Today, the United States features separation of powers (in which all three branches are separate), while the United Kingdom and other parliamentary governments feature fusion of powers (in which the judicial branch is separate, but the executive and legislative branches are combined). To define the system in practice, liberal democracies often draw upon a constitution, either formally written or uncodified, to delineate the powers of government and enshrine the social contract. The purpose of a constitution is often seen as a limit on the authority of the
Discuss the view that the UK Constitution has become too flexible (30 marks) The key features of the UK constitution is that it’s uncodified, there’s not a single document stating the rules, its developed from various sources e.g. common law, statutory law, EU Law and relies on tradition as much as nay written documents. The main advantage of this is that it can easily be changed allowing us to evolve E.g. Regional Devolution (Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland). The UK has a unitary constitution, where all power and authority resides in Parliament.
Separation of Powers Vanessa Totsch Everest University The separation of powers is considered to be the division of powers and responsibilities between the different branches of the government. (Magleby & Light, 2009 Brief Edition, p. 21) This can also be within the same lines as “checks and balances”. The different branches of the United States Government can overrule another, for instance, the judicial branch can overrule the legislature if it finds that a ruling that the legislature has passed is unconstitutional. (Magleby & Light, 2009 Brief Edition) The Framers of the Constitution of the United States wished to have a strong central government, yet have limited powers that could be used by the government. This was to help keep someone from making the democracy into a monarchy for one example.
Cyprus’s “Green Line” Boundary There’s only one official crossing point established between Cyprus and Greece, which is a strict buffer zone controlled by the UN. Traditionally, the Greeks and Cypriots coexisted peacefully, but after the coup and invasion, the two became geographically isolated. In Figure 8-10, the photograph on the right illustrates how difficult it to cross the Greek and Cyprus border. Boundaries Inside States Local boundaries are sometimes drawn to separate nationalities or ethnicities. Unitary and Federal States There are two types of government: unitary, which places most power in the hands of the central government officials, and federal states, which allocates strong power to units of local government within the country.
A state is closer in relationship to the U.S than a territory, but the federal government has more control its territories. State governments share power with the federal government and are allowed to create and enforce laws without approval from them. U.S. territories still have self-government, but they must abide by federal law and whatever laws they create themselves must first be approved by U.S. congress. Also, although we follow the United States and it leaders in office, territories are not allowed to vote. The U.S. many times ignores and leaves out its territories treating them as if they were a completely foreign
Sovereignty is in essence ultimate and unchallengeable power, the location of sovereignty in the UK in recent years has changed from one single power and devolved into many unions, treaties and nations within the UK and EU. Parliament is the only body that can make law in the UK. No other authority can overrule or change the laws which the parliament has made. This, then gives the statute law more power and priority over the other sources of the constitutions. This then allows the parliament to change or repeal any law it wants and is also not bounded by the laws made by the previous parliaments.
The Legislative Branch consists of the Senate and House of Representatives. Checks and balances create independence amongst the Judicial, Executive, and Legislative branches of the U.S. government. Examples of checks and balances include the Presidential veto of a Congressional bill, the Congressional impeachment of the President, or the Judicial ruling of Congressional laws that violate the U.S. Constitution. Each branch has its own actions and rules of conduct, giving them the freedom to legally operate without limitation from another branch. Each part of the U.S. government is limited in their power as given by the Constitution.
The federal government currently holds the power but the states can counter that power if they want. On a number of issues, states have the right to form their own regulations and acts. According to Lombardo (2014), because of checks and balances provided by the Constitution the states are allowed to
This changed the way power was distributed within the government, due to the Constitution. Great Brittain has an unwritten constitution unlike the U.S.A. Instead Britain's laws, policies and codes are developed through statutes, common law, convention and more recently E.U law. This means that the British constitution has no single document, which states principles and rules of a state. The Constitution is one document explaining all of the principles and rules of the government, and how power is separated in the goevernment.
Typically, the state limits the process either to many decisions by a small population or to few decisions by a large population Representative Democracy: a system of government in which decisions affecting the community are made by elected representatives; allows large numbers of people to participate in the political process without having to be physically present Republic: a government in which supreme power rests with voters, who elect the head of state; in the US the head of state and the head of government are the same, while in France they are two separate persons Partial Democracy: a democracy that has some of the characteristics of full democracies Emerging Democracy: a partial democracy that is attempting to become a full democracy Majority Rule: the principle that the greater number of a population should exercise greater decision-making power within the polis Rule Of Law: the fundamental principle that society is governed by laws applying equally to all persons and that neither any one person nor the government is above the law Interest Groups: an organization that seeks to influence legislators on behalf of a particular cause or