Government And Politics

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Parliamentary Government:

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The executive and legislative branches are fused; there is an overlap between membership of the two branches, with the government consisting of members of the legislature.

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Parliamentary Government:

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The Legislature can dismiss the executive; The Government is accountable to parliament which can remove the government through a vote of no confidence. The government may be able to dissolve parliament by calling a general election.

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Parliamentary Government:

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Parliamentary elections decide the government; Governments are formed according to their strength in parliament, the person who commands a majority in parliament, usually the leader of the largest party, becomes the Prime Minister.

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Parliamentary Government:

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Collective government; The executive branch is led by a prime ministers who, in theory, at least, is the 'first among equals' in a cabinet of senior ministers.

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Parliamentary Government:

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Separate head of state; The head of the executive branch (the pm) is not the head of state. The latter is often a ceremonial role with little political power, as in the case of the UK monarchy.

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Presidential government:

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- clear separation of powers between the executive and legislative branches - members of the executive cannot b e members of the legislature.
- The legislature cannot dismiss the president, except in special circumstances, and the executive cannot dissolve the legislature.

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Key Terms:

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* Parliament; An assembly that has the power to debate and make laws.* Legislature; The branch of government responsible for passing laws.

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The Westminster model;

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- traditional way of understanding British politics
- focussing on the constitution and major institution
- key features; parliamentary sovereignty, uncodified constitution, cabinet government, fptp electoral system, two party system, unitary state.

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The Westminster model;

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Two main features;

- Representative government; takes place through government, where decisions are taken by elected representatives of the people. Mp's make decisions on behalf of the public.
- Responsible government; government is accountable to parliament for its actions, and accountable to people through its elections.

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Structure of Parliament;

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Bicameral legislature - two chambers.
* The House of commons
* The House of Lords
* The Monarchy

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House of Commons;

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- lower house of UK parliament
- parliamentary sovereignty; parliament legislative supremacy.
- motion of no confidence; fixed term parliament at 2011- parliament will be dissolved if the government is defeated on a motion of no confidence.

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Composition of the lower house;

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- 650 members
- front bencher; MP who holds ministerial position (or shadow).
- back bencher; doesn't hold ministerial position.
- division; a vote in parliament.
- Whip; a- a party official responsible for ensuring that MPs turn up to parliamentary votes and follow party instructions on how to vote. b- an instruction to vote that is issued to Mps by political parties.

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Composition of the upper house;

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- unelected chamber
- subordinate to the House of Commons
- 1911 act; made the house a revising chamber
- commons rejects the wishes of the lords then they can either back down or block the bill for a year
- Salisbury- Addison convention states the lords may not wreck or reject bills that seek to enact a manifesto commitment of the governing party.

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Composition of the upper house:

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Hereditary peers, ended the right of all but 92 peers to sit and vote in the Lords.
Life peers, gave the prime minister the right to appoint members of the upper house for life, their title and right to sit in the Lords cannot be inherited.

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The monarchy:

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royal assent; approval by the monarch is the final stage in the legislative process, only when the bill has been signed by the monarch it can become law.
appointing the prime minister; monarch appoints the prime minister, often a formality.
proroguing parliament; monarchs power to dissolve parliament was wended by the fixed term parliaments act 2011.
the queens speech; sets out the main bills that the government intends to introduce that year.

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Functions of parliament:

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Legislation;
- bill is a draft legislative proposal that is debated in parliament
- Act, legislative proposal that has completed the legislative process and entered into law.
- Public bill, a bill concerning a general issue of public policy, introduced by a government minister.
- Green paper, a government document setting out various options for legislation and inviting comment.
- White paper, a government document setting out a detailed proposal for legislation.

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Functions of parliament:

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first reading, formal presentation of the title of the bill on the floor
second reading, main debate on the principle of the bill, the shadow minister and back benchers contribute to the debate, bill contested vote is taken
committee stage, bills are sent to a public bill committee, where a scrutiny of each clause is established for each bill.
report stage, amendments made in committee are considered by the full house, may accept reject or alter them.
- third reading, debate on the ammended bill on the floor of the house, no further amendments are permitted.

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Functions of parliament:

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House of Lords stages, bill is sent to the House of Lords, where it follows the same procedure. If amendments are made the commons may argue them.

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Other bills:

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- private member bills - 20 names of MP's want to introduce are drawn each parliamentary session.
- secondary legislation - in specific policy areas is delegated by parliament to government ministers.

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Effectiveness of legislature:

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policy making legislatures; amend or reject legislative proposals, and can put forward alternative bills.
policy- influencing legislatures; can modify or reject legislative proposals form the executive but are unable to develop extensive legislative proposals of their own.
legislatures with little or no policy influence; unable to modify or veto legislative proposals from the executive, cannot formulate meaningful alternative policy proposals of their own.

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Scrutiny and Accountability:

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* question time
* the opposition
* debates
* select committees eg. public accounts committee, modernisation committee.

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Effectiveness of scrutiny and accountability:

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- select committee system has improved and extended parliaments scrutiny of the executive.
- the remit of select committees has been widened in recent years.
- Election of select committee chairs and members has enhanced their independence.

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Representation:

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- mps are elected from single member constituencies on the basis of universal suffrage
- constituency work takes up a greater proportion of have a greater chance to take up grievances
- some mps with favourable local reputations for their constituency work
- all women short lists
- priority lists

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Parliament and government:

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- government majority, important factor in the relationship between the legislature and executive, large majority better working government.
- coalition government can reduce the effectiveness.