THE WESTMINSTER MODEL OF
DEMOCRACY
THE WESTMINSTER MODEL
Some features of the Westminster model of democracy are:
 The abolition of the presidential governance and the adoption
of the parliamentary governance
 The UK Parliament is located in the Westminster Palace of
London
 The best example of the Westminster model is the British
“democracy”
 Presidency, Congress and the Supreme Court are the prototype
to be adopted everywhere
 Many aspects of this model can be met in: Canada, Australia,
New Zeeland and most of the former British colonies
ELEMENTS OF THE WESTMINSTER
MODEL
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
Concentrating the executive power in single majority cabinets
Prevalence of the cabinet
The two-party system
The majority disproportional voting system
Pluralism of the interest groups
Centralized and unitary governance
Concentrating the legislative power in a unicameral
legislative
Constitutional flexibility
Lack of the constitutional control
The Central Bank controlled by the executive
1. Concentrating the executive power in
single majority cabinets
The most powerful body of the British governance is the
Cabinet, made up of the members of the majority Party in the
House of Commons.
Coalition governments are rare.
The single-party and simple majority government is the best
embodiment of the majority governance principle: it exerts the
given political power.
A large minority is excluded from the governance.
2. Prevalence of the Cabinet
The UK has a parliamentary government system, the
government being dependent upon the Parliament trust.
Theoretically, the House of Commons “controls” the
Cabinet. The Government is made up of the leaders of the
major party in the House of Commons, the Cabinet being
clearly dominated by the Parliament.
In a strong governance the cabinets lose their prevalent
power.
In the 70’s there was significant increase in the
Parliament refusals of the main proposals of the cabinets.
The Domination of the Cabinet was restored in the 80’s
under the control of the conservatory minister Margaret
Thatcher.
3. The two-party system
The British policy is dominated by two great parties: the
Conservatory Party and the Labour Party. Most of the places
in the government are taken by these two parties.
These two-party systems tend to become one-way systems,
namely the programmes and policies of the main parties
differ from the social and economic point of view. In this
respect, the disagreement about the social-economic policies is
what separates the Conservatives and the Laborites.
The Laborites are centre-left, while the Conservatives are centreright. Generally, the workers vote for the Laborites, while the
middle-class votes for the Conservatives.
4. The majority disproportional
voting system
The House of Commons is a legislative body with 625-659
members. They are chosen by one eligible place following the
plurality way.The candidate with most of the votes wins.
This system tends to have disproportional results.
History shows that the winning party used to win by “created
majority “.
The
disproportional
election
system
proved
disadvantageous, especially for the liberals and the free
democrats. So, the tendency is towards proportional
representation.
The UK rather has a pluralist democracy.
5. The pluralism of the interest
groups
Concentrating the power in the hands of a majority is the main
attribute. The Westminster model creates a competitive and
adversative relation for the government against the
opposition.
The British system is clearly a pluralist one. The social contract
concerning salaries and prices was concluded in 1975 between
the Labour government, the labour union and the employers –
the only exception – which was broken 2 years later.
In the 80’s there were confrontations between the Conservative
government and the union. Great Britain is accused of not
being a corporatist system.
6. Centralized and unitary
governance
 The kingdom is a unitary and centralized state
 The local executive authority has no powers guaranteed by
constitution and is financially dependent on the Central
Government
 The autonomy of Northern Ireland could be eliminated in
1972 by the Parliament by a simple majority decision because
from 1921 until 1972 Northern Ireland was led by its own
Parliament and cabinet until London imposed its governance
 There is a tendency towards greater autonomy for Scotland
and Wales
 In 1997 prime-minister Tony Blair announced the end of the
“ultra-centralized governmental age”
7. Concentration of the legislative
power in a unicameral legislative
 The majority principle implies that the legislative power be
concentrated in a single chamber. Thus, The UK deviates from
this principle because its Parliament is made up of two
chambers: the House of Commons (a lower house), chosen by
people’s vote and the House of Lords (an upper house), made
up of nobles. Almost all the legislative power belongs to
the House of Commons.
 In a word, “the Parliament” can mean almost exclusively the
House of Commons and the power of the House of Lords can
be reduced much more.
8. Constitutional flexibility
 Great Britain has an “unwritten “ constitution – the making up
and powers of the governmental institutions and the citizen
rights are defined by a number of fundamental laws like
Magna Charta of 1215, the Bill of Rights of 1689 and the
Parliament Acts between 1911 and 1949 (principles, practices
and legislative acts).
 The constitution has 2 major implications:
1. It is completely flexible, because it can be changed by the
Parliament like any other law
2. The lack of constitutional control
9. Lack of constitutional
control
 There is no constitutional document which makes the Court
create the constitution
 The Parliament is the sovereign authority that can undo any
law
 By entering the European Union, Great Britain became member
of the European Convention on Human Rights of 1951
 Thus, the Parliament can no longer be considered sovereign
 Great Britain has the right to control and invalidate any
action of the state, including the legislative ones
10. The Central Bank
controlled by the executive
 The independence of the Central Bank is obviously in
conflict with the principle of the Westminster model of
concentrating the power in the hands of a majority singleparty cabinet
 Consequently, the Bank of England is under the
government control
 Hardly in 1997 was the Bank of England awarded the
power to establish independently the interest rates