WEEK 2 –
OVERVIEW OF THE BRITISH
POLITICAL SYSTEM
Joy Johnson
Lecture and seminar
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Need to understand:
The institutions
The political context
The issues
key text: Morrison, Essential public affairs for
journalists, ch 1
• Jones, et al, UK Politics
• If time: Kavanagh and Cowley, The British General
Election of 2010
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British Constitution – United Kingdom of
Gt. and Northern Ireland
• There are two broad constitutions that
nations have
• written or unwritten
• UK does not have a written constitution
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Primary sources of the UK’s
constitution
• Statute –individual laws, known as ‘Acts of
Parliament’
• Common Law – judge-made or ‘case’ law
• Conventions – customs, traditions and long
standing practices
• Treatises – history works of legal/and or
constitutional authority
• Treaties
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Sovereign in Parliament –
(You tube coverage)
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The monarchy
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Constitutional monarchy
Queen – titular Head of State
Figurehead with little real power
Power rests with government
And Parliament
Royal Prerogatives (exercised by Parliament)
Core funding by civil list out of public money
Morrison p21
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Historical context
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Westminster model
Parliamentary Democracy
MPs elected on first past the post
Majority party leader becomes Prime Minister (&
First Lord of the Treasury) and selects his cabinet
• Accusations of an elective dictatorship come with
landslide majorities
• 2010 saw new circumstances
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Crown the symbol of authority
Parliament is sovereign
• Representative Parliament
• Parliamentary sovereignty
• Constitutional monarchy (crown the symbol
of executive authority)
• The elected overtook the unelected
• Issue: contemporary debate over reform of
the House of Lords
• Referendum in Scotland
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Monarchy above the fray of party
politics
• Monarchy has to be seen to be separate
• Monarchy has to avoid controversy
• Abdication crisis 1936 Edward and Wallace
Simpson
• Marital problems in the 90’s
• Charles interfering over planning decisions
• Queen and the formation of new government
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=
re6G1hTlrEo
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Charles intervenes – abuse of a
privileged position (?)
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Consequences of Hung Parliament
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2010 British General Election
Labour lost
No one party won overall majority
Resulting in first coalition government for over sixty
years
• Cameron made a bold offer to the Liberal
Democrats to form coalition (not thought of as
natural allies) – David Laws 22 Days In May an
insider’s account
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Prime Minister Brown stands down
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Gordon Brown stands down
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Prime Minster Cameron goes to
see the Queen
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2010 coalition government
• Queen had to be kept out of the process in forming
a coalition government
• Not for the Monarch to work out who could
command confidence in the House of Commons
• Palace to be observer not participant
• Incumbent Prime Minister (Brown) would remain in
office until new government apparent
Evidence to select committee Kavanagh & Cowley, The British
General Election 2010 p205
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First draft (?)
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http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/dec/13/gusodonnell-to-publish-cabinet-manual
• A cabinet office source said: "It's a mixture of
convention and constitution, for the first time
written down in one place."
• O'Donnell has previously stressed that he is not
aiming to produce a blueprint for Britain's first
written constitution or advocating introducing one,
but that if there was a political decision to introduce
one the cabinet manual might be the start of it.
• O’Donnell stood down at the end of the year
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Cabinet leadership split
• http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2012/jan/10
/cabinet-secretary-social-policy-kitemark
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Queen’s speech delivered in House
of Lords
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Queen’s speech (government ‘s
programme)
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMHseSSR
xgQ
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Next Queen’s Speech
• Next Queen’s Speech is not expected to take
place until after the local elections in May. But
with a new legislative programme being drawn
up, Whitehall departments are now making
their bids for a slot.
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Parliamentary Sovereignty
• Parliament (body of MP’s following election)
can make laws
• Can also repeal laws
• Any one Parliament not bound by the actions
of a predecessor
• (it is the sovereignty of Parliament that the
Euro sceptics claim the European Union
threatens)
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Parliamentary privilege
• Constitutional principle fundamental to the
working of the Parliament
• Allows MPs and peers to raise issues on the
floor of the Chambers without fear of
prosecution or defamation
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MPs not above the law
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MPs not above the rule of law
• Supreme Court rule on MPs attempt to cite
privilege and be tried in Parliament and find
against the MPs
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Contempt of Parliament (p11)
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Separation of Powers
• Executive (the government)
• Legislature (Parliamentary)
• Judiciary (the courts
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Rule of law
• One of the twin pillars of the constitution
• Essential feature of a free society
• Subordinate to first pillar – parliamentary
sovereignty
• Could pass a measure undermining or
destroying the rule of law
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ASSUMPTIONS BEHIND THE
BRITISH POLITICAL SYSTEM
• To provide for rule (decision making) subject to
consent.
• Consent provided by Parliament, via election.
• Representative status meant Parliament provided
legitimacy; Parliament sovereign.
• Parliament provided consent for executive actions
- Ministerial responsibility
- Government confidence
• This consent provided the (only) link between
executive action and popular will.
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ASSUMPTIONS BEHIND THE
BRITISH POLITICAL SYSTEM
MPs represent constituents in Parliament
"Representative government in Britain has
historically been conceived, and functioned, as a
means of legitimating executive power."
David Judge, Political Institutions in Britain, 2005: 28
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ALTERNATIVE WAYS OF
ORGANISING POLITICAL POWER
Popular
sovereignty
Use of referendums
Switzerland, US,
Italy, Australia
Limits on
government
power
Written constitution
US, Germany
Checks on
government
power
Federalism, bicameralism, US, Germany,
judicial review
Australia
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OLD ASSUMPTIONS UNDERMINED
• Growth in government: Public spending and
size of government departments. (this
coalition government committed to cutting
the size of government and spending)
• Rise of disciplined political parties.
•  Executive dominance over Parliament.
Sovereignty of Executive not of Parliament.
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Power of the Prime Minister
‘first among equals’
• Margaret Thatcher regarded as powerful
Prime Minister yet she was brought down by
her Cabinet over Europe and popularly the
poll tax
• Tony Blair was also powerful yet he couldn’t
sack his Chancellor and resigned before he
wanted
• Cameron – reports that he is strengthening
the centre
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From sofa government to Cabinet
government
• Blair’s sofa government - criticism that small
elite governed without civil service note taking
• Coalition return to cabinet government
• (still an inner circle/kitchen cabinet)
• Tensions exist
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Prime Minister and his Deputy
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THE MAJORITARIAN OR
‘WESTMINSTER’ MODEL
• Parliamentary sovereignty
• Plurality electoral system
 Two party system
 Single party majority governments
• Strong party discipline (and collective cabinet
responsibility)
• Executive control over Parliament
• Centralisation of power; weak sub-national
government
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Is the system broke
• First past the post (FPTP)) usually produces
majoritarian government
• 2010 hung Parliament
• FPTP – winner takes all
• Claims that the system is broken – multiple
parties, Conservatives in the South, with the
North and Scotland – Labour
• AV referendum defeated
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ALTERNATIVES TO ‘WESTMINSTER’
MODEL
Presidential model
• Separation of executive
and legislature
• President not
dependent on
legislature
• Checks and balances
Power-sharing or
‘consensus’ model
• Representation of
minorities; winner doesn’t
‘take all’
• Power is shared or
dispersed, not hoarded or
concentrated
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Source: King, 2001: ch2; Shaw, 2004;
ALTERNATIVES TO ‘WESTMINSTER’
MODEL (pre-2010)
Westminster
• Single party government
• Executive dominates
legislature
• Two party system
• Plurality electoral system
• Unitary
• Unicameral
• No formal constitution; weak
judicial oversight
Source: King, 2001: ch2; Shaw, 2004;
Consensus
• Coalition government
• Legislature stronger in
relation to executive
• Multi-party system
• Proportional system
• Federal
• Bicameral
• Written constitution; strong
judicial oversight
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EVALUATING THE WESTMINSTER
MODEL
Strengths
• Accountability via
elections
• Government stability
• Government
decisiveness
Weaknesses
• Little accountability
between elections
• Weak representation of
minorities
• Policy instability
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Sources: King, 2001: pp10-12, 43-50; Shaw, 2004; Wilson, 1994
CHANGES TO THE WESTMINSTER
MODEL
• Devolution: Scotland, Wales, N Ireland,
London
• Judicial review: Human Rights Act
• Reform of House of Lords
• New electoral systems: devolved and
European legislatures
• Bank of England independence
• Freedom of Information
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THE ‘HOLLOWED OUT’ STATE
EUROPEAN UNION
INTERNATIONAL
(eg. WTO)
WESTMINSTER / WHITEHALL
PRIVATISATION /
MARKET TESTING
QUANGOS/AGENCIES
eg. Bank of England
Economic regulators
Student Loan Company
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Source: Based on Richards & Smith, 2002: Fig 2.1; also Kavanagh et al, 2006: Fig 3.4
SEMINAR QUESTIONS
1. How would you characterise the
Westminster model? What has changed?
2. To what extent is the Westminster model
descriptively accurate? Is the state ‘hollowing
out’?
3. Rule of Law
4. Separation of Powers
5. Civil list
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Reading
• Coalition Agreement – Political reform
• Morrison ch1
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