Topic 5: The Constitution

Front 1

Cabinet Government

Back 1

A system of government in which executive power is vested in a cabinet, whose members exercise collective responsibility rather than single office.

Front 2

Civil Liverty

Back 2

Fundemental human rights and freedoms that ought to be protected from interferance from the state.

Front 3

Codified constitution

Back 3

A single document that lays out the laws, rules and principles by which a state is governed and the rights of citizens.

Front 4

Common law

Back 4

Law derived from decisions in court cases and from general customs.

Front 5

Constitution

Back 5

Set of laws, rules and practises that create the basic institutions of the state and its relationship between different institutions and the institutions and the individual.

Front 6

Constitutional monarchy

Back 6

A political system in which the monarch is the formal head of state but has powers legally exercised by government ministers.

Front 7

Convention

Back 7

Established norms of political behaviour rooted in past experience rather than law.

Front 8

Decentralisation

Back 8

Decission making powers would be devolved to devolved institutions in Scotland and Wales and enhancing local government.

Front 9

Devolution

Back 9

Transfer of power from central to local government. The regional tier is subordinate to national government. Legislative devolution is the most significant because it involves new parliament.

Front 10

Democratisation

Back 10

Participation in the political process would be encouraged by electoral reform and wider referendum usage.

Front 11

Elective dictatorship

Back 11

Concentration of power in the executive branch of government, implies that the only check to power is general elections, beyond that the government does what it likes.

Front 12

Entrenched

Back 12

Secured: difficult to change

Front 13

Executive

Back 13

The branch of government responsible for implemention of policy.

Front 14

Federal state

Back 14

A state in which the constitution devides between decission making at local and national level, in which one cannot abolish the other and that has distinct political and cultural identity.

Front 15

Fundemental law

Back 15

The law which forms the foundation of the government of a state.

Front 16

Fusion of power

Back 16

The intermingling of personel in the executive branch of government and legislative branches found in parliamentary systems.

Front 17

Globalisation

Back 17

The widening and deepening inter connections between people and societies in economic, political, social and cultural activities.

Front 18

Judiciary

Back 18

The branch of government responsible for interpreting the actions of government and public authorities, declaring them unlawful if they have exceeded authority.

Front 19

Judicial review

Back 19

The power of senior judges to review the actions of government and public authorities and declare them unlawful if they have exceeded authority.

Front 20

Limited government

Back 20

A system in which the powers of government are subject to legal constraints and checks and balances within the political system.

Front 21

Modernisation

Back 21

Institutions such as parliament, the executive and the civil service were using outdated and inefficent proceedures and were in need of reform.

Front 22

Parliament

Back 22

An assembly that has the power to debate and create laws

Front 23

Parliamentary government

Back 23

A political system in which the executive power takes place in parliament and in which the executive and the legislative branches are fused.

Front 24

Parliamentary sovereignty

Back 24

The doctrine that parliament has absolute legal authority within the state: legislative supremacy. It has reduced meaning due to Britains membership of the EU, devolution, judicial review and increased use of referendums.

Front 25

Political sovereignty

Back 25

Absolute political power.

Front 26

Pooled sovereignty

Back 26

Decission making authoirty of member states of an authoirty combined, enhancing collective power and acheiving joint intrests that couldn't be acheived through sepratism.

Front 27

Popular sovereignty

Back 27

Supreme authority resides with the people.

Front 28

Prime ministerial government

Back 28

A system of government in which the PM is the dominant actor and is able to bypass the cabinetm

Front 29

Referendum

Back 29

A vote in which the electorate is asked to express their views on a spesific issue of public policy.

Front 30

Royal Perogative

Back 30

Discretionafy powers of the crown that are exercises in the monarchs name by the government ministers.

Front 31

Rule of law

Back 31

A system of rule where the relationship between the state and the individual is governed by law, protecting the individual from abituary state action.

Front 32

Sovereignty

Back 32

Legal supremacy: absolute law making authority that is not subject to higher authoirty.

Front 33

Seperation of power

Back 33

The view that the legislature, executive and judiciary ought to be independant of one another. Developed to prevent tyranny and concentration of absolute power.

Front 34

Sleaze

Back 34

Behaviour charechterised by low standards of honesty or morality.

Front 35

Uncodified constitution

Back 35

In which the laws, rules and principles specifying how the state is governed are not gathered in a single document but instead are from a variety of sources.

Front 36

Unitary state

Back 36

A homogenous state in which power is concentrated in the political centre and all parts of the state are governed in that way.

Front 37

Westminster model

Back 37

A form of government exemplified by the british political system, in which parliament is sovereign, executive and legislature and fused and political power is centralised.