The UK political system

Catalogue
Monarchy君主体制
Parliament议会国会
Royal Family
 Constitutional Mornachy
君主立宪制度
The King or Queen is the head of the State
 The Prime Minister
Leader of his party in the House of Commons
Head of the government
Chief spokesman for the government
He has the right to select his cabinet, hand out
departmental positions, decide the agenda议事日程
for cabinet meetings which he also chairs.
He directs and controls policy for the government.
He keeps the Queen informed of government
decisions. (weekly meeting with the Queen)
Sovereign

MaryⅠ（玛丽一世） 1553~1558
Elizabeth I（伊丽莎白一世）1558~1603
Anne of Great Britain安妮女王
1702~1714
Alexandrina Victoria维多利亚女王
1837~1901
Elizabeth II伊丽莎白二世
Since 1952
Prince Charles ——the heir继承人 to the throne
 Parliament议会国会

Palace of Westminster——Houses of Parliament(英国议会大厦)

Parliament
Parliament consists of 2 parts : they must all agree
to pass any given legislation（法律）

House of Lords (the Upper House)

Parlia
ment

House of Commons (the Lower House)

House of Lords House of Commons
Red Chamber (红厅) Green Chamber (绿厅)
 The House of Lords
•Structure:
•About 1,100 hereditary and
•life peers or peeresses
•Power：
Review legislation
Propose amendments
Veto bills according to
conventions and
operations
of the Parliament Acts
The House of Commons
 Legislature（立法机关） =Parliament
Parliament is the highest legislative authority in the UK – the
institution responsible for making and repealing (废止) all
the UK laws. It’s also known as the Legislature.
Function:
Make all the UK laws;
Scrutinize (审查) government policy, administration &
expenditure;
Hear appeals (上诉) in the highest Court of Appeal (最高上诉法
院)in Britain;

Debate the major issues of the day.

The Royal Family
The Royal Duties

1 Visits many parts of Britain

2 Pays state visits to foreign countries

3 Tours other Common-wealth countries

 The birth of Parliament
The House of Lords
 Those who were
summoned(召集) “by name”.
 At first it’s only a gathering
of barons（男爵) and by the
13th century, kings found
they couldn’t make ends
meet by asking money from
this quite small group.
 And later they widened it to
include representatives of
counties, cities and towns.
The House of Commons
 Representatives of
communities
 The Commons quickly
gained in political strength and
in return they wanted an
increasing say(发言权)in what
the king was doing.
 The Monarch
Official Head of Parliament
The life of parliament is divided into periods called
“sessions” (会期) (A session lasts for 1 year).
The beginning of a new session, called the “State
Opening of Parliament” (议会开幕典礼) , takes place in the
House of Lords.
It’s a tradition for the monarch to open Parliament in
person.
On the day, the Queen travels from Buckingham Palace to
Parliament in the State Coach (典礼马车).
Once the Queen arrives at Parliament, the Union Flag is
lowered and replaced by the Royal Standard.
The queen then takes her place on the throne in the House
of Lords, from where she sends her messenger Black Rod
(黑杖礼仪官) to summon the MPs(the members of
Parliament).
When the Black Rod arrives at the Lower House, the door
is slammed in his face, symbolizing the independence
and dominance of the House of Commons.
He must then knock 3 times to gain entry and deliver his
summons.
Then the leading MPs follow the Black Rod to the Upper
House, standing crowded at the end of the chamber
opposite to the throne.
The Queen will then read out the Queen’s
Speech, a document about 1,000 words in
length prepared by the government.
What is the speech about?
In the document the government outlines its
planned programmes and the policies it
intends to follow.
When the one-week debates on the Queen’s
speech are finished, Parliament is ready to
begin the actual work of the new session.
The Queen’s Speech
The main functions of Parliament

1 Debating

Funct
2 Making laws
ions

3 Supervising
 The House of Lords
It exercises the supreme judicial power. (最高司法机关)
It has over 1000 non-elected members:
1.Lords Spiritual (神职议员):
2 archbishops (大主教) and 24 diocesan bishops (辖区主教). Their
eligibility (资格) to sit ends on retirement.
2. Law Lords (司法议员): 12 Chief Judges
3. Hereditary Peers (世袭贵族):
Duke公爵, Marquis侯爵, Earl伯爵, Viscount子爵, Baron男爵 (royal
descendants)
4. Life Peers (当世贵族/一代贵族):
The life peer is a title given by the Crown during his/her lifetime, in honor of his
or her professional achievements. The title is NOT hereditary世袭.
Theoretically the two Houses are equally important.
But the Upper House does NOT exercise the
dominant constitutional influence (上院不具有主导法
律影响力、不掌控立法权).
It has NO power to prevent the passing of legislation
or bills approved by the House of Commons. The
lords can only delay a bill for up to 1 year.
The work of Lords is largely complementary to that
of the Commons: hold debates, put questions to
ministers, examine and revise bills.
 The House of Commons
The most powerful and important
element in UK.（the real center of
British political life）
Three main functions:
1) Make laws;
2) Control and criticize the executive
government;
3) Control the raising and spending of
money.
Winston Churchill 丘吉尔
Tony Blair 布莱尔 James Gordon Brown布朗
Dmitry Medvedev 梅德韦杰夫
 The birth of the Prime Minister and
Cabinet（内阁）
To ensure good relations between Crown and Parliament,
the King or Queen met regularly with a group of important
Parliamentarians, a group which became known as the
Cabinet.
In 1714, the ruling Queen(Anne of Great Britain)died without
producing an heir to the throne and so Britain had to
“import” a member of the royal family from Germany to
rule Britain.
The new King George Ⅰspoke English very badly and was
not very interested in politics anyway, so he left the job of
chairing cabinet meetings to one of his ministers. In time
he came to be called the prime minister.
The powers of the PM within the British political
structure have developed in recent years to such
an extent that some political analysts now refer to
Britain as having a Prime Ministerial government
rather than a Cabinet government.
The PM selects his own Cabinet and he will select
those people who:
Have ability
Have demonstrated good party loyalty
Have clearly demonstrated loyalty to the PM
himself
 British Government
Prime Minister
Ministers (Heads of all important departments)
Treasury 财政部
Ministry of Defense 国防
Ministry of Agriculture
Foreign and Commonwealth Office外交联邦部
Department of Education and Science
Department of Health and Social Security
Prime Minister's Question Time （质问时间）

The PM answers questions from MPs in the

Commons for half an hour every Wednesday
from 12 at noon. Question Time is an
opportunity for MPs to ask the PM questions
known as “oral questions”.
Are those oral questions merely from the
PM’s opposition parties or out-parties?
Anyone can ask him some questions. In theory,
the PM won’t know what questions will be asked.
However, he’ll be extensively briefed by
government departments in anticipation of likely
subjects he could be asked about.
 Executive = The Government
What does the British Government refer to?
Technically, the Central Government refers to the
Cabinet headed by the Prime Minister.
The Cabinet is the nucleus核心 of the government.
All its members are chosen among the MPs. This
makes the British government known as the
Parliamentary government (议会制政府) or
Cabinet government.
 The Cabinet（内阁）
What is the Cabinet composed of?
It’s composed of the chiefs of the most
important ministries and departments.
Who are always included in the Cabinet?
The Minister of Defense, the Foreign
Secretary and the Chancellor of the
Exchequer财政大臣
Cabinet meets weekly at No. 10 Downing
Street.
 The Privy Council（枢密院）
The Privy Council includes all
ministers and ex-ministers, the holders
of certain offices outside the political
executive and some other people to
whom membership has been given as
an honor.
The Privy Council

1 Includes all ministers and ex-ministers

Include the holders of certain offices ; people

2
who has been given as an honor

Have the power to make certain executive

3
orders and proclamations
 The Civil Service 公务员
The civil servants are politically neutral中立的.
They are paid with public money.
They are career officials serving the elected political
government of the day. They themselves aren’t
elected. They’re officials who remain in office
despite changes in government.
They are well-educated elite精英, dominated by
Oxbridge (75%).
To enter at the higher levels of the civil service you
have to pass a rigorous civil service exam.
 The Devolution (地方分权／权力下放)
Devolution is where power is transferred from a
superior governmental body (such as central
power) to an inferior one (such as at regional
level).
Since Tony Blair’s constitutional reforms at the end
of the 20th century, more power has been
devolved from Westminster to Scotland, Wales
and Northern Ireland.
The Scottish Parliament -- 1998
The Welsh Assembly -- 1998
The Northern Ireland Assembly -- 1998
English Judges
 General Election
every 5 years
-- any citizen over 18 years old
There are 646 constituencies选民 in 2005,
each of which returns one MP.
The elected MPs will make up the House of
Commons.
The leader of the party that wins the majority
of seats in the House of Commons will
become the PM and form a new Cabinet.
Thank you !