of confidence]] from the Congress of Deputies. If the prime minister fails to obtain it, then the {{Lang|es|Cortes Generales}} are dissolved, and new elections are called.

===Senate===
{{Main|Senate of Spain}}
The [[upper chamber]] is the Senate. It is nominally the chamber of territorial representation. Four senators are elected for each province, with the exception of the insular provinces, in which the number of senator varies: three senators are elected for each of the three major islands – [[Gran Canaria]], [[Mallorca]] and [[Tenerife]] – and one senator for [[Ibiza]]-[[Formentera]], [[Menorca]], [[Fuerteventura]], [[La Gomera]], [[El Hierro]], [[Lanzarote]] and [[La Palma]]. The autonomous cities of Ceuta and Melilla each elect two senators.

In addition, the legislative assembly of each [[autonomous community]] designates one senator, and another for each one million inhabitants. This designation must follow proportional representation. For the 2011 elections, this system allowed for 266 senators, 208 of which were elected and 58 of which were designated by the autonomous communities. Senators serve for four-year terms or until the dissolution of the {{Lang|es|Cortes Generales}}. Even though the constitution explicitly refers to the Senate as the chamber of territorial representation, as seen from the numbers before, only one-fifth of the senators actually represent the autonomous communities.{{sfn|Encyclopædia Britannica}} Since the constitution allowed for the creation of autonomous communities, but the process itself was embryonic in nature – they were formed ''after'' the promulgation of the constitution, and the outcome was unpredictable – the [[constituent assembly]] chose the province as the basis for territorial representation.<ref name=sinopsis69>{{cite web|url=http://www.congreso.es/consti/constitucion/indice/sinopsis/sinopsis.jsp?art=69&tipo=2|title=Sinópsis artículo 69 de la Constitución Española (December 2003, updated 2011) |last=Alba Navarro|first=Manuel|publisher=[[Cortes Generales]]|access-date=19 February 2012}}</ref>

The Senate has less power than the Congress of Deputies: it can veto legislation, but its veto can be overturned by an absolute majority of the Congress of Deputies. Its only exclusive power concerns the autonomous communities, thus in a way performing a function in line with its nature of "territorial representation". By an overall majority, the Senate is the institution that authorizes the Government to adopt measures to enforce an autonomous community's compliance with its constitutional duties when it has failed to do so.

For the first time ever, on Friday, 27 October 2017, the senate voted, by majority, to invoke article 155 of the constitution, which gave the central government the power to remove the government of the autonomous region of Cataluña for acting against the constitution of 1978 by having called an illegal referendum on 1 October.