Politics

The politics of Iceland takes place in a framework of a parliamentary representative democratic republic, whereby the Prime Minister of Iceland is the head of government, and of a pluriform multi-party system. Executive power is exercised by the government. Legislative power is vested in both the government and parliament, the Althing. The Judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature.

Executive Branch

The president, elected to a 4-year term, has limited powers. The prime minister and cabinet exercise most executive functions. The president of Iceland is a largely ceremonial office that serves as a diplomat, figurehead and head of state. The head of government is the prime minister, who, together with the cabinet, takes care of the executive part of government. The cabinet is appointed by the president after general elections to Althing; however, this process is usually conducted by the leaders of the political parties, who decide among themselves after discussions which parties can form the cabinet and how its seats are to be distributed (under the condition that it has a majority support in Althing). Only when the party leaders are unable to reach a conclusion by themselves in reasonable time does the president exercise this power and appoint the cabinet themselves. The extent of the political powers possessed by the office of the president are disputed by legal scholars in Iceland; several provisions of the constitution appear to give the president some important powers but other provisions and traditions suggest differently. The president is elected every four years (last 2004), the cabinet is elected every four years (last 2003) and town council elections are held every four years (last 2006).

Legislative Branch

The modern parliament, called "Althing" or "Althingi", was founded in 1845 as an advisory body to the Danish king. It was widely seen as a re-establishment of the assembly founded in 930 in the Commonwealth period and suspended in 1799. The Althing is composed of 63 members, elected every 4 years unless it is dissolved sooner. Suffrage for presidential and parliamentary elections is 18 years of age and is universal. Members of the Althing are elected on the basis of proportional representation from six constituencies. Until 1991, membership of the Althing was divided between a lower and upper house but this was changed to a fully unicameral system.

Judicial Branch

The judiciary consists of the Supreme Court or Haestiréttur, justices are appointed for life by the president, and district courts. The constitution protects the judiciary from infringement by the other two branches.

Military

Iceland, a NATO member, does not have a standing army and hasn't had one since the nineteenth century, although it has an expeditionary military peacekeeping unit known as the Icelandic Crisis Response Unit or Islenska Fridargaeslan.

Iceland has a Coast Guard (Landhelgisgaeslan) which operates armed Offshore Patrol Vessels as well as aircraft and a counter-terrorism team named Sérsveit Rikislogreglustjora (English: "The Special Operations Task Force of the National Commissioner of the Icelandic Police"), commonly referred to as Vikingasveitin (The Viking Team or Viking Squad) similar to the German GSG 9. The Icelandic National Police consists of over 700 officers and unpaid volunteer Rescue and Civil Defence Units have more than 4,000 active members and have overall 18,000 registered members.

From 1951 until 2006, military defences were provided by a predominantly United States-manned Defence force in the NATO base on Midnesheidi near Keflavik. This base is now in the hands of the Sheriff of Keflavik Airport. While an Air Defence radar network, known as the Iceland Air Defence System (IADS) or Islenska Loftvarnarkerfid is operated by Ratsjarstofnun.