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.
It is difficult for a Backbench MP to influence government policy if a government has a large majority in Parliament. The power of individual backbench MPs is reduced making it harder to challenge the government. Also, the PM has powers of patronage which demand loyalty; few MPs want to cause a general election by defeating the government. Thus accepting their fate as lobby
Scott martin – extended essay - liberal reforms Question – how successfully did the Liberal government (1906-14). Tackle the problem of poverty? Many historians argue the liberals effectively tackled the problem of poverty once elected in 1906 in their landslide victory. Once the party was elected however it was still very much in favour of its laissez-faire policy and social reform was not high in its parties priorities, it took significant time and pressure also some very notable individuals such as Lloyd George or Winston Churchill to change the course of Britain’s welfare system and unwittingly perhaps set up the foundations of the welfare state in the future. This essay will show how the liberals aimed to tackle the problem of
In the UK, we use a variety of different electoral systems to elect different MPs for different jobs. For example; to select the Prime Minister we use First Past the Post; for the mayoral elections we use the SV system; and to select the Scottish National Parliament, Welsh Assembly and the Greater London Assembly we used the AMS system. In the First Past the Post system which we use to select our Prime Ministers, the outcome is always that the ‘winner takes it all’, meaning that there are many wasted votes within the voting process. First Past the Post can produce positive outcomes due to the winner taking all, because this usually produces a single majority government, which means that the government is stronger, more stable and more able to fulfill their manifesto. However, this does not always happen, which can be seen in the current government.
The post-war period between 1945-70 was the period of the two-party dominance. Since the seventies the Labour and Conservative party power has remained unfazed in the British parliament, however this hold has loosened over time in the local governments and the popular base of the two party system has begun to wear off among the voters. Voting behaviour during the post war period was very easy to explain with people voting for either Labour or the Conservatives. This started a tradition and trend for the two party votes. During that time social class played a big influence in the way people would vote.
A voter could switch from voting for the Conservatives to vote for the Labour Party at the next election because they decide according to single issues. In general the public today is not really aligned to parties anymore. I would say that party allegiance is something which is nearly vanished in Britain’s voting behavior. There are still groups which are strongly related to one or the other party but that is not as common as was in the 50s and 60s. The important things today are which party has at the moment the right promises for the single voter and which party is better in delivering policy goals.
In the 1912 election the SPD polled 4,250,000 votes and became the largest party in the Reichstag with 110 deputies. Although the Reichstag could be dissolved by the Kaiser, it could not be dissolved completely and it has the right to hold elections after is dissolution. This shows that the Reichstag would always have a voice over political issues in Germany even if the Kaiser elected to dissolve it, showing that Germany was a parliamentary democracy to some
than as being motivated by principles of direct democracy. At the time the labour party was very divided on the issue, causing the prime minister the problem of a divided cabinet, a problem contained through the use of a referendum as members of the cabinet would agree to the outcome of a referendum. In 1975 electorate voted roughly 2 to 1 ‘Yes’ in favour of remaining in the E.C. on a turnout of just under 65%. This was the first ever nationwide referendum.
Define Liberal democracy (5): Liberal democracy is where government are accountable to the people to ensure that it is acting in their general intent. Explain the main features of the UKs democratic system (10) There are many a few main features of the UKs democratic system, the first is representative democracy, as here in the UK this is a main feature as there is no widespread disillusionment with representative institutions, Party membership has declined, turnout at elections has fallen and decreasing number of citizens claim to have any close identification with a political party. Nevertheless there is a wide variety of ways in which people continue to feel represented. Firsty, each MP represents a constituency, as such they are expected to represent the interests of the constituency as a whole and their constituents individuals. Sometimes this can conflict with their party’s policy, but there are many occasions when such MPs can protect their constituents and take it up further with the party, and any other government bodies.
How good a democracy is Britain The article “How good a democracy is Britain” written by Prof. Stein Ringen from University of Oxford in Fabruary 2007 deals with the problem of democracy in Britain. The author expresses his opinion that the state of British democracy is very poor. Ranking the most respected democracies from 8 to 3 he has put Britain on level 3 (in comparison Norway is on level 8, Sweden – 7, Germany 4). Despite the fact that for centuries Britain has had firm culture of liberty, has Parliament and its administartion is stable, effective and honest, it is still is not a paragon of the democracy. Thereby, the author highlights that civil and political rights are established in Britain and are not the reasons for such a low ranking level.