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.
To what extent is it reasonable to describe modern British prime ministers as presidents in all but name? Few, if any, now doubt that the office of prime minister dominates the British political system. As long as the holder of that office is not faced by too many limiting factors, such as a small parliamentary majority or a divided party, the British system has moved away from the traditional ‘cabinet government’ model to a ‘prime ministerial’ model. We argue that the system has now become ‘presidential’. * PMs perform most of the functions of a head of state: The prime minister has come to be, effectively though not legally, the head of State, the leader of the nation, irrespective of party allegiance.
Overtime, the role of the cabinet may have increasingly been seen to be less and this may have changed peoples’ perception on the system of government used in the UK. The fact that a Prime Minister can dominate parliamentary proceedings gives him/her great power, and this has been linked to the concept of an ‘elective dictatorship’. Prime Minister dominance has occurred in recent years, with the leadership styles of Thatcher and Blair being of particular significance. Blair as prime minister used bilateral meetings with ministers, to discuss important policy decisions. This led to dominance over the cabinet and Blair being seen more as a ‘President’ than a Prime Minister.
More dominant figures such as Thatcher and Blair have capitalised heavily on both strength of their personality and their parliamentary majorities. The creation of a more developed policy unit in Downing Street is effectively creating a "Prime Minister's Department". However it can be argued that the prime minister such as Tony blair, has not got a chance of effectively being a president, for example he prefered to dominate foreign and international affairs. The individuals of the UK, could argue that instead of focusing on other countries such as Pakistans, Afghanistan, he should of helped the UK more, improving and making it a better place to live in. An example of where this is present is, he distanced himself from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office so cut himself off from civil servants that could have questioned his views.
This is criticised because the current political party in power have the ability to make their own decisions for the UK before listening to what the people want. This then becomes a problem because they may make changes that the majority of the population will not agree with. However, near to the next election they may decide to listen to people as they want them to vote for them (the current political party in power) during the next election. Secondly, the UK has a hereditary monarchy and a house of lords, both which are not elected. This contradicts a democratic society and is seen as a dictatorship because elections are the cornerstone of a democracy.
Cameron experienced his first defeat over the EU Budget last week, with more than 50 Tory MPs rebelling. There was majority of 13, in favour of a rebel Tory call led by Mark Reckless for a real terms cut in the European Union's budget. This proves that some backbenchers are brave enough to take action and not be unquestionably loyal to the government. The number of U-turns that the current government has done indicates that the threat of a backbench rebellion is sometimes enough to persuade them to drop a policy. In 2010 backbenchers were threatening to rebel over tuition fees.
Due to these factors it makes the parliamentary democracy within Germany appear as though they were just trying to please the people which I will now explore. One example of Germany being a parliamentary democracy is the Reichstag as it was elected on a system of universal male suffrage (over 25’s). The Reichstag also had some control over the defence budget, the annual budget and also had a say on legislation. However, it is debatable as to how much parliamentary democracy the Reichstag actually had as its powers were very limited and could be dissolved by the Kaiser if he chose to do so. Also, despite the Reichstag having some control over the defence budget, the military was not actually accountable to the Reichstag and did not have full control over the budgets.
The organization also publishes a monthly magazine known as the "Multinational Monitor." In 2001, Ralph Nader started up another non-profit organization known as Democracy Rising. This organization was dedicated to ending the War in Iraq, and bringing the troops back to America. The political opinions that Ralph Nader is so well known for would make him one of the highest rated presidents that America has ever seen. In his 2000 bid for the presidency Ralph Nader campaigned against the corporate powers dominance in the political landscape as well as the need for change in the manner of how presidential races are held.
Has the Prime Minister become more powerful in recent years? (40) The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the head of government and so exercises many of the executive functions nominally vested in the Sovereign, who is head of state. According to custom, the Prime Minister and the Cabinet, which he or she heads, are accountable for their actions to Parliament, of which they are members by modern convention. The current Prime Minister is David Cameron (of the Conservative Party), who has been in office since 2010, and the Deputy Prime Minister – Nick Clegg, due to the Coalition. During Mr. Cameron’s period in office and also, many Prime Ministers before him like Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, there’s been wide spread debate about whether the power of the prime minister has increased.
Jerrod Coulter Ap Gov Pd.8 PAC’S are groups of people or companies who are likeminded forming political committees to fund certain political purposes. These PAC’s are perfectly legal however they are undermining our government by swaying political leaders to lean towards protecting their interest in return for more money. In this way the roles that these groups fill is no more than to slow down and distort our political process for their own agenda. I argue that PAC’s are the biggest threat to our Republic’s democratic process currently. Big oil and coal is major political influence in America and it’s very evident, very recently at a meeting of the United States house committee of science, space, and technology.