Topic: British state system

List of questions:

1. Monarchy in Britain.

2. The separation of powers

3. The Cabinet

4. The two-party system

5. The British Parliament

6. The House of Commons

7. The House of Lords

8. Electoral system

 

Literature:

1. Нестеров Н.М. Страноведение: Великобритания. Ростов на Дону, «Феникс», 2006.

2. Михайлов Н.Н. Лингвострановедение Англии. М., «Академия», 2003.

3. Артемова А.Ф. Великобритания. Книга для чтения по страноведению. М, «АСТ: Восток-Запад», 2006.

4. Томахин Г.Д. По странам изучаемого языка. М., «Просвещение», 1998.

5. M. Pugh A History of Britain. Oxford, 2001.

6. M. Vaughan-Rees In Britain. Lnd., 1999.

 

MONARCHY IN BRITAIN.

British polity (state system) is complex and unique as it is the product of a long period of historical development which resulted in the “Glorious Revolution” and established the Crowned Republic in 1688. The absence of revolutionary upheaval since then, i.e. for more than 300 years, the lack of the document known as a written constitution, the tendency to preserve outward forms when the inner substance is changed – all theses makes the English polity both complex and unique.

Officially Great Britain is a state of the constitutional monarchy. That means that at the head of the state monarch (Queen or king). But the power of the Queen is not absolute; it is greatly limited by parliament.

British polity comprises three main ruling bodies – Monarchy, Parliament and Government. The oldest of three institutions is Monarchy.

The monarchy is the most ancient institution in the United Kingdom, going back at least to the 9^th century. The queen can trace her descents from the Saxon King Egbert, who united all England under his sovereignty I 829. The continuity of the monarchy has been broken only once by a republic that lasted only 11 years (1949 – 1660). Monarchy is founded on the hereditary principle and it has never been abandoned. The succession passed automatically to the oldest male child, or in the absence of males, to the oldest female offspring of the monarch. Quite recently the rules of descent have been changed. Now the succession passes to the oldest child irrespective of its sex.

The Coronation of the Sovereign follows some months or a year after the accession. The ceremony has remained much the same in substance for over 1000 years. It consists of recognition and acceptance of the new monarch by the people; taking by the monarch of an oath of royal duties; the anointing and crowning (after communion); and rendering of homage by the Lords Spiritual and Temporal.

The coronation service, conducted by the Archbishop of Canterbury, is held at Westminster Abbey in the presence of representative of the lords, the Commons and all the great public interests in the United Kingdom, the Prime Minister and leading members of the Commonwealth countries, and representatives of foreign states.

By Act of Parliament, the monarch must be a Protestant.

The Queen’s title in the United Kingdom is “Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and Her other Realms and Territories Queen, the Head of the Commonwealth, the Defender of the Faith”.

For several centuries the monarch personally exercised supreme executive, legislative and judicial powers but with the growth of Parliament and the courts the direct exercise of these functions progressively decreased. The 17^th – century struggle between Crown and Parliament led to the establishment of a constitutional monarchy.

The strangest feature of the system is the role of the monarch. The Queen appears on paper to have tremendous power, but in fact has hardly any at all. The country is a kingdom, the government of Her Majesty’s Government, laws are made by the Queen in Parliament, criminal are tried in the name of the Queen, and the Queen is the head of state. She dissolves Parliament before an election and she appoints the new Prime Minister; she has a business meeting with the Prime Minister once a week, usually on Tuesdays; at the annual State of Opening of Parliament she makes the Queen’s Speech, which outlines the government’s plans. She is the Head of the Commonwealth (which includes 51 countries and a quarter of the world’s population), and she is actually Head of State in 16 countries including Canada, Papua New Guinea and Jamaica. All this seems to add up a dominant role within the system. But it does not: the key word here is symbolic.

Queen Elizabeth signs all the new laws that are presented to her; she cannot pick and choose. She appoints the leader of the majority party as the Prime Minister, automatically. The Queen’s Speech is in fact written for her by the government. Any power she may have is strictly personal: if the Prime Minister respects her opinion on something (such as the Commonwealth, on which she is an expert), they will take her advice. Constitutionally, she has the right only, “to be consulted, to encourage, and to warn”.

THE SEPARATION OF POWERS 

In the USA the constitution enforces a strict separation between the executive, the legislature and the judiciary. Britain has some separation but not very much. The legal system is independent to a large degree: although the government of the day appoints judges, it cannot interfere with their work and it cannot get rid of those appointed by the previous government. But the executive and legislature are not separate at all: in fact, the former is part of the latter. The law-making body is Parliament – the House of the Commons and the House of the Lords. The Commons is made up of all the Members of Parliament (MPs) chosen by the election – about 650 of them. Within that there is the majority party, and within the majority party there is a group of ministers who are the government. The leader of the majority party is the head of the government, the Prime Minister.

THE CABINET

The top ministers form an elite group of about 20, known as the Cabinet. These are the people who sit round a table with the Prime Minister and decide on the policies of the Government. They have a rule of collective responsibility: in public they all have to agree with the decisions of the whole Cabinet.

The role of the Prime Minister is extremely important: he or she appoints all members of the government, so every one of them owes their job to the Prime Minister. It is very hard to be independent, still less rebellious, in such circumstances. But much depends on the personal style of the PM. As with managers in business, or sports captains, some leaders are more authoritarian than others.

In recent times John Major was a Prime Minister who preferred co-operation and consensus. Tony Blair did not appear to tolerate opposition within his own party. Mrs. Thatcher, the Iron Lady, was so tough that her Cabinet colleagues were all terrified of her. She once wrote: “I don’t mind how much my ministers talk – as long as they do what I say”. There is always a danger that the Prime Minister can take on a more presidential role, and about the system becoming an “elected dictatorship”.

Mrs. Thatcher may have shown dictatorial a Prime Minister can be. But unwillingly, she also showed the limits of the post. When she became unpopular in the country, the Conservative Party saw that it was going to lose the next election because of her, and so it sacked her. Remember that Prime Minister is the leader of majority party; and that party can always change its leader if it is unhappy.