the political system in the u.k

8/3/2019 The Political System in the U.K.

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TRANSILVANIA UNIVERSITY OF BRASOV

FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES AND LITERATURES

DEPARTMENS OF ROMANIAN-ENGLISH

The Political System of the U.K.

Supervisor: Senior Lecture Ph.D:Oana Andreea Pirnuta

Specialization: Romanian-English, group B

BRASOV

2009



SENTENCE OUTLINE

I. Introductiona. Introduction

The single most important fact in understanding the nature of the British political

system is that Britain has not been invaded or occupied for almost 1000 years. The last successful invasion was in 1066 by the Normands.

b. Paper reasons

I realised this paper in order to present the political system of the United Kingdom. I intend to present each component of this political system.

II. Body-Monarchy

-Executive

-Legislative (House of Commons, House of Lords)

-Judiciary

-Political parties(Labour Party, Conservative Party, Liberal Democratic Party)

III. Conclusions

ABSTRACT

This paper represents a description of today’s Political System of the United Kingdom. The United Kingdom it isa constitutional monarchy, the Monarch is the head of the state and the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom is

the head of the government. Executive power is exercised by the UK government, the devolved governments of Scotland and Wales, and the executive of Northern Ireland. The legislative power is asured by the government,

the two chambers of the Parliament, the House of Commons and the House of Lords. The judiciary is independent from the legislature and the executive.

KEY WORDS

-monarchy

-executive

-Parliament

-legislatures

-political parties-judiciary



The British political system is headed by an hereditary monarchy. Although the powers

of the monarch, currently Queen Elizabeth II are ceremonial, they are very important. Since the

English Bill of Rights in 1689, the sovereignity in the UK no longer rests with the monarch.

The English Bill of Rights established the Principle of Parliamentary Soverignity. The three

arms of the state are the executive, the legislature and the judiciary.

Monarchy

The Monarch is the head of the state, currently Queen Elizabeth II, despite the English

Bill of Rights. This can be called a political tradition. Originally, the monarch could choose

his or her Prime Minister of any British citizen. Also, he or she couldcall and disolve the

Parliament whenever he wished. Today, the monarch continues to execise three essential

rights: the right to be consulted, the right to advise and the right to warn. In practical terms, the

politic head of the state is the Prime Minister, currently Gordon Brown, since 27th June 2007.

Other royal powers, called royal prerogatives, such as patronage to appoint ministers and the

ability to declare war, are exercised by the Prime Minister and the Cabinet, with the formal

consent of the Queen.

Executive

The executive power in the United Kingdom is exercised by the UK Government and

the Scottish Government, the Welsh Assembly Government and the Northern Ireland

Government. The government consists of the Prime Minister, Cabinet and junior ministers.

“The term ‘government’ refers to the institutions which are concerned with making,

implementing and enforcing laws. In a narrower sense, however, goverment is often associated

with those who wield executive power within a state. It refers to a specific group of people who

give direction to the activities of the state and function as its political arm” (Peter Joyce,

Politics, Teach Yourself Books,1996:6). The head of state of the Government is the Prime

Minister. The first Prime Minister was sir Robert Walpole, from 1721 to 1742. the current

Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, is the 52nd.The Prime Minister is appointed by the monarch.

He has to be member of the House of Commons to be able to form a Government with the

support of the House. The Prime Minister chooses the other Ministers in order to make up the

Government. Twenty of the most senior government ministers make up the Cabinet. All

ministers are either members of Parliament or peers in the House of Lords. The Prime Minister

is responsible with chairing Cabinet meetings, selecting Cabinet ministers and formulating

governmental policy. Practically, he or she is primus inter pares (Latin for “first among

equals”) among his/her Cabinet colleagues. “ It is also argued that modern prime ministers

dominate the proceedings of their governments.[...] The prime minister possesses the power to



appoint and dismiss other members of the government and manage the workings of the cabinet

through the control of the agenda and summing up its proceedings.” (Peter Joyce,Politics,

Teach Yourself Books,1996:125-126).

Regarding the ministerial responsabilities in the U.K., “There are two types of

ministerial responsability. Individual ministers concerns the relationship between ministers

and the department which they control. As the political head of a department ministers are

expected to be accountable for all actions which it undertakes. If a serious error is commited

by that department, the minister may be required to resign” (Peter Joyce,Politics, Teach

Yourself Books,1996:114).

The most important political departments of the Government are:

The Treasury – in most countries, it would be called the Ministry of Finance. It

is responsible for the rising of all taxes and the control of all government expenditure plus the

general management of the economy. The Head is called the Chancellor of the Excequer.

The Home Office – in msot countries, it would be called the Ministry of the

Interior. It is responsible for criminal matters, policing and immigration. The Head of the Home

Office is called the Home Secretary.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office – in most countries, this would be

called the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It is responsible for all international relastionships,

especially rhe memberships with the Europian Union. The head of the Foreign Office is called

the Foreign Secretary.

There are also the departments for Scoltand, Wales and Northern Ireland.

The three devolved administrations are:

The Scotish Parliament, which came into operation in May 1999. It has 129 members

elected for four-years terms.

The Welsh Assembly, which came into operation in May 1999, has 60 members elected

for four-years term. Since 2006, the Welsh Assembly has powers to legislate in some

areas.

The Northern Ireland Assembly, which came into operation in May 2007, has 108

members.

There are three classes of Ministers who run the Guvernment Departments:

Secretary of State, who is usually the head of the department;

Minister of State, who is a middle-ranking minister



Under-Secretary of State – the most junior class of minister.

The Prime Minister,along with the Secretaries of State make up the Cabinet. “It is

argued that most members of the Cabinet are preocupied with the tasks of running their

departments and thus lack the time or the inclination to involve themselves in affairs other

than those with which they are directly concerned”. (Peter Joyce, Politics, Teach Yourself

Books,1996:125).

Implementation of the Minister’s decisions is carried out by a permanent politically

neutral organization known as the civil service. “The civil service is a hierarchical

organization which utilizes common structures sush as grades and classes to establish a chain

of command and to differentiate work according to the complexity of the tasks involved. (Peter

Joyce,Politics, Teach Yourself Books,1996:144).

Legislature

“Legislatures constitue the law-making body within a country’s system of government.

Thus making the law (or amending or repealing it) is a key function which they perform. A

specific, although important, aspect of this role is approving the budget and granting authority

for the collection of taxes.” (Peter Joyce, Teach Yourself Books,1996:164).

The supreme legislative body in the United Kingdom is the UK Parliament. Is the

centre of political system in the United Kingdom. The Parliament is bicameral, consisting of

the House of Commons and the House of Lords.

House of Commons

“It was an important political actor during the Tudor reigns of the sixteenth century

and a powerful opponent of the Sturart monarchs, who asserted the divine right of the kings to

rule in the seventeenth.”(Jones Bill, Kavanaugh Dennis, Michael Moran, Politics UK,sixth

edition, 2007:409).

It is the lower House of the Parliament. The Countries of the United Kingdom aredivided into parliamentary constituencies. Each of them elects a member of Parliament to the

House of Commons at General Elections. At modern times, all Prime Ministers and Leaders of

the Opposition have been drawn from the Commons, not from the Lords. “The House of

Commons now has 646 members. The number has varied, ranging in the twentieth century

from a high of 707 (1918-22) to a low of 615 (1922-45)[…]it has varied in post-war years and

from 1945 to 1974 stood at 630; because of the increase in the size of the population, it was

increased in 1974 to 635, in 1983 to 650, in 1992 to 651 and in 1997 to 659. In 2001 there was

the first reduction since 1922.” .”(Jones Bill, Kavanaugh Dennis, Michael Moran, Politics



UK,sixth edition, 2007:410). Each sit in the House of Commons represents a geographical

constituency. The largest in the country is the Isle of Wight with 108.253 electors, while the

smallest is Western Isles, with an electorate of only 21.884. Every citizen over 18 can vote ,

but the vote is not compulsory, like in Australia. The United Kingdom uses a method of

election called the simple majority system or “first pst the post”.

It is worth nothing that a government is not formed by a vote of the House of

Commons, merely a commission from the monarch. The House of Commons gets its first

chance to indicate confidence in the new government when it votes on the Speech from the

Throne (the legislative programme proposed by the new government).

House of Lords

It is the second chamber of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, but the upper house.

“In Britain, as in many other large democracies, a second chamber is widely considered

necessary as a check upon the lower house, the government- dominated House of Commons,

but it is also useful because it shares the parliamentary workload (and so reduces the presion

on the House of Commons), has a significant role in legislation […] and provides

opportunities for careful deliberation of matters of public policy by people many of whom are

experts in their chosen fields.”(Watts Duncan, “Understanding US/UK government and

politics: a comparative guide”, Manchester University Press, 2003:108). The House of Lords

was previously a hereditaray, aristocratic chamber. Currently, is a mixture of hereditary

members, bishops of the Church of England known as Lords Spiritual and appointed members.

The House of Lords has the power to propose amendments and exercises a suspensive veto.

The Lords may not veto the “money bills” or major manifesto promises (Salisbury

convention). “The Lords has a role in the legislative process, mainly as a revising body,

although new-usually non-controversial legislation can be initiated here. It is unable to reject

bills passed by the House of Commons, although it has a power of delay under the 1949

Parliament Act.”(Watts Duncan, “Understanding US/UK government and politics:a

comparative guide”,Manchester University Press,2003:109). The House of Lords is currently

also the final court of appeal on civil cases within the United Kingdom, although only a small

part of the House, called the Law Lords, hears the civil cases. The Constitutional Reform Act

2005 outlines plans for a Supreme Court of the United Kingdom to replace the role of the Law

Lords.

In the British political system, all legislation is proposed by the Government. At the

beginning of each annual session of the Parliament, are announced by the Queen, in a speech

ment to open that years’s session of Parliament, the main Bills to be considered. All legislation



must be approved by both House of the Parliament. In each House, the Bill goes through a

serie of stages: the First Reading, the Second Reading, the Committee Stage, the Report Stage,

the Third Reading and finally the Royal Assent. Money Bills can only be initiated in the House

oh Commons and the Lords can only reject legislation

The Scottish Parliament is the national, unicameral legislature of Scotland. There are

129 members, known as Members of the Sottish Parliament. They are elected for four-years

terms under the mixed member proportional representation system.

The current Scottish Parliament was established by the Scotland Act 1998. the first

meeting as a devolved legislature was on 12 May 1999.

The National Assembly for Wales is a devolved assembly with power to make

legislation in Wales and is also responsible for Welsh Assembly Government departments in

Wales. It was formed under the Government of Wales Act 1998, by the Labour government,

after a referendum in 1997. The act also made the National Assembly for Wales a separate

entity from the Welsh Assembly Government.

The government of Northern Ireland was established as a result of the 1998 Good

Friday Agreement, which created the Northern Ireland Assembly. It’a unicameral body, made

up of 108 members elected under the ptinciple of power-sharing, in order to ensure that both

communities in Northern Ireland , unionist and nationalist, participate in governing the region.

It has the power to legislate in a wide range of areas and to elect the Northern Ireland

Executive.

Judiciary

The British judicial branch is extremely complex. The UK operates three separate legal

systems: one for England and Wales, one for Scotland and one for Northern Ireland. These

systems differ in form and the manner of operation. The Lord Chancellor was the head of the

judiciary in England and Wales. Now, he was replaced by the Minister of Justice, which

administers the court system. The Constitutional Reform Act 2005 removes much of the power

and gives it to others in the British government.

„Liberal democracies such as the United Kingdom and the United States, along with

Australia, Canada, France, Italy and many other countries, have an independent judiciary

which is charged with responsibility for upholding the rule of law. Even those in power, be

they Presidents or British ministers, have the same duty to act within the law. Any

transgression of it should not go unchallenged. The rule of law is a cardinal principle in any

democracy, and where it does not prevai; then this is a clear indication of a regime which is in



some degree despotic.” (Watts Duncan, “Understanding US/UK government and politics:a

comparative guide”,Manchester University Press,2003:141).

The main functions of the judicial branch of government are three:

To resolve disputes between individuals, adjucating in controversies within the limits of

the law;

To interpret the law, determining what it means and how it applies in particular

situations, thereby assessing guilt or innocence of those in trial;

To act as guardian of the law, taking responsibility for applying its rules without fear or

favour, as well as securing the liberties of the person and ensuring that governments

and people comply with the “spirit” of the constitution.

“In both countries (Britain and America) there is an elaborate network of courts which

have responsibility for upholding the law. […] In Britain, there is one basic judicial system for

criminal law and a second handles civil law.” (Watts Duncan, “Understanding US/UK

government and politics:a comparative guide”,Manchester University Press,2003:140).

Both England law and Northern Ireland law are based on common-law principles. The

law is made by judges sitting in courts. The Courts of England and Wales are headed by the

Supreme Court of Judicature of England and Wales, consisting of the Court of Appeal, the

High Court of Justice and the Crown Court.

The judicial system in Scotland is a hybrid system based on both common-law and

civil-law principles. The chief courts are the Court of Session and the High Court of Justiciary.

Parties

In the United Kingdom are used various electoral systems. As I said before, the vote

isn’t compulsory. Here are some of the electoral systems used:

The First Past the Post system is used for the general elections in England and Wales

The Bloc Vote system is used in local government elections in England and Wales.

The Additional Member System is used at the Scottish Parliament, Welsh Assembly

and London Assembly,

The Single Transferable Vote system is used in Northern Ireland to elect the Assembly,

local councils and in Scotland to elect local councils.

„the term ’party system’ refers to a recurrent pattern of interaction between a set of

political parties. Furthermore, it is useful to think of parties as competind and/or cooperating

with one another. From this, we may infer that a party system is a particular pattern of

competitive and cooperative interactions displayed by a given set of political parties.”(Webb



Paul D, „The modern British party system”, SAGE, 2000:1). At the beginnings, there have

been two major political parties, but now there are three who dominate the political landscape.

Originally, the Conservatives and the Liberals dominated British politics, but after the collapse

of the Liberal Party, has appeared the Labour Party. The third party is the Liberal Democrat

Party, made up of the Liberals and the Democrats.

The Labour Party

They won the majority of seats in the House of Commons at tthe 2005 general election.

The name has its origins back in 1900, when a Labour Representation Committee established

to use this name, in 1906. the existence of the Labour Party on the left of the British politics

determined the third place in the national politics for the Liberal Party. After the World War II,

during the twentieth century, the Conservative gouvernments aternated with the Labour

gouvernemnts. After being chosen as leader for the Labour Party in 1979, Michael Foot

pursuid a number of radical policies developed from his grass-roots member. In 1981, some of

the members of the Labour Party formed a brakeaway group called the Social Democratic

Party, who made alliance with the Liberal Party. In 1988, they formed the Liberal Democrat

Party. After Michael Foot is replaced, Niel Kinnock comes as the leader of the Labour Party.

The third leader of the party was John Smith, and after that Tony Blair in 1994. they won in

1997 the General Elections, after 18 years of Concervative government. Some say that the

party morphed from a democratic socialist party to a social democratic party.

The Conservatives

„Clearly, the Conservatives and the old Liberals were historically cadre parties whose

oroigins lay in parliamentary alliances, the provenance of which can be traced back at least as

far as the Tory-Whig conflicts of the eighteenth century.”(Webb Paul D., „The modern British

party system”, SAGE, 2000:192). They won the second largest numebr of seats at the 2005

general election and remained the official opposition. The party finds its origins back in 1662,

with the Court Party and the Country Party being formed in the aftermath of the English Civil

War. The Court Party became known as the Tories. Generally, they were associated with lesser

gentry and the Church of England.

In 2008, the Conservative Party formed a pact with the Ulster Unionist Party to select

candidates for European and House of Commons elections.

Liberal Democrats

The Liberal democrats won the third largest number of seats at the 2005 general

election. They were formed in 1988 by a merge of the Liberal Party with the Social Democratic



Party. The term Liberal Party was first used officially in 1868. They formed a government in

1868 and then alternated with the Conservative Party.

„The primary purpose of political parties is to win elections.” (Watts Duncan,

“Understanding US/UK government and politics:a comparative guide”,Manchester University

Press,2003:180) . When it comes to elections, in order to be in government, the parties make it

difficult one for each other to contemplate cooperation with them. In the election period, there

is much party activity concerned in this direction. Besides the function of the party, to prepare

for the elections, they have other specific functions too:

Contest elections in order to compete with other parties for elective office;

Select candidates who would have little chance of success but for their party label;

Organise opinion, providing voters with cues for voting, because most of them can

identify in some way with the umage of the main parties; they can therefore be a basis for

making their political choices;

Coordinate political campaigns;

Put together under one broad umbrella, so that any government which emerges is likely

to have widespread support in the community.

References

• Britanica Encyclopedia 2009

• Johnes Bill, Dennis Kavanaugh, Michael Moran, Philip Norton,

„Politics UK”, Pearson Education Limited

• Joyce James, “Politics”, Teach Yourself Books, 1996

• Moran Michael, “Politics and Governance in the UK”, Palgrave

Macmilan

• Watts Duncan, “Understanding US/UK government and politics: a

comparative guide”, Manchester University Press, 2003

• Webb Paul D., “The modern British party system”, SAGE, 2000

• Whiting Richard, “The Labour Party and taxation: party identity and

political purpose in twentieth century Britain”, Cambridge University Press,

2000



• Wiliams Andy, “UK government & politics”, Heinemann, 1998

• Wright Tony, „British politics: a very short introduction”, Oxford

the political system in the u.k

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