Professor KC Wheare defines the constitution of a state as: “… the whole system of government of a country, the collection of rules which establish and regulate or govern the government.” The evolving nature of the UK constitution implies that it is somewhat straightforward for the government to alter the constitution and adapt it to ever changing times. The constitution of the UK is extremely distinct, as it is not set out in a specific document, which establishes the rules of the state, therefore it is often deemed uncodified. The fact that the full UK constitution cannot be found in one specific document, leads many to argue the flexibility and therefore, instability, of the UK constitution, as it is susceptible to change over time. In comparison, the constitution of the United States is codified and present in an easily obtainable document. In order to implement change in the US constitution, therefore, there is a much stricter protocol to follow.
The House of Representatives originates and spends bills. The Senate impeaches officials and approves treaties. The soul duty of the Legislative Branch is to make Laws. “Under the Constitution, Congress has legislative authority, but that power is partly shared with other branches and thus checked by them” (Patterson 51). This describes that the legislative branch does not have power over any other branch of government; there is checks and balances always occurring throughtout the government.”Within Cogress, there is a further check on legislative power: for legislation to passed, a majority in each chamber of Congress is required” (Patterson 51).
Examine a number of ways in which the United Kingdom Constitution is: (a) similar and (b) different to other constitutions. Constitutions are concerned with the role and powers of institutions of the state and the relationship between the citizen and the state. A constitution serves to define the power of government and act as a guardian of fundamental rights. The premise of this essay is to compare the United Kingdom constitution with constitutions of the United States of America, Australia and France. There is no single document entitled the United Kingdom constitution; this leads some academics to call the constitution unwritten and some claim that the United Kingdom has no formal constitution at all.
For example, criminal laws, property laws, contract laws...etc are decided by the state, not the federal government and they aren’t allowed to govern those areas. How do we determine who should be running which areas of the government? Federalism is defined as the allocation of power between the national government and local government. The term "federalism" is also used to describe a system of government in which control is constitutionally divided between a central governing authority and local political units (such as states or provinces). Federalism is a system based upon democratic rules and institutions in which the power to govern is shared between national and provincial/state governments (Baluyot, 2007.)
The last is the judicial branch. All are separated and have different jobs assignment but comes together to help resolve issues. Thus, the centerpiece of our systems is the doctrine of Separations of Powers that constitutionally assigned duties to the three branches of government: legislative, executive, and judicial to distinct and have checks and balances on each branch to prevent abuse of power from the government; it is to keep a democracy. The legislative branch internally has its’ own way of balancing powers. As you know the Legislative Branch is broken up into two parts or houses of the federal government of the United States of America consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives.
This prevented the King from creating selfish laws as he pleased. In this aspect the Magna Carta is similar to the U.S. Constitution, but our constitution consists of 3 branches, instead of 2. Another example of this is the way taxes are levied. The Magna Carta says that taxes cannot be changed unless done so by the Parliament. While we do not have a parliamentary system of government, our body of government that levies taxes is Congress.
A constitution is a set of rules and/or principles on how to rule the country/state. It is said that the government should function within the constitutions framework. A codified constitution is one which all of it which is written down, an example of this is the one which the United States of America has which can be traced back to 1787; these types of constitutions are often entrenched stopping the constitution from regular change. Whereas an uncodified constitution is one which has parts which is unwritten. Elective dictatorship is a big issue when discussing uncodified constitutions.
Explain the principle of the separation of powers found in the US Constitution. The separation of powers is the main underlying principle of the US Constitution whereby political power is distributed amongst the three branches of government – the legislature, the executive and the judiciary. The branches act both independently and interdependently. The idea was originally of French political thinker Baron de Montesquieu, it was then incorporated by the Founding Fathers into the 1787 codified document. The principle was adopted by the Founding Fathers due to their fear of totalitarianism.
The separation of powers is the separation of the legislative, executive and judicial functions of governments. In the US the separation is reached by extensive checks and balances. The most significant operation in the separation of personnel meaning that no member can be part of more than branch which differs from the UK where for example the Prime Minister is part of the executive and the legislative branch. It helps the system in a way that the separation of powers is a safeguard against tyranny as no individual or group is able to dominate the political system through control of more than one branch. It also means that members of Congress are not elected on a joint mandate as members of a prospective government, as would be the case in a parliamentary system, but to represent the interests of their districts and states, and on a separate mandate from the president.
A constitution then, confers power and provides legitimacy for the state’s use and limits of power. Most written constitutions came about as a result of some political event. A written constitution also termed as an enacted constitution incorporates the rules and principles of the state in the form of a single written document and hence all other duly enacted laws must conform. It imposes limits on what may be done by ordinary legislation. An example is the American Constitution adopted by the founding fathers on September 17, 1787.