How effective is Parliament? The House of Parliament is made up of both the House of Commons and The House of Lords, Parliament has six main functions that they must carry out. The main functions are; Legislative, Scrutiny, Recruitment, Legitimation and Representation .This essay will discuss what these functions entail and whether they are performed effectively. Firstly, Parliament must fulfil its legislative function. This is the means by with parliament passes the government’s legislation.
The majority of new laws or changes to existing laws come from government but the can also come from MP’s, Lords or even a member of the public. E.g. ‘Sarah’s Law’. Both the House of Commons and House of Lords must debate and vote on the proposals. 2.
How effectively does Congress fulfil its constitutional roles? To start of this essay we must first understand what the role of Congress actually is? The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States consisting of two houses: the House of Representatives and the Senate. It is the law-maker which is the primary and most important function of the legislature. It is through laws that policies of government are laid down for implementation.
To What Extent Are Backbench MPs Lobby Fodder? We’re led to believe that the MPs we elect to form Parliament actively participate in the governing of our country. Yet in reality, most of the power lies with the executive and the influence of a backbencher is thus lessened. Are they a loyal party drone? Do they represent the constituents effectively?
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.
Upon founding of the United States government, not all three branches were to share the same amount of power. In fact, “Congress was the most powerful branch of government” (Katznelson, Kesselman, Draper, p.43). However, over time, due to representation responsibilities and compromise, Congress has lost much of the lawmaking influence. “...the president has taken the lead in...national defense and foreign policy, and...domestic policy such as fiscal policy” (Katznelson, Kesselman, Draper, p.44). Under Article I of the Constitution however, Congress holds many exclusive and monumentary powers, including but not limited to: budgetary powers (taxation, control of national debt), military powers (declare war), lawmaking (passing federal legislation), representation of constituents, investigation, and serving its consittuents.
Parliament is Britain's Legislature, where legislation, the process of passing new laws, takes place. It is mainly carried out in the House of Commons and there are many different types of it, with the two most important being; government bills and private members bills. For a bill to become law is must pass through a number of parliamentary stages, which involves a lot of close reading, amending and debating in both the parliamentary chambers, however the House of Commons has far more legislative power, as the Lords can only suggest amendments or delay bills from becoming law (which the House of Commons can actually override anyway). It can be said the Commons fulfil the function of legislation effectively for various reasons, one being; because its large majorities makes it very efficient. Party's can rely on their loyal MPs to vote in favour of their bills, for example; from 1997-2005 Blair's government didn't lose a single vote in the House of Commons because he had such a high majority.
Scrutiny of the Executive: As governments tend to enjoy large parliamentary majorities, Parliamentary approval is rarely withheld. However, the House of Commons plays an important role in scrutinising the policies and actions of the government, in debates, parliamentary questions and within the influential cross-party select committees. In this particular respect, Parliament is representing interests of different groups of public, ensuring therefore that there is no unnecessary discrimination during legislative process. Both primary and secondary sources of legislation are subject to scrutiny, including international and EU legislation as well. Parliament is not expected to make substantial changes to such legislation but it is able to issue some warning or advise government about such legislation to be implemented.
Its main function was to approve taxes proposed by the Crown; it developed legislative powers as those who were taxed gained representation gradually. The Greater council evolved over time. It split into the House of Lords and House of Commons in the Reign of Edward III in the 14th century. At that time, the House of Commons consisted of the shire and borough representatives and the House of Lords consisted of the senior clergy and the nobility. From the 14th to 15th century, the House of Commons was far less powerfully than the House of Lords because of the affiliations of the
What are the sources of the UK constitution? There are five principal sources of the British constitution: Statute Law, Common Law, Conventions, Authoritative Works and European law. Statute Law is created by parliament. In the legislative process, Acts of Parliament have to be approached by the House of Commons, The House of Lords and the monarch before they are placed on the statute book. They are then implemented by the executive and enforced by the courts.