Britain is the parliamentary monarchy with a Constitutional monarch – Queen Elisabeth II. The British Constitution, unlike of most other countries, is not a single document. Instead it is made up of a combination of laws and conventions. In fact, some aspects of the system are not even covered by laws, but rather by custom and practice. So it is often said that Britain has an unwritten constitution, which is a three-fold unity: 1) Statute Laws – acts of Parliament; 2) Common Law – traditional unwritten laws based on judges’ decisions (called sometimes ‘case law’) and customs; 3) Convention – generally accepted practice, i.e. rules that have developed historically. (e.g. It’s another convention that the Government must resign if denied a vote of confidence by the House of Commons)
The constitutional situation is a contradictory one. On the one hand, as a result of the historical process the people of Britain are subjects to the Crown, accepting the Queen as the head of state. On the other hand, the Queen receives her authority from Parliament, which governs the country in the Queen’s name, (although the Queen performs certain important acts of government on the advice of her ministers). Technically, British sovereignty consists of the three elements of Parliament: the Crown (the monarch) and Parliament’s two chambers (the House of Lords and the House of Commons).
The Separation of Powers. The British system of government is based on separation of powers between the legislature (законодательная власть), the executive branch (исполнительная власть) and the judiciary (судебная власть). The legal system is independent to a large degree: although the government appoints judges, it can’t interfere with their work. But the executive and the legislature are not separated at all: the former is part of the latter. The law-making body is Parliament.
Parliament. Britain’s legislature is the Parliament (which occupies the Houses of Parliament in Westminster). It consists of the House of Commons, the House of Lords and the Queen in her constitutional role.
The House of Lords is made up of 760 members (who inherit this right – hereditary peers), the two archbishops and the 24 most senior bishops of the established Church of England, as well as 9 senior judges and about 500 life peers. In recent years, it has been a practice to create new lords, known as life peers. (i.e. Senior politicians such as ex-Prime Ministers and other important public figures were given titles (e.g. Baroness Thatcher) and a seat in the House of Lords.
The House of Commons has 659 elected members of Parliament (MPs), each representing a local area in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. (529 MPs represent England, and the rest represent Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland).
The House of Lords is presided by Lord Chancellor (Лорд-канцлер), while the Speaker presides over the House of Commons.
Parliament is an ancient institution that dates from the middle of the 13th century. In the Medieval Times kings managed all financial affairs and were free to spend the money on both public and private needs. However, the monarch had the Great Council (Большой Совет), which considered extra costs and sort of controlled the monarch’s expenditures.
The first written document that limited the monarch’s power was Magna Charta (of 1215, when John the Lack-land (Иоанн Безземельный) was forced to obey to the Great Council demand that no expenditures can be made by the Crown without its consent)
The main functions of Parliament are: 1) to pass laws; 2) to vote on financial bills; 3) to discuss the government’s policies; 4) to debate important political issues. A maximum duration of Parliament is 5 years, but the Government can dissolve Parliament and call for a general election at any time during the term. If it happens, it is called early election.
When the time of office of MPs (5 years) is over the Queen dissolves Parliament. A person may run for [балатироваться] Parliament if he is over 21 and if he isn’t a subject to any disqualifications: 1) is sentenced to more than 1 year’s imprisonment; 2) is a member of the regular armed forces or in police service; 3) he is a peer or a clergyman of the Church of England, the Church of Scotland or the Roman Catholic Church.
Elections. Unlike in any other country in the world, the system of political representation that is used in Britain evolved before coming of democracy and before national issues became fore important to people than local ones. In theory the House of Commons is simply a gathering of people who each represent a particular place in the UK. Until the 19th century it was the matter of each town and county to decide for itself how each representative was chosen. Then the law was passed on how elections were to be conducted, which was practiced until the development of modern party system. These days nearly everybody votes for a candidate because he or she belongs to a particular party. But the tradition remains that an MP is first and foremost a representative of a particular locality. The result of this tradition is that the electoral system is remarkably simple. The county is divided into a number of areas of roughly equal population (about 90,000), known as constituencies. Anybody who wants to be an MP must declare himself/herself as a candidate in one of these constituencies. On the day of the election, voters go to polling stations and are each given a single piece of paper (the ballot paper) with the names of the candidates for that constituency (only) on it. Each voter then puts a cross next to the name of the candidate. After the polls have closed and the ballot papers are counted, the candidate with the largest number of crosses next to his name is the winner and becomes the MP of this constituency.
The life of Parliament is divided into sessions lasting for one year, normally beginning and ending in October or November. At weekends, at Christmas, Easter and the late spring Bank holidays, as well as from July till October, Parliament is adjourned (*its work stops for a short period of time)
The centre of the parliamentary power is the House of Commons, whose main function is to approve financial laws (that’s why it is called “the Purse of the Country”). The members of the House of Lords discuss the new legislation prepared by the Commons, revise it and sometimes send it back to be reconsidered.
Within the House of Commons 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.
