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tes resourcestwo party system in teh uk
the British politics
an essay about british parliament
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Britain is a liberal, parliamentary and stable democracy, where its dynamic society conditions the agenda of politics. The fusion/separation, or lack thereof, of powers is complicated, but essentially includes the Executive and Elected Legislature, Appointed Legislature, the Judiciary and the Crown. The largest party forms the executive government, whose primary role is to run government and present laws, and overall represents the will of the majority. The House of Commons is elected to reflect the will of the people, and create, criticize and approve laws. The appointed legislature is the House of Lords, and they constitute the unwritten constitution, acting as an extra safety measure, also with the ability to criticize and approve laws. The judiciary upholds the law and represents such as the UK courts of law. The crown is the monarch, and Her Majesty’s role is to represent the United Kingdom as a symbol of ceremony and tradition, and sign bills into law. The most essential element that distinguishes the Westminster model is the executive power that is given to the largest party after a first past the post election. Additionally, with the fusion of powers, the party that controls the legislature also directs the executive branch. “This combination of legislative and executive power in the hands of the government party is the basic feature of the Westminster model.” (Wilson 1994, p.193, as quoted in Lamprinakou 2014) With that being said, this essay will discuss and compare the strengths and weaknesses of the Westminster model, and argue the accuracy of this type of government for the present-day United Kingdom.
As discussed in lecture, there are six main features of the British political system that distinguish the U...
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... advantage, that may seem disadvantageous to some, is the ability to easily get rid of the Prime Minister, as seen in Chamberlain’s and Thatcher’s reign. Chamberlain became Prime Minister in 1937 and was very popular for his aggressive actions in Munich. In 1939, Chamberlain promised that Britain would defend Poland’s independence in an attack, and therefore Britain joined the war. In May of 1940, Chamberlain resigned due to a split government, which he thought would hurt the allies in war, and so Winston Churchill became Prime Minister. Margaret Thatcher, the longest serving British Prime Minister, and only female, thus far, was elected in 1979 and re-elected twice after that. Her third term began in 1987, and her views conflicted with the voters and others in her Cabinet, which then forced her to resign in 1990, as Michael Heseltine challenged her leadership.
The Role and Powers of the UK Prime Minister Explain the factors which limit the way his/her power can be exercised
The effectiveness of Westminster Parliament in holding the executive to account relies on a number of variables, arguably, the most important being the degree of the government’s majority. Other variables include the unity of the party, the presence of a foreign war or the presence of a hostile media. This being said, there are also a number of mechanisms by which Parliament is able to hold the executive accountable.
Kelly, R. 2008. It is only made things worse: A critique of Electoral System in Britain. The political quarterly 79(2):260-261.
The Two Party System of UK It has often been said that the United Kingdom possesses a two party political system. However, any balanced argument on this issue must take into account both the differing perspectives from which this subject can be viewed and the time period which is being evaluated. The two party theory is not universally accepted and many people argue that the UK can best be described as a multi party, dominant party or even a two and a half or three party system, depending on how the subject is approached. The most commonly held view is that Britain is a two party system.
Margetts, H. John, P. Weir, S. Latent Support for the far-Right in British Politics: The BP and UKIP in the 2004 European and London Elections. Paper Presented to PSA EPOP conference: University of Oxford, 2004.
Paun Akash, Robert Hazell, Andrew Turnball, Alan Beith, Paul Evans, and Michael Crick. "Hung Parliaments and the Challenges for Westminster and Whitehall: How to Make Minority and Multiparty Governance Work (with Commentaries by Turnbull, Beith, Evans and Crick)." in Political Quarterly Vol 81, Issue 2: 213-227.
Within parliamentary systems, the government i.e. the legislature consist of the political party with the most popularly elected Members of Parliament (MPs) in the main legislative parliament e.g. the House of Commons in the United Kingdom. The Prime Minister is appointed by the party to lead as the executive decision-maker, and the legislature work to support and carry out their will (Fish, 2006). In presidential systems, the President is directly elected with the support of their political party, with the legislative being separately elected and, in the case of the United States, being made up of representatives from different states (BIIP, 2004). This essay will provide examples to suggest that Presidents are generally more powerful than Prime Ministers. As two of the oldest forms of parliamentary and presidential governments (Mainwaring and Shugart, 1997), the United Kingdom and the United States will be the main focus of this essay, but other parliamentary and presidential countries will be mentioned.
Since the 1950s there has been a rise in the power of the Prime Minister, specially Crossman in 1962 and Benn, who in 1979 referred to “a system of personal rule in the very heart of our Parliamentary democracy”. As Britain has remained the “world’s most successful representative democracy”. The role of the executive has significantly increased at a great deal since the end of World War 2, however, the outward dangers of a supplementary individual hegemony attached to the Prime Minister shouldn’t be overemphasized. Although the modern examples of Margaret Thatcher and Tony Blair whose styles of leadership have each been labelled as presidential. In this essay I will be assessing the four main prime minister’s power and if his or her powers constrained under the British system. For instances, the power of patronage, cabinet power, the party leadership and the mass media. These are four main factors of the prime minister and its effectiveness can be argued.
On one hand, political constitutionalists argue that parliamentary sovereignty is the underlying principle in the British constitution as power and law making are bo...
One of the most influential and celebrated scholars of British consistutional law , Professor A.V Dicey, once declared parliamentary soverignity as “the dominant feature of our political insitutions” . This inital account of parliamentray soverginity involved two fundamental components, fistly :that the Queen-in-Parliament the “right to make or unmake any law whatever” and that secondly “no person or body is recognised by the law of England as having a right to override or set aside the legislation of Parliament.” . However this Diceyian notion though an established principle of our constitution now lies uneasy amongst a myriad of contemporary challenges such as our membership of the European Union, the Human Rights Act and a spread of law making authority known as ‘Devolution’. In this essay I shall set out to assess the impact of each of these challenges upon the immutability of the traditional concept of parliamentary sovereignty in the British constitution.
Thatcher has been favourable to the public. Thatcher has very strong leadership skills what this meant that she was ready to take up new challenges and never backed out if found her self in a mess. She argued with her cabinets and the queen she's isn't scared of anyone.
The United Kingdom as one of the remaining monarchies of the world, which head of it, the Queen Elizabeth II, has powers that provide an essential evolution of the country. These powers, are called Royal Prerogative powers. Obviously, British people respect the Royal family and additionally the queen, nevertheless they could have their own beliefs as seen on their references. According to the Royal Prerogative (“RP”), it is definitely the most historically and continuing tradition of Britain. In some situations, circumstances tend to disappear them and replaced them by other recent means. In this essay, it will define the RP and how can preserve the separation of powers. Therefore, it should explain how these powers dying to a democratic environment.
A key feature of the unwritten constitution is ‘the Separation of Powers’. This exercises the idea of independence within ‘different functions of government’; it is represented by the legislature, the executive and the judiciary. Separating the three prevents a dangerous occurrence where power is entirely centralized in one group. Cooperating with one...
Taylor, H. (1910). The constitutional crisis in Great Britain: Bicameral system should be retained with House of Lords reorganized on an elective basis. Concord, N.H: Rumford Press. 6th edition
The concept of parliamentary political system was rooted in 1707 of Great Britain; the word derives from ‘parley’, a discussion. It was used to describe meetings between Henry III and noblemen in the Great Council (Szilagyi, 2009). It was originated in British political system and is often known as the Westminster model as it was used in the Palace of Westminster. It became influential throughout many European nations later in the 18th century (Smith, 2010). Countries with parliamentary systems are either constitutional monarchies such as the United Kingdom, Denmark, Australia, and Canada or parliamentary republics such as Greece, India, Ireland and Italy (McTeer, 1995). The parliamentary type of government is known for its three distinctive features; first, executive is divided into the head of state and the head of government, they are independently elected forming a dual executive; second, the fusion of ...