BritstuD

EVA NUR MAZIDAH

120710209

BRITISH STUDIES

FINAL EXAMINATION

THE RULER OF THE GREAT BRITAIN

1. Introduction

Reading the history of Britain, it concludes the fact that Britain has not been invaded for almost 1,000 years. The last invasion to Britain was in 1066 by the Normans. The fact finally leads to the answers why Britain has no revolution, written constitution not logical political system and gradual changes.

In monarch system, it is common to have powerful Crown. People used to believe that king obtained his rules from God. Nowadays, the paradigm has been changed that there is a national parliament representing ordinary people. It has been done since King John was force to sign Magna Carta imposing him to shave his authority with the barons. This model used was so-called Model Parliament proposed by King Edward in 1295 and considered as the first representative assembles. Here, Britain used the bicameral nature of the British parliamentary, House of Commons and House of Lords in 1341. The United Kingdom with its three parts--Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland--owns a special position and their own local administrations with a wide range of responsibility. Comparing to federal system of States in the USA, the British political system has no equivalence.

Another important history of politics is that since 1973, it has been one of member so-called the European Union. The EU has 27 members from most of Europe. Thus, the UK government and parliament are limited in some respects by what they can do.

Some questions emerge toward the British political and parliamentary systems about people ruling the authority. In this paper there are some important notes explaining the British Parliamentary systems covering the Crown, the House of Lords, the House of Commons, the Prime Minister, the Cabinet and the Civil Service. Here there is the explanation about whom the greatest power lays in the UK.

2. The Crown

The Crown functions as the symbol of unity of the nation and the head of the state. Since British uses the monarch system, its succession is hereditary automatically to the oldest male child—if there is the absence of males—or to the oldest female offspring of the monarch. The monarch in fact must be a Protestant. The succession in this case happens on the dead of the monarch by a formal coronation ceremony.

Besides that, the Crown is head of the executive and the judiciary, head of the Church of England and commander-in-chief of the armed forces. Again, the Crown’s authority in parliament has been limited since 1689. So, the Crown is sovereign by will of Parliament. What now is done by the Crown are to summon, to suspend until the next session and dissolve parliament; to approve bills to be laws; to give royal assent to legislation passed by Parliament; to point government ministers, judges, officers of the armed forces, governors, diplomats and bishops of the Church; to confer honors; to remit sentences passed on convicted criminals; and to declare war or peace. Even though the Crown does not rule, since 1952 the Crown is visited regularly by the Prime Minister to receive Cabinet decisions and to be consulted as a fact that the monarch plays a more practical role.

3. The House of Lords

The United Kingdom has parliamentary body called Westminster. In the previous explanation, it was explained that one of that parliament’s chambers is the House of Lords. It is the upper chamber of parliament. It is in fact bizarre institution and far from the democratic world. Mentioned in the introduction, the British political system has evolved gradually and peacefully and it is not highly logical. Historically, the Lords are hereditary peers. The Crown here nominated members of aristocracy and the right to be the Lords has passed from generation to generation totally undemocratic. The ruling Labor party government has abolished the right of some hereditary peers. Besides these life peers, other members are Archbishops and Bishops of the Church of England. The Lords cannot double their job in both Houses. If they want to be Member of Parliaments (MPs), they have to relinquish their title later.

What the Lords do are making laws, holding the Government to account and investigate policy issue. They are in some cases experts in many fields and complement to the work of the Commons. In passing laws, this House debates the issue like another chamber does. Some bills debated in this House tend to be noncontroversial bills which deal with details not principle (but still need presenting in front of the House of Commons). This House follows the Salinbury Convention allowing them to be overruled. The last, it is believed that House of Lords reformation is an unfinished business. There is a debate that it should be an elected body though there is not agreement on the details yet. It seems to be the new task of the next authority.

4. The Commons

The Commons are publicly elected members. This is called the lower chamber of the parliament. This is a democratic part of the United Kingdom. The members of the Commons are called Members of Parliament (MPs) who debate the big political issue of the day and propose for new laws. It is the center of government ministers’ works. They are also responsible for making decisions on financial bills e.g. proposing new taxes. The Lords here can consider these bills but cannot amend them. That is why, in short, this House of Commons is responsible for granting money for the Crown.

Every seat in this House represents a geographical constituency. Currently, it has 651 popular members and it is a large legislative by international standard comparing to USA. The job of Members of Parliament is to represent public interest and concerns. They are involved in considering and proposing new laws. They split their time working in the parliament, the constituency and their political party. They spend their time-working in the House of Commons. Their jobs in these positions can lead them to always look at the issues in details because they are exposed to many perspectives.

Actually the two chambers have functions to check and balance the work of government parliament (House of Lords and Commons) and to examine and challenge the work of government using similar methods and scrutiny with various procedures.

5. The Prime Minister

In republics, the head of the government is the President while in the monarch it belongs to the Prime Minister. The United Kingdom indeed has no president instead the Prime Minister. It signifies the Crown’s limited formal power and above party politics. In short, the most important person in the British political system is the Prime Minister whose official residence is at 10 Downing Street.

The governance is called Her Majesty’s Government. Her Majesty’s Government governs in the name of The Queen lying in Whitehall. Here, all government ministers including the Prime minister are members of the commons and represent the Parliamentary constituency. The Prime Minister is chosen by the Crown based on the largest number of members in the Commons. Theoretically the Prime Minister simply points some ministers to run government departments and chair the Cabinet (usually taken from the most senior of those Ministers). In practice, the Prime Minister is a powerful figure and like a president in other political system especially in case of foreign policy.

6. The Cabinet

There are three classes of ministers namely Secretary of State (the head of a department), Minister of State (a middle-ranking minister) and Under-Secretary of State (the most junior class of minister). There are about 100 ministers in the government but so-called The Cabinet is the Prime Minister and all Secretaries of State (20 main ministers. Ministers are taken from the government parties pointed by Prime Minister. They can be from the Commons or the Lords. A minister can use their freedom to make decisions but is some cases they still need the support of both Houses of Parliament

7. The Civil Service

The Civil Service deals with the conduct of the whole range of government activity. They hold day to day duties of public administration. The Civil Servants are servants of the Crown. They have no constitutional responsibility separate from the Government. Anything happens in the ministry does not affect the Civil Servants. They do not get involved in political work.

Civil Service Commissioners responsible for selecting civil servants are answerable to the Queen, and not to the Prime Minister. The ethical quality of the Civil Service has been well-known, higher than in business or industry. Those who want to be the Civil Servants have to have criteria such probity, care with evidence and respect for reason, a willingness to speak truth, a readiness to carry out ministerial instructions, equity and fairness in treatment of the public, a careful concern for the law, a constant concern for Parliament, its needs and procedures e.g. no lying and no misleading, a constant concern for democracy.

8. The Greatest Power in the United Kingdom

The diagram above is what is always believed by many people. But in my understanding, it is no longer so. There is transformation in the political hierarchy.

In the political hierarchy, the Queen does not have a big power to rule because it is in the hand of the hand of the Prime Minister. The Queen and The Prime Minister have the same position that the Queen is head of the state and the Prime Minister is head of government. Those parliament bodies (House of Lords and Commons) and the Cabinet work under the authority of the Prime Minister. The Civil Service is under the Queen’s will but does not intervene the political world. They only help the government without political will. All political conditions are the Prime Minister’s; the Queen only follows what the PM says because it is believed that what the PM says represents the government. Both the Queen and the Prime Minister basically have been restricted by regulation. The Queen may not intervene political condition and the Prime Minister can not be greedy in all matters of the state because in the respect of the Queen or the Crown.

9. Conclusion

From the explanation above, it is known that British indeed is monarch and democratic at the same time. The Crown here is only the symbol of unity of the state and all political condition is under the Prime Minister heading the Cabinet and parliament. The Civil Service also helps the Government in the matter of administration. There are many arguments whether the Queen owns the biggest authority or the Prime Minister does. It is then known that they are great in a certain respect. Still the Queen is head of the state but the God of government and state’s problem are in the hand of the Prime Minister.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Darlington, Roger. (2009). A Short Guide to the British Political System. Retrieved December 20, 2009 from http://www.rogerdarlington.me.uk/Britishpoliticalsystem.html

The British Parliament. (2001). Retrieved December 18, 2009 from http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A591383

The Two House System. (n.d.). Retrieved December 20, 2009 from http://www.parliament.uk/

The United Kingdom Government. (n.d). Retrieved Decemeber 20, 2009 from http://www.britannia.com/gov/gov6.html