Government Structure and Society

Cambodia is a constitutional monarchy and a multiparty liberal democracy with a unitary structure and parliamentary form of government. The country’s constitution was promulgated in 1993. According to the constitution, the king is the head of the state and is chosen from among royal descendants by the Royal Throne Council.

Since 1999, Cambodia’s legislature became bicameral. The directly elected National Assembly acts as the lower chamber and the indirectly elected Senate acts as its upper chamber. The cabinet holds all the executive powers and it is headed by the prime minister, who is chosen by the king on recommendation by the National Assembly from the representatives of the party with the largest number of seats in the assembly. The rest of the ministers are selected from all parties represented in the assembly. Members of the parliament serve five-year terms.

Social and Political Stability – Cambodia has been a country that has often faced social unrest throughout its history. Since the death of 1.5 million people under the reign of the Khmer Rouge, the most noteworthy event that has occurred was the 2013-14 Cambodian protests, against the government of Prime Minister Hun Sen, over the contested election results. However, these protests stopped after the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) made an agreement with Hun Sen to end its boycott of the parliament.

In recent years, the government has been able to maintain peace and political stability and aims to do the same in the future because it believes through political stability it will be able to get foreign investors and tourists to Cambodia and this would help its economic growth.

Religious stability – Cambodia is recognized by its religious freedom even though Buddhism is the state religion. The country’s government constantly provides support and opportunity to all religions and has set clear policy for religious harmonisation. The law provides for freedom of belief and religious worship. Since almost 98% of the population practices Buddhism there are also no religious clashes and religion is not seen as an obstacle for national development.

Government Priorities –
  1. Sustainable economic growth
  2. Poverty reduction
  3. Creation of jobs
  4. Improve human resources development and management

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