make it very difficult to get a political decision implemented exactly as the
government had intended. There are various systems, the French ministerial
cabinet or the British political adviser being examples, to try and circumvent
such an administrative e ́lite.
Administrative Law
Administrative law is the legal code, or set of rules and precedents, governing
relations between the individual citizen and the state. Many such interactions,
for example a contractual dispute between the administration and a company
supplying it services, naturally fall within ordinarycivil law, but even in cases
like this there may be special rules that would not apply in a conflict between
two private companies. The extent to which administrative law is distinct from
national civil law, and the mechanisms for handling disputes vary widely (see
administrative courts). It is important to distinguish between administrative
law and constitutional law because the former never deals with the legitimacy
of legislationper se,but with that of administrative acts carried out under
legislation. For this reason the central concept in all administrative law systems
is that which is called in England theultra viresdoctrine. This is the process
whereby a court decides whether or not a bureaucrat or minister is actually
empowered to do something for which they claim to have statutory authority.
Although it may seem a very obvious and simple question, modern legislation
grants so much discretionary power to a government that it can be extremely
difficult to decide whether or not the discretion was used as the framers of the
legislation intended. The main contrast between European ‘code law’ coun-
tries and thecommon lawworld in administrative law concerns the extent to
which a court will overrule an administrative act because the action itself is
thought wrong, excessive or unfair, or will only overrule where it is proce-
durally improper. At least until recently, common law courts have tended
sharply towards the latter position, while code law systems have allowed more
substantive judgments. This latter position is likely to emerge in the United
Kingdom as a result of the enactment of theHuman Rights Act.
Affirmative Action
Affirmative action, also referred to as positive and reverse discrimination,
describes the deliberate policy of giving preferential treatment to some groups
in a society on the grounds that they have hitherto been disadvantaged either
by governmental policies or as a result of popular prejudice. It has been used to
help ethnic minorities and women (seefeminism), and it is sometimes
suggested that it should be used to help other kinds of minorities, for example
homosexuals or the handicapped. The idea has been most extensively
Affirmative Action