Transformation of European Democracies : Essay The role of the British parliament and its power

Résumé du document

Democracy is a system in which the citizens are endowed with a set of inalienable rights, and hold the sovereignty of the power. A parliamentary democracy is a political system in which the citizens allow their representatives, the members of the parliaments to act in their name and place through an electoral process. The Great Britain's parliamentary system is that of bicameralism. The British Parliament is divided into two Houses. The first one is the House of Commons composed of 651 directly elected MPs and the House of Lords with hereditary nobles, bishops, judges and life peers nominated by the major political parties that are entitled to sit and debate on significant issues. The legitimacy conferred to the House of Commons makes it the most important and powerful one. In general parlance, the British parliament means the House of Commons. The separation of powers theorized by the French social commentator Montesquieu requires to separate the executive power from the legislative. However, Great Britain has the particularity not to have a written constitution establishing clearly the roles of each institution in the political system. Nevertheless, a system of checks has been set to ensure the balance of power. In this document, we examine the various political, administrative and economic changes undergone by Britain that affected its Parliament over the 20th century.

Extraits

[...] According to David Judge, answering to the question: Does parliament matter? , it is, not because of control capacity of the Houses over the executive, but because of the legitimating power of the parliamentary institution. The concept of parliamentary sovereignty is central for the British state development because it permited peripheries integration in the past, but also United Kingdom integration in the European Community today. Anyway, when British governments refer to the parliamentary sovereignity, it is about their own sovereignty because legislative supremacy is owned by the executive acting through the Parliament The role of internal bodies In the Parliament, we can highlights the role of two bodies : the House of Lords, and the opposition. [...]

[...] Transformation of European Democracies: Essay The role of the British parliament and its power A democracy is a system in which the citizens are endowed with a set of inalienable rights, and hold the sovereignty of the power. A parliamentary democracy is a political system in which the citizens, by the elections, allow their representatives, the MPs to act in their name and place. Great Britain parliamentary system is bicameralism: the British Parliament is divided into two Houses: First, the House of Commons composed of 651 directly elected MPs and the House of Lords with hereditary nobles, bishops, judges and life peers nominated by the major political parties entitled to sit and debate. [...]

[...] First of all, we can point out the role of the House of Lords, often forgotten in the policy-making process. Even if its role is quite controversial and its legitimacy more and more criticized, leading nowadays to reforms, the speeches of the lords can have considerable impact. Parties play a less important influence, and lords are quite free. The government survival does not depend on them, that is why select committees easily muster cross party support. In fact, most of the improvements in legislation occur in the House of Lords. [...]

[...] Helped by the British constitution, a government supported by the majority party in the House of Commons can do anything, unless there is a major dissident in MPs in the governing party. But even in these situations, it is highly unlikely a bill will be defeated, because dissenting MPs will be able to get concessions from the government. This behaviour has been called in 1976 by Lord Hailsham : «elective dictatorship» . There is no written document to limit its power. [...]

[...] They have the power to call civil servants and ministers to testify. Every member has to examine the work of the Government, but it is the Opposition which plays the leading part in this. Parliament is rather better at influencing and controlling the executive than most people now suppose But Parliament is still facing constraints and limits to its action. First, we can argue that Parliament, organizing investigating committees faces institutional constraints. In practice, the House of Commons' scrutiny of the Government is very weak. [...]