The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Politics (286 page)

The demonstrations and uprisings in Prague and other Czechoslovakian cities during 1989 which culminated in the ending of communist rule in November.
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See
voluntary export restraint
.

 
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Signed on 28 June 1919 at the Paris Peace Conference, seven months after the armistice ending the First World War, the treaty is seen as marking the end of the old order of Europe. It ascribed ‘war guilt’ to Germany, and imposed upon them huge reparations payments, territorial and colonial losses, and restrictions on military power. The treaty also comprised the Covenant of the League of Nations, an international organization established to promote collective security, and clauses ratifying the collapse of the Habsburg monarchy of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
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Latin, I forbid. To prohibit, to block, to refuse consent to a legislative bill or policy proposal. Each permanent member of the United Nations
Security Council
possesses a veto and during the Cold War this repeatedly prevented that organization from taking action. Presidents of the United States are endowed by the Constitution with a veto over congressional legislation. Bills that have passed the House and the Senate require the President's signature before they can become law. The President formally vetoes a bill by writing ‘veto’ across it and returning it to Congress with a statement outlining his objections. Members of Congress seeking to overturn such a veto can do so if they can muster two-thirds votes in support in both houses of the legislature. If the President declines to append his signature to a bill it automatically becomes a law after ten congressional working days. If the President fails to sign and Congress adjourns before the required ten days have elapsed that bill dies and the chief executive is said to have exercised a ‘pocket veto’.
By preventing the passage of legislation that he deems unacceptable the President is able to play a prominent role in the making of public policy even when his party lacks majorities in Congress. Gaining one-third of the votes plus one in either house in order to sustain a veto is normally well within the reach of a determined chief executive and it is notable that presidents operating in conditions of divided government such as Eisenhower , Nixon , Ford , and Bush have made extensive and successful use of the veto.
The President of the United States can only veto bills in their entirety, whereas the governors of many states possess a line
item veto
allowing them to veto specific parts of bills emanating from state legislatures. Proposals to give the President this weapon have been resisted on the grounds that this would shift the balance of power between the executive and the legislature to an undesirable degree.
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In the United States the Vice President has few formal duties, and the importance of the position relies almost solely on the fact that the holder takes over the Presidency if the incumbent dies, retires, or is impeached; they are ‘a heartbeat away from the presidency’. The Vice President presides over the Senate, and votes in the case of ties. Increasingly Presidents have tried to give the Vice President roles in specific areas of policy, as roving ambassadors, or as heads of
ad hoc
agencies to deal with domestic issues.
Vice Presidents are often chosen, not for the qualities they would bring to the administration, but in order to present a ‘balanced ticket’ at the election, broadening the appeal of the presidential campaign. The balance may be geographical—a Southern President choosing a Northern Vice President—ideological—a conservative being paired with a liberal—or another consideration (e.g. religion, government experience, age).

 
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The regime set up in unoccupied southern France after the French military collapse of 1940, named after the spa town which was its capital. Around the venerable figure of Marshal Pétain , there developed an authoritarian, collaborationist regime, organized on corporatist lines. The Third Republic was dissolved, strikes were banned, and ‘Work, Family and Country’ became the official motto. The regime undertook the reorganization of industry and agriculture, with an emphasis on central planning and co-ordination that would survive the war. Vichy attracted some early support, which, however, vanished as power gravitated into the hands of pro-Nazi, anti-Semitic elements, leaving Pétain isolated. Vichy was further undermined by the Resistance, the approaching Allied invasion and, finally, by the German occupation of the whole of France. At the liberation in 1944 the regime was completely discredited and its leaders later charged with treason.
IC