What is the state system of the united kingdom

Топик «Политическая система Соединенного Королевства/Великобритании» (Political system in the United Kingdom)

The United Kingdom is a state with a constitutional monarchy and it is governed within a parliamentary democracy. The head of the state is the monarch who is a hereditary member of the Royal Family, and the head of the government is the prime-minister. In practice, the monarch takes little part in the government’s work, he or she just gets weekly oral reports from the prime-minister. The UK has a devolved system of government. The executive power is exercised by the British government, as well as the devolved governments of the Scottish Parliament, Welsh Assembly and Northern Ireland Assembly. The most important departments in the government are the Treasury, the Home Office, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. The treasury is responsible for raising of all taxes and the general management of the economy. The Home Office is responsible for criminal matters, policing, and immigration. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office is responsible for all international relationships.

The legislative body for the UK and British overseas territories is introduced by the Parliament of the UK, as well as the Scottish Parliament, Welsh and Northern Ireland Assemblies. The UK Parliament consists of two legislative parliamentary bodies, the House of Lords (the upper chamber) and the House of Commons (the lower chamber). All legislation has to be approved by both Houses of Parliament. The House of Commons consists of democratically elected Members of Parliament from different political parties, while most members of the House of Lords are hereditary peers. General elections are held every five years.

The UK judiciary power is independent of the legislative and executive powers. The highest court is the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom.

The British parliamentary system is a multi-party system. Each of the United Kingdom parliaments or assemblies has elected political parties. The major parties in England are the Labour, the Conservative and the Liberal Democratic parties. Meanwhile the dominant party in Scotland is the Scottish National Party.

The United Kingdom has no written constitution. It is not codified and is made up of constitutional conventions and acts of Parliament.

Соединенное Королевство является государством с конституционной монархией и управляется в рамках парламентской демократии. Главой государства считается монарх, являющийся унаследованным членом Королевской семьи, а главой правительства является премьер-министр. На практике же монарх мало участвует в работе правительства, он или она лишь получает еженедельные устные отчеты от премьер-министра.

Соединенное Королевство имеет автономную систему правления. Исполнительная власть действует при помощи британского правительства, а также автономных правительств шотландского Парламента, Ассамблеи Уэльса и Ассамблеи Северной Ирландии. Наиболее значимыми министерствами в правительстве являются Министерство финансов, МВД и МИД. Министерство финансов отвечает за сборы всех налогов и общее управление экономикой. МВД занимается криминальными вопросами, охраной порядка и иммиграцией. МИД отвечает за все международные отношения.

Законодательная власть Соединенного Королевства и британских заморских территорий представлена Парламентом Великобритании, а также Шотландским Парламентом, Ассамблеями Уэльса и Северной Ирландии. Парламент Великобритании состоит из двух законодательных парламентских органов, Палаты Лордов (верхней палаты) и Палаты Общин (нижней палаты). Все законопроекты должны быть одобрены обеими палатами Парламента. Палата Общин состоит из демократически избранных членов Парламента из различных политических партий, в то время как в Палате Лордов находятся наследные пэры. Общие выборы проводятся каждые пять лет.

Судебная власть Великобритании независима от законодательной и исполнительной властей. Высшим судом считается Верховный Суд Соединенного Королевства.

Британская парламентская система многопартийна. Каждый из парламентов и ассамблей Соединенного Королевства избрал политические партии. Основными партиями Англии являются Лейбористская, Консервативная и Либерально-Демократическая партии. Тем временем, доминирующей партией в Шотландии является Шотландская Национальная партия.

В Великобритании нет писаной конституции. Она не сведена к кодексу и состоит из конституционных соглашений и актов Парламента.

STATE SYSTEM OF THE UNITED KINGDOM

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a parliamentary democracy, with a constitutional monarch, Queen Elizabeth II, as head of State. The organs of government are: Parliament, the executive and the judiciary.

The legislature, Parliament, is the supreme authority. It comprises two chambers – the House of Lords and the House of Commons – together with the Queen in her constitutional role. The Queen has no real power, she reigns, but does not rule.

The executive consists of the central Government – that is the Prime Minister and the Cabinet and other ministers, who are responsible for initiating and directing the national policy, government departments, local authorities and public corporations.

The judiciary determines common law and interprets status and is independent of both the legislature and the executive.

The Government derives its authority from the elected House of Commons. A general election, for all seats in the House of Commons, must be held at least every five years. The Government is normally formed by the political party which wins the majority of seats in the House of Commons. The party’s leader is the Prime Minister appointed by the Queen. He chooses a team of ministers, of whom 20 or so are in the Cabinet. The second largest party becomes Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition with its own leader and ‘Shadow Cabinet’. The House of Commons comprises members from the constituencies in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland who represent people whose history and traditions differ.

The House of Lords is a hereditary chamber.

In Great Britain there is no written constitution, only customs, traditions and precedents.

ECONOMICS AS A SCIENCE

The word ‘economics’ derives from the Greek word ‘oikonomika’ that means household management. Economics came of age as a separate area of study with the publication of Adam Smith’s “The Wealth of Nations”. Adam Smith is often considered to be the founder of modern day economics because he was the first writer to outline and appraise the workings of a free market economy. Major economic thinkers include David Ricardo, Thomas Malthus, John Mill, Karl Marx and others.

Most economists define economics as a social science concerned with the production, distribution, exchange, and consumption of goods and services. Economics is the study of how goods and services get produced and how they are distributed. By goods and services, economists mean everything that can be bought and sold. By produced, they mean the processing and making of goods and services. By distributed, they mean the way goods and services are divided among people. Economists focus on the way in which individuals, groups, business enterprises, and governments seek to achieve efficiently economic objectives.

Given most goods are scarce, every society must somehow determine what goods to produce. Scarcity is the condition that exists if more of a good or service is demanded than can be produced. As human needs are virtually unlimited and resources are finite, most goods and services are, in the economic sense, scarce. In a free economy, allocation of scarce resources is controlled by the price mechanism. Through the market mechanism the production and consumption decisions of individuals directly affect the allocation of resources. When the market mechanism fails to provide goods and services efficiently and equitably – a situation called “market failure” – the public sector must provide assistance. Market imperfections must be overcome by government activity. In a controlled economy, central government has to decide how resources are to be allocated.

The major divisions of economics include microeconomics, which deals with the behaviour of individual consumers, companies, traders, and farmers; and macroeconomics, which focuses on aggregates such as the level of income in an economy, the volume of total employment, and the flow of investment. Both fields place a heavy emphasis on the individual or household as the basic unit of analysis, rather than the classes.

Microeconomics and macroeconomics frequently overlap. They include the sub-discipline of econometrics, which analyses economic relationships using mathematical and statistical techniques. Increasingly sophisticated econometric methods are today being used for such topics as economic forecasting.

Economics has always been controversial because it is used by individuals, businesses, and governments to make decisions. Economic agents often look around for an economic theory which confirms their prejudices rather than accepting that our understanding of how a system works is often imperfect. The ever changing nature of economics and the potential for entering a debate about causes, effects, and policy implications make economics so fascinating.

KINDS OF ECONOMIES

Different kinds of economies have developed as nations have tried different approaches to solving their basic economic problems. Every country has an economic system to determine how to use its resources. The three main economic models today are 1) capitalism, 2) central planning, and 3) mixed economies. The economies of all nations mix elements from these main economic models. All real economies combine elements of capitalism with those of central planning. However, nations differ from one another in the extent to which they rely on the two approaches.

The term ‘capitalism’ was first introduced in the mid-19th century by Karl Marx, the founder of communism. ‘Free enterprise’ and ‘market system’ are terms also frequently employed to describe modern capitalist economies.

The Scottish economist Adam Smith first stated the principles of capitalism in the 1700’s. Smith believed that governments should not interfere in most business affairs. He said the desire of business people to earn a profit, when regulated by competition, would work almost like an ‘invisible hand’ to produce what consumers want. Smith’s philosophy is known as ‘laissez faire’ (noninterference).

Throughout its history capitalism has had certain key characteristics. First, basic production facilities – land and capital – are privately owned. Capital in this sense means the buildings, machines, and other equipment used to produce goods and services that are ultimately consumed. Second, economic activity is organized and coordinated through the interaction of buyers and sellers (or producers) in markets. Third, owners of land and capital as well as the workers they employ are free to pursue their own self-interests in seeking maximum gain from the use of their resources and labour in production. Consumers are free to spend their incomes in ways that they believe will yield the greatest satisfaction. This principle, called consumer sovereignty, reflects the idea that under capitalism producers will be forced by competition to use their resources in ways that will best satisfy the wants of consumers. Self-interest and the pursuit of gain lead them to do this. Fourth, under this system a minimum of government supervision is required; if competition is present, economic activity will be self-regulating. Government will be necessary only to protect society from foreign attack, uphold the rights of private property, and guarantee contracts. The gravest problems of capitalism are unemployment, inflation, and economic injustice.

Many economies are based on the principles of capitalism. These economies are called free enterprise or free market economies because they allow people to carry out most economic activities free from government control. Even in these economies, however, the government owns some land and capital and exercises some control over the economy. The United States and Canada have economic systems that use relatively little government control. For this reason, their economies are often described as capitalist. Capitalism is also practiced in Australia, New Zealand, and many countries of Western Europe.

Central planning calls for government control of all major economic activities and government ownership of nearly all productive resources. The Soviet Union and many nations of Eastern Europe once relied heavily on central planning. Government officials made all key decisions about how goods were produced, priced, and distributed. The economic system used by these countries was referred to as Socialism.

Socialist economies experienced some success. Centralization enabled governments to focus their energies and rapidly industrialize their countries. Literacy and employment rates soared in these countries. In addition, income was distributed fairly equally. Therefore, the difference between the lowest and the highest wages was much smaller in Socialist countries than in capitalist countries.

The centrally planned economy created serious problems, however, because it was inefficient. State-set prices did not reflect the actual cost of production, leading to waste of resources. The planned economy also failed to provide high-quality goods and services and could not respond quickly to changes in consumer demand. In many cases, consumer goods and housing were in short supply, and state-run farms did not produce adequate supplies of food. The shortages occurred partly because worker, productivity and creativity lagged. Workers had little motivation to be productive because their wages remained about the same regardless of how much they produced. Problems in centrally planned economies include underemployment, rationing, bureaucracy, and scarcity of many consumer items.

All modern economic systems combine private ownership with government control. Sometimes called mixed economies, these systems attempt to eliminate inefficiencies inherent in capitalism or socialism alone. Governments, imbued with centralized control and the power to make legislation, set standards and taxes and may direct certain industries such as telecommunications or transportation, while private businesses control the remaining industries and generally thrive or fail according to the dictates of the market. In some cases, a public-private partnership may operate some industries. Under a mixed economy, the government may own such industries as banks, railroads, and steel. However, other industries are privately owned.

ADVERTISING

To advertise means to tell people publicly about a product or service in order to persuade them to buy it. Advertising – the techniques and practices used to bring products, services or opinions to public notice for the purpose of persuading the public to respond in a certain way toward what is advertised. Most advertising involves promoting a good that is for sale, but similar methods are used to encourage people to drive safely, to support various charities, or to vote for political candidates. In many countries advertising is the most important source of income for the media through which it is conducted. The media are all the organizations, such as television, radio, and the newspapers, that provide information for the public. In the ancient and medieval world such advertising as existed was conducted by word of mouth. The first step toward modern advertising came with the development of printing in the 15th and 16th centuries. In the 17th century weekly newspapers in London began to carry advertisements, and by the 18th century such advertising was flourishing. The great expansion of business in the 19th century was accompanied by the growth of an advertising industry; it was that century, primarily in the United States, that saw the establishment of advertising agencies. Advertising agency is a company that designs and makes advertisements for other companies. By the 1920s advertising agencies could plan and execute complete advertising campaigns.

There are some principal media for advertising. Newspapers can offer advertisers large circulations (circulation – the average number of copies of a newspaper or magazine that are usually sold each day, week, month etc) and the opportunity to alter their advertisements frequently and regularly. Magazines may be of general interest or they may be aimed at specific audiences (such as people interested in computers or literature) and offer the manufacturers of products of particular interest to such people the chance to make contact with their most likely customers. The most pervasive (existing or spreading everywhere) media are television and radio. Advertisers can buy short “spots” of time to promote their products or services. Advertising spots are broadcast between or during regular programs. For advertisers the most important facts about a given television or radio program are the size and composition of its audience. The size of the audience determines the amount of money the broadcaster can charge an advertiser, and the composition of the audience determines the advertiser’s choice as to when a certain message, directed at a certain segment of the public, should be run. The other advertising media include direct mail, outdoor billboards, posters, and etc. Advertising is on some occasions too intrusive (affecting someone’s private life or interrupting them in an unwanted and annoying way).

There is no serious disagreement over the power of advertising to inform consumers of what products are available (can easily be bought or found). In a free-market economy effective advertising is extremely important and necessary to a company’s survival, for unless consumers know about a company’s product they are unlikely to buy it. For an advertisement to be effective its production and placement must be based on a knowledge of the public and a skilled use of the media. A career in advertising is a difficult one. Good advertisers are in great demand. Advertising agencies serve to organize complex advertising campaigns. The effectiveness of advertising campaigns is based on research into consumer behaviour and demographic analysis of the market area. [Demography is the study of human populations and the ways in which they change] Advertisers combine creativity in the production of the advertising messages with canny scheduling and placement, so that the messages are seen by, and will have an effect on, the people advertisers most want to address. Given a fixed budget, the advertiser faces a basic choice: he can have his message seen or heard by many people fewer times, or by fewer people many times.

In criticism of advertising it has been argued that the consumer must pay for the cost of advertising in the form of higher prices for goods; against this point it is argued that advertising enables goods to be mass marketed, thereby bringing prices down. It has been argued that the cost of major advertising campaigns is such that few firms can afford (to have enough money to buy or pay for something) them, thus helping these firms to dominate (to have power and control over) the market; on the other hand, whereas smaller firms may not be able to compete (to try to be more successful) with larger ones at a national level, at the local level advertising enables them to hold their own. Finally, it has been argued that advertisers exercise an undue (more than is reasonable, suitable, or necessary) influence over the regular contents of the media they employ – the editorial stance (an opinion that is stated publicly) of a newspaper or the subject (the thing one is talking about or considering in a conversation, discussion, book, film etc.) of a television show. In response it has been pointed out that such influence is counteracted, at least in the case of financially strong media firms, by the advertiser’s reliance on the media to convey his messages; any compromise (an agreement between two contracting parties that is achieved by both of them accepting less than they wanted at first) of the integrity of a media firm might result in a smaller audience (the persons reached by a publication, radio, TV, etc.) for his advertising.

Answer the questions:

1. What is advertising?

2. What are the principal media if advertising?

3. What are the main factors that determine the effectiveness of advertising?

4. Why is advertising often criticized?

5. Does advertising increase or decrease prices?

The British Government: a Brief Overview
(Система государственного управления в Великобритании)

The System of Government

Britain is a parliamentary democracy with a constitutional monarch, Queen Elizabeth II, as head of the State. The British constitution, unlike those of most countries, is not set out [излагать] in a single document. Instead it is made up of a combination of laws and practices which are not legally enforceable [могущий быть принудительно осуществленным в судебном порядке], but which are regarded as vital to the working of government.

The Monarchy

The stablility of the British government owes much to the monarchy. Its continuity has been interrupted only once (the republic of 1649-60) in over a thousand years.

Today the Queen is not only the head of State, but also an important symbol of national unity. Her complete official royal title is ‘Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and of Her other Realms [королевство] and Territories Queen, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith’ [защитница веры], but she is usually referred to as Her Royal Highness or Queen Elizabeth.

According to the law the Queen is head of the executive branch of the government, an integral part of the legislature, head of the judiciary, the commander-in-chief of all the armed forces of the Crown and the ‘supreme governor’ of the established Church of England [англиканская церковь]. While that sounds like a lot of responsibility, the real power of the monarchy has been steadily reduced over the years to the point where the Queen is uninvolved in the day-to-day operation of the government. She is impartial and acts only on the advice of her ministers.

The Queen, the Queen Mother, Prince Charles and the other members of the royal family take part in traditional ceremonies, visit different parts of Britain and many other countries and are closely involved in the work of many charities.

Parliament

Parliament, Britain’s legislature, is made up of the House of Commons, the House of Lords and the Queen in her constitutional role. They meet together only on occasions of ceremonial significance, such as the state opening of Parliament, although the agreement of all three is normally required for legislation.

The House of Commons consists of 659 elected members called Members of Parliament or MPs. Election to the House of Commons is an important part of Britain’s democratic system. The main purpose of the House of Commons is to make laws by passing Acts of Parliament, as well as to discuss current political issues.

The House of Lords currently consists of 688 non-elected members (hereditary peers [наследственный пэр] and peeresses [супруга пэра, леди], life peers [пожизненный пэр] and peeresses and two archbishops and 24 senior bishops of the established Church [государственная церковь, официально признана государством и частично финансируется им] of England). Its main legislative function is to examine and revise bills from the Commons, but the Lords cannot normally prevent proposed legislation from become law if the Commons insists on it. It also acts as the final court of appeal. In recent years the House of Lords has undergone a process of reform to make it more democratic and representative. As a first step, the rights of some 750 hereditary peers to sit and vote in Parliament solely on the basis that they inherited their seats were removed. The remaining 92 Hereditary peers are allowed to sit temporarily in the transitional chamber until the full reform programme is in place. The next phase of the House of Lords reform would remove the remaining hereditary peers and create a partly-elected upper house.

The center of parliamentary power is the House of Commons. Limitations on the power of the Lords is based on the principle that the Lords should complement [служить дополнением до целого] the Commons and not rival [соперничать] it. Once passed through both Houses, legislation requires the Royal Assent [королевская санкция, санкция монарха (одобрение монархом законопроекта [bill], принятого обеими палатами парламента, после чего законопроект становится законом [act of Parliament])] to become law.

Parliament has a number of ways to exert control [осуществлять надзор] over the executive branch. Parliamentary committees [парламентский комитет] question ministers and civil servants before preparing reports on matters of public policy and issues can be debated before decisions are reached. However, ultimate power rests in the ability of the House of Commons to force the government to resign by passing a resolution of ‘no confidence’ [недоверие]. The government must also resign if the House rejects a proposal so vital to its policy that it has made it a matter of confidence [конфиденциальный вопрос; материал, не подлежащий оглашению]. The proceedings [работа] of both Houses of Parliament are broadcast on television and radio, sometimes live or more usually in recorded and edited form.

In elections to the Scottish Parliament, the National Assembly [национальное собрание] for Wales and the European Parliament in 1999, forms of proportional representation (PR) were used for the first time in Great Britain. PR was also used in the 1998 elections for the Northern Ireland Assembly [ассамблея Северной Ирландии]. Northern Ireland has used a version of PR in European Parliament elections since 1979.

All British citizens together with citizens of other Commonwealth countries and citizens of the Irish Republic resident in Britain may vote, provided they are aged 18 years or over and not legally barred from [запрещать; исключать] voting. People not entitled to vote include those serving prison sentences, peers and peeresses who are members of the House of Lords, and those kept in hospital under mental health legislation [законодательство по охране психического здоровья].

Voting is by secret ballot. At a general election the elector selects just one candidate on the ballot paper and marks an ‘X’ by the candidate’s name. Voting in elections is voluntary. In the June 2001 general election 59.4 per cent of the electorate voted, compared with 72 per cent in 1997.

Any person aged 21 or over who is a British citizen or citizen of another Commonwealth country or the Irish Republic may stand for election to Parliament, provided they are not disqualified. People disqualified include those who are bankrupt, those sentenced to more than one year’s imprisonment, members of the clergy, members of the House of Lords, and a range of public servants and officials. Approved candidates are usually selected by their political party organisations in the constituency which they represent, although candidates do not have to have party backing.

The leader of the political party which wins most seats (although not necessarily most votes) at a general election, or who has the support of a majority of members in the House of Commons, is by convention invited by the Sovereign to form the new government.

Political Party System

The political party system is essential to the working of the constitution. Although the parties are not registered or formally recognized in law, most candidates for election belong to one of the main parties. Since 1945 eight general elections have been won by the Conservative Party and six by the Labour Party. A number of smaller parties have national and local organizations outside Parliament, and are also represented in local government.

The Government is formed by the party with majority support in the Commons. The Queen appoints its leader as Prime Minister. As head of the Government the Prime Minister appoints about 100 ministers. About 20 ministers make up the Cabinet, the senior group making the major policy decisions. Ministers are collectively responsible for government decisions and individually responsible for their own departments. The second largest party forms the official Opposition, with its own leader and ‘shadow cabinet’. The Opposition has a duty to challenge [оспаривать] government policies and to present an alternative program.

Shadow cabinet «теневой кабинет» (парламентский комитет главной оппозиционной партии [Opposition]. Состоит из ведущих деятелей парламентской фракции этой партии, которые занимаются теми же вопросами, что и члены кабинета [Cabinet]

Policies are carried out by government departments and executive agencies staffed by politically neutral civil servants. Over half the Civil Service, about 295,000 civil servants, work in over 75 executive agencies. Agencies perform many of the executive functions of the government, such as the payment of social security benefits [пособия по социальному обеспечению] and the issuing of passports and drivers’ licences. Agencies are headed by chief executives responsible for their performance and who enjoy considerable freedom on financial, pay and personnel matters.

Britain’s Legal System [правовая система]

England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland all have their own legal systems, with minor differences in law, organization and practice.

Criminal Justice [уголовное судопроизводство]

Law enforcement [обеспечение правопорядка] is carried out by 52 locally based police departments [полицейский участок] with about 160,000 police officers. The police are normally unarmed and there are strict limits to police powers of arrest. Firearms must be licensed and their possession is regulated.

In British criminal trials the accused in presumed innocent until proven guilty. Trials are in open court and the accused is represented by a lawyer. Most cases are tried before lay justices [мировой судья] sitting without a jury. The more serious cases are tried in the higher courts before a jury of 12 (15 in Scotland) which decides guilt or innocence.

Civil Justice

The civil law of England, Wales and Northern Ireland covers business related to the family, property, contracts and torts (wrongful acts [противоправное, незаконное деяние; деликт] suffered by one person at the hands of another). Actions brought to court are usually tried without a jury. Higher courts deal with more complicated civil cases. Most judgements are for sums of money, and the costs of an action are generally paid by the losing party.

Administration of the Law [применение норм права]

The Lord Chancellor is the head of the judiciary branch of government. The administration of the law rests with [возлагать ответственность] him, the Home Secretary, the Attorney General and the Secretaries of State for Scotland and Northern Ireland. The courts of the United Kingdom are the Queen’s Courts, the Crown being the historic source of all judicial power.

Lord Chancellor лорд-канцлер (глава судебного ведомства и верховный судья Англии, председатель палаты лордов и одного из отделений Верховного суда)

Home Secretary министр внутренних дел Великобритании

Attorney General генеральный прокурор (министерский пост)

Judges are appointed from among practicing lawyers. Barristers [адвокат, барристер] or advocates advise on legal problems and present cases in the lay justices’ and jury courts. Solictors represent individual and corporate clients and appear in the lay justices’ courts. Lay justices need no legal qualifications but are trained to give them sufficient knowledge of the law.

barrister барристер (адвокат, имеющий право выступать в высших судах; является членом одного из «Судебных иннов» [Inns of Court])

solicitor солиситор, стряпчий (юрист, консультирующий клиентов, организации и фирмы; подготавливает дела для барристера [barrister]; имеет право выступать в низших судах)

The state system of Great Britain

Автор работы: Пользователь скрыл имя, 16 Ноября 2013 в 18:40, доклад

Краткое описание

Great Britain is a parliamentary monarchy (1). The power of the Queen is limited by the Parliament. It means that the sovereign reigns (2) but does not rule. Britain does not have a written constitution, but a set of laws (3). Parliament is the most important authority in. Britain. It comprises (4) the House of Commons, the House of Lords and the Monarch in her constitutional role. In reality the House of Commons is the only one of the three, which has true power.
The Monarch serves formally (5) as head of state. But the Monarch is expected to be politically neutral (6) and should not make political decisions. The present sovereign of Great Britain is Queen Elizabeth II (the second).

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The state system of Great Britain.doc

Great Britain is a parliamentary monarchy (1). The power of the Queen is limited by the Parliament. It means that the sovereign reigns (2) but does not rule. Britain does not have a written constitution, but a set of laws (3). Parliament is the most important authority in. Britain. It comprises (4) the House of Commons, the House of Lords and the Monarch in her constitutional role. In reality the House of Commons is the only one of the three, which has true power.
The Monarch serves formally (5) as head of state. But the Monarch is expected to be politically neutral (6) and should not make political decisions. The present sovereign of Great Britain is Queen Elizabeth II (the second). She was crowned (7) in Westminster Abbey in 1953.
The House of Commons has 650 elected Members of Parliament (MPs), each representing a local constituency (8).
They are elected by secret ballot. General elections are held every five years. The country is divided into 650 constituencies. All citizens aged 18 have the right to vote (9), but voting is not compulsory in Britain. The candidate polling the largest number (10) of votes in a constituency is elected. The functions of the House of Commons are legislation and scrutiny (11) of government activities. The House of Commons is presided over by the Speaker. The Government appoints the Speaker.
The House of Lords comprises about 1,200 peers (12). It is presided over by the Lord Chancellor. The House of Lords is made up of hereditary (13) and life peers and peeresses and the two archbishops (14) and 24 most senior bishops of the established Church of England. The House of Lords has no real power. It acts rather as an advisory council (15).
There are few political parties in Great Britain thanks to the British electoral system. They are the Conservative Party, the Labour Party and the Liberal Democratic Alliance (16). Each political party puts up one candidate for each constituency. The one who wins the most votes is elected MP for that area. The party which wins the most seats in Parliament forms the Government. Its leader becomes the Prime Minister. As head of the Government the Prime Minister appoints ministers, of whom about 20 are in the Cabinet — the senior group which takes major policy decisions (17). Ministers are collectively responsible (18) for government decisions and individually responsible for their own departments.
The second largest party forms the official Opposition, with its own leader and ‘shadow cabinet’ (19). The Opposition has a duty to criticise government policies and to present an alternative programme (20).
The new bills are introduced and debated in the House of Commons. If the majority of the members are in favour of a bill it goes to the House of Lords to be debated. The House of Lords has the right to reject a new bill twice. But after two rejections they are obliged to accept it. And finally the bill goes to the Monarch to be signed. Only then it becomes a law.
Parliament is responsible for British national policy. Much legislation applies through out Britain. England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own legal systems with differences in law and practice.

What are the Duties of the British Monarch?

The British monarchy is one of the older established monarchies in the world, and although it has changed quite a bit in the intervening centuries, the British monarch is still one of the most recognizable world figures. As of 2013, Queen Elizabeth II is the Head of State in Great Britain, and the country’s face. She has the authority over the courts, is commander-in-chief of the armed forces and is the head of the Church of England. As a result, Queen Elizabeth appoints ministers, judges, diplomats, bishops, governors and some officers in the armed forces. She is head of the executive branch of government in Great Britain and must officially assent to a Bill from Parliament in order for it to become a law.

King John found his royal powers and prerogatives hobbled in 1215, with the signing of the Magna Carta. The British had never been particularly fond of absolute monarchy, and the lords and nobles of the realm had, quite simply, had all they could take from the British monarch and his decrees. Royal power and royal duties changed and declined over the centuries.

The House of Lords

The House of Lords is made up of people who have inherited family titles and those who have been given titles because of their outstanding work in one field or another. There are 675 members of the Lords.

The main job of the House of Lords is to ‘double check’ new laws to make sure they are fair and will work.

The House of Commons

The House of Commons has 659 members who have been elected by local residents to represent an area of the country in Parliament. The members are called MPs (Members of Parliament). Each MP represents one of 659 constituencies (areas) in the UK and is a member of a political party, such as New Labour or the Conservative party.

The Commons is the most important place for discussing policies and making laws.

Who is the British Prime Minister?

At present, the Prime Minister is David Cameron, who is the leader of the Conservative Party and Nick Clegg, leader of the Liberal Democrats is his deputy.

Every week the Prime Minister appears before the House of Commons and must answer questions put to him or her by the members of Parliament.

The Prime Minister is head of the UK government and is ultimately responsible for the policy and decisions of the government.

As head of the UK government the Prime Minister also:

Administrative Duties

The Speaker is also the head of the House of Commons Administration and is responsible for its overall direction and management. The Parliament of Canada Act provides that all matters of administrative and financial policy affecting the House are overseen by the Board of Internal Economy, composed of Members and chaired by the Speaker. The Board approves the House’s annual spending estimates which the Speaker then submits to Treasury Board for tabling with the Government’s departmental Estimates. Board of Internal Economy decisions are implemented in the Speaker’s name by the Clerk, who is responsible for the day-to-day management of House staff.

The Speaker’s administrative duties also involve the tabling of certain documents and reports, including those of the Board of Internal Economy, by-laws stemming from the provisions of the Parliament of Canada Act and documents submitted by the Canadian Human Rights Commission, the Auditor General, the Chief Electoral Officer, the Commissioner of Official Languages, the Information Commissioner and the Privacy Commissioner.

The Conservative Party, officially the Conservative and Unionist Party and colloquially referred to as the Tory Party or the Tories, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that espouses the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. As of 2013 it is the largest political party in the United Kingdom, being the largest single party in the House of Commons with 303 MPs, the largest party in local government with 8,628 councillors, and the largest British party in the European Parliament with 25 MEPs. It governs in coalition with the Liberal Democrats, with David Cameron, the leader of the Conservative Party, as Prime Minister.

The Conservative Party was founded in 1834, and was one of two dominant parties in the 19th century, along with the Liberal Party. It changed its name to the Conservative and Unionist Party in 1912 after merging with the Liberal Unionist Party, although that name is rarely used and it is generally referred to as simply the Conservative Party.

The Labour Party is a centre-left political party in the United Kingdom, and one of the two main British political parties along with the Conservative Party. It has been described as a broad church, containing a diversity of ideological trends from strongly socialist, to more moderately social democratic. [2] Founded in 1900, the Labour Party overtook the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s and formed minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929–1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after which it formed a majority government under Clement Attlee. Labour was also in government from 1964 to 1970 under Harold Wilson and from 1974 to 1979, first under Wilson and then James Callaghan.

The Labour Party was last in national government between 1997 and 2010 under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, beginning with a landslide majority of 179, reduced to 167 in 2001 and 66 in 2005. Having won 258 seats in the 2010 general election, the party currently forms the Official Opposition in the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Labour has a minority government in the Welsh Assembly, is the main opposition party in the Scottish Parliament and has 13 MEPs in the European Parliament, sitting in the Socialists and Democrats group. The Labour Party is a full member of the Party of European Socialists and Progressive Alliance, and continues to hold observer status in the Socialist International. The current leader of the party is Ed Miliband MP.

The United Kingdom Political System

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is а constitutional parliamentary monarchy. It means that the government of the United Кingdom is by а hereditary sovereign, аn elected House of Commons and а partly hereditary House of Lords.

Тhe sovereign has the title of Кing (оr Queen). Тhe Queen of the United Kingdom now is Elizabeth II.

Тhe Head of both Houses of the Parliament is the Queen, but she has very little power.

The executive power is exercised bу the Cabinet, headed bу the Prime Minister. Тhe Prime Мinister is normally the head of the party, which won the majority in the House of Commons during the election. He is the most important person in the Parliament (Britain does not have а President). Тhe Prime Minister appoints the Members of the Cabinet or ministers. All ministers must be members of оnе or the other houses of the Parliament. The Cabinet proposes bills and arranges business of the Parliament.

Тhe second largest party becomes the official opposition with its own leader and the Shadow Cabinet. Тhe two leading parties in Great Britain are the Conservative Party and the Labour Party. The Conservative Party is the present ruling party. The Prime Minister and the leader of this party is David Cameron.

The judiciary branch of the government is determined by Common law and is independent of both legislative and executive branches. The highest judicial body is the Supreme Court which consists of two divisions: the High Court of Justice and the Court of Appeal.

Active vocabulary:

constitutional parliamentary monarchy

win the majority during the election

arrange business of the Parliament

to be independent of

Конституционная монархия; одобрить законопроект; Палата лордов; возглавлять; большинство; выборы; правящий орган; назначать; избирательный округ; общее право.