When the Labour government implemented these laws they protected traditional parliamentary sovereignty. Unlike Germany or the USA where judges can annul legislations that are found to be in breach of the human rights act. In the UK however judges can only issue a declaration of incompatibility which sends the legislation back to parliament so that they can make changes to suit the HRA. It is difficult to declare on this subject whether or not there have been enough reforms on the Human Rights Act as through one viewpoint it is important to sometimes evade Human Rights to catch potential terrorists on the other hand millions of people have had to sacrifice their right to private life as has been found with the major scandal of NSA spying on internet records. Some people may argue that if you have nothing to hide you should not fear however people still should be able to have
Due to the increasing presidential style of recent prime ministers and the party loyalty of the executive one can consider Parliament’s control of executive power minimal. However, due to the development of independent bodies surrounding Select Committees and the delaying of legislation by the House of Lords it can still be argued to be effective. The government usually has an overall majority. This is due to our voting system of FPTP which gives preference to the two main parties, normally giving them majorities (and increasingly large ones) as opposed to coalitions and minority governments which are produced through other voting systems such as AV in Scotland and Wales. Although we are currently in a coalition the government still has a majority through the combination of Conservatives and Liberal Democrats.
Both the national government and the local governments make decisions for the electorate and are given legitimacy to do so. However, it can be argued that the representative system is not fully carried out in the UK. Britain follows a representative system because most citizens over the age of 18 have the opportunity to elect our national and local government. These elections are free and are carried out using the first-past-the-post system, which means that the party with the highest number of seats wins. It also means that generally we are governed by one party, which increases stability; for example, since 1900 there have only been three coalition governments in power.
However, looking at the statistics such as Bill Clintons presidency, in the first 2 years which was a united government, Congress exercised limited oversight, and when needed to, asked softball questions, however , when Republicans took over Congress, things got much harder as they seek to hold the President to account, and after a while, impeach. Although this shows that things are more different when it is a united or divided government, Congress still has a task to do in which they must do oversight on President, so, it being united or divided government should not affect the task Congress are suppose to do, as they are an independent
A codified constitution is too inflexible and cannot adapt to the changing political circumstance, such as society changing. An uncodified constitution is much more flexible for when archaic laws need to be replaced with something more adept to modern society. This also means that codified constitutions may fossilise the political systems as that system may have originated many years go and not be practical in this time, whereas uncodified constitutions are able to evolve over time, and thus embody the climate of the day. This can be shown from the US constitution which has had only 26 amendments since 1787, this shows the difficulty of changing an entrenched written constitution. Countries with codified constitutions have a legislative process that can seem complicated, lengthy and also ineffective.
This was then followed by The Great Reform Act of 1832, where they introduced a system for the election of MP's, by the 20th century Britain had its separate parties.Then in 1945 the first truly modern election manifesto appeared with a clear program of reform and thus made representation farer. For representative democracy, each MP represents a constituency (incluiding N.Ireland and Scotland) they are expected to represent the interests of the constituency and make its constituents feel like they will be listened to and f needed solve their problems. An MP does not have to be part of a party therefore can have its own ideas on what is best for its constituents and can also use Burkean representation (expect to also use own judgement of best interests of its constituents, he should not be expected to follow instructions of those who elected him). If an MP is part of a party, they can retain independence within the party sturcture as for example in the 19th century, this was described as the 'golden age of the British MP' in doing so, they influenced over government policy. In certain
The historian Chrimes describes Henry VII’s use of Parliament as ‘Little or nothing of much significance occurred in the history of Parliament in the reign of Henry VII’ However at the beginning of Henry VII’s reign the first Parliamentary session was of great importance to him as it acknowledged his claim to the throne. If Parliament had refused to do this there would never of been the Tudor dynasty. This is especially significant
The New parliament set up was to be made up of 2 houses; The Reichsrat and the Reichstag. The Reichsrat was the upper, but less important house in the legislature. It represented the 17 Lander (states) in the law making process. It could block or undo laws passed by the Reichstag, but the latter could override a Reichsrat veto by passing a measure by two thirds majority, the Reichsrat could also be overruled by a referendum. Germany was still a federal country, but the federal government in Berlin had more power over the states than ever before.
These are all still with Westminster. The electoral system for the NIA was a single transferable vote and when there was a vote for devolution, a majority voted yes. Overall, Northern Ireland have gained power to an extent, however, it has been more difficult to form a permanent government. This is because there has been a lack of trust between the main parties therefore direct rule from London was restored. On the other hand, in February 2010, all parties agreed to transfer of law and order and security issues to the Northern Ireland Executive which was seen as a highly significant event.
“there is no participation crisis in the UK” discuss? (25 marks) Over time as a society becomes more modernised and changed many seem to form theories of a controversial topic if there is or isn’t a participation crisis in the UK as less people are willing to actively participate or engage in any political activities whatsoever. This research was concluded when Tony Blair was in power and in 2006 the power report was published concluding the popular disillusionment with democratic institutions which the parties then declared needed immediate attention. Participation is crucial in politics because it will allow the government to be held responsible and legit. Key forms of participation, such as voting and party membership have declined significantly