Word: documented
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...Soviet constitution is an impressive document. It allows freedom of the press, of assembly and of religion. Discrimination based on sex, race or nationality is forbidden. Every citizen has the right to a job, to "rest and leisure," to free health care and education, to housing and even to such "cultural benefits" as television programs and books...
...text makes clear who decides those interests. The Communist Party, whose members include 6.7% of the nation's 282 million people, is the "leading and guiding force of Soviet society and the nucleus of its political system." That mandate is so broad the document does not even mention the groups that really run the country: the 14-member Politburo and the 307-strong Central Committee...
Gorbachev seems to be more mindful than his predecessors of the constitution's unfulfilled promise. Freedom of speech and of the press has been expanded, and he has released more than 100 political prisoners. But Gorbachev's very rise to power is an example of one of the document's most notable deficiencies. Because the charter says nothing about the structure of the Communist Party, it does not limit Gorbachev's authority or make provision for an orderly transition. Rather, control of the apparatus of government is in the hands of powerful party cliques, which vie for power behind closed...
...pomp and circumstance are not meaningless pageantry. Parliament's ritualized opening is a reminder of the enduring roles of British tradition, of the monarchy and of the two houses of Parliament. All contribute to an unwritten constitution etched in customs and laws but not contained in a single document. The constitution has evolved in this way, says Historian Philip Norton, because, since the Norman invasion in 1066, there has been no point at which the system "has been completely swept away, allowing those in power to sit down and create from first principles a new and clearly delineated form...
Many Britons point out that an unwritten constitution gives their country more flexibility than it would have with a written document. Making any change in the law of the land is as simple as passing an act of Parliament. Over the centuries, Parliament has become the arbiter of British rights and freedoms because the courts lack the jurisdiction to rule on the validity of legislation...