1、An Outline of the UK and the USAAn Outline of the UK and the USAChapter 3British PoliticsAn Outline of the UK and the USAAn Outline of the UK and the USAWarming-upWarming-up1 1New words and expressionsNew words and expressions2 2British PoliticsBritish Politics3 3Joyful MomentJoyful Moment4 4Exercis
2、esExercises5ContentsAn Outline of the UK and the USAAn Outline of the UK and the USAWarming-up Do you know where it is?An Outline of the UK and the USAAn Outline of the UK and the USAAn Outline of the UK and the USAAn Outline of the UK and the USAAn Outline of the UK and the USAAn Outline of the UK
3、and the USAIntroduction The politics of the United KingdomConstitutional monarchy MonarchState Head;Prime MinisterGovernment Head Executive power;legistiative power and independent judiciary Two Major Partiesthe Conservative Party and the Labour Party;Westminster systemCurrently widely adopted withi
4、n the countries made up of the British EmpireAn Outline of the UK and the USAAn Outline of the UK and the USABritish Politics The Parliament British British PoliticsPolitics The MonarchyThe British GovernmentThe Judicial System The General ElectionPolitical Parties An Outline of the UK and the USAAn
5、 Outline of the UK and the USABritish Politics The Monarchy British monarchyIncluding United Kingdom and its overseas territories The present monarchElizabeth II,reigned since Feb 2,1952An Outline of the UK and the USAAn Outline of the UK and the USABritish Politics The Monarchy The executive author
6、ity over the government is by the monarchs Royal prerogative The royal prerogative under laws legislated by Parliament or convention and precedentAn Outline of the UK and the USAAn Outline of the UK and the USABritish Politics The Monarchy The Origin of the Monarchy The Monarchy originates before th
7、e Norman Conquest in 1066 The continuity broken only once during the Civil War(1642-1649)from 1649-1660 when England called a commonwealth Restored in 1660;Charles Is son enthroned Formally established through Glorious Revolution in 1688;limited constitutional monarchyAn Outline of the UK and the US
8、AAn Outline of the UK and the USABritish Politics The MonarchyConstitutional Role The Monarch is the ceremonial Head of State Prerogative powersonly exercised on the Prime Ministers advice;The monarch must accept the decisions of the Prime Minister and the Cabinet The Royal Prerogativeappoint or dis
9、miss ministers,regulate the civil service,issue passports delcare war or make peace,direct the actions of the military and etc.The Queen seems very powerful,but in reality she is only a figure-head.An Outline of the UK and the USAAn Outline of the UK and the USABritish Politics The Parliament The Br
10、itish Parliament is the supreme legislature of the country Consisting of three elements:the monarch,the House of Lords and the House of Commons The primary function is the making of law,the control of the public revenue and the examination fof government of government policy and public administratio
11、n The official head of the parliament is the Queen An Outline of the UK and the USAAn Outline of the UK and the USABritish Politics The Parliament The House of Lords The House of Lords is the successor to the historical Great Council,which was an advisory body to serve the king Two kinds of lords:th
12、e Lords Spiritual and the Lords Temporal The House of Lords does not control the term of the Prime Minister or of the Government.The House of Lords debates legislation,and has some power to amend or reject bills The house of Lords is the highest court in the United Kingdom hearing civil and criminal
13、 appeals from the lower courts.The procedures of the Lords are more informal than those of the Commons,and their role in saving the Commons a great amount of time is widely recognized.An Outline of the UK and the USAAn Outline of the UK and the USABritish Politics The Parliament The House of Commons
14、 Also known as the Lower House is where the real power lies 651 seats totally,distributed among the four countries:524 for England,38 for Wales,72 for Scotland,and 17 for Northern Ireland Each“Member of Parliament”(MP)is chosen by a single constituency according to the First-Past-the-Post electoral
15、system The party which wins sufficient seats at a general election to command a majority of supporters in the House of Commons is asked to form the government by the Queen The party which wins the second largest number of seats becomes known as the Opposition The main function of the House of Common
16、s is law-making An Outline of the UK and the USAAn Outline of the UK and the USABritish Politics The British Government British government is the supreme administrative institution which manages state affairs;The cabinet is the core of leadership of the British government “Government”and“cabinet”mea
17、n different things;“government”is the collective name for all the ministers and junior ministers,plus four legal members and about twelve ministerial whips.The“Cabinet”is,on the other hand,made up of the Prime Minister,the Lord President of the Privy Council,the heads of the most important Departmen
18、ts and a few ministers without portfolios The British government can be divided into two partscentral government and local government An Outline of the UK and the USAAn Outline of the UK and the USABritish Politics The British Government The Cabinet The nucleus of the Government is known as the Cabi
19、net which is composed of the Prime Minister and heads of the most important departments;the Prime Minister will choose heads of the departments and ask the Monarch to appoint them accordingly A Cabinet member must be either a member of the House of Lords or a member of the House of Commons An Outlin
20、e of the UK and the USAAn Outline of the UK and the USABritish Politics The British Government The Cabinet In all matters the Cabinet acts as a unit.It is the so-called Collective Responsibility of Cabinet government Whenever it happens that the Governments important policy fails to pass the House o
21、f Commons,the Cabinet has to resign in a body and the Opposition Party will form a new government.The Prime Minister may also ask the monarch to dissolve the existing Parliament and order a new election.This is the so-called“Go to the Country”:to ask the people to make the decision.An Outline of the
22、 UK and the USAAn Outline of the UK and the USABritish Politics The British Government The Privy Council Historically,UKs senior decision-making body Duties:meeting to approve decisions that have been taken elsewhere and making appointments to offices of the crown.It can exercise executive,legal and
23、 legislative powers in certain circumstancesTotally has 550 members,including all cabinet members past and present,the leaders of all the main parties,the Speaker,Archbishops,senior judges and some other important public figuresusually only a handful called for each meetingThe Privy Council can exer
24、cise the right to enshrine in law executive policies independently of the parliamentary processAn Outline of the UK and the USAAn Outline of the UK and the USABritish Politics The British Government The Prime Minister The political leader of the United Kingdom and the Head of Her Majestys Government
25、 The Prime Minister leads a major political party,commands a majority in the House of Commons(the Legislature),and is the leader of the Cabinet(the Executive)The Prime Minister guides the law-making process with the goal of enacting the legislative agenda of the political party he leads The Prime Mi
26、nister holds power over the deployment and disposition of British forces and the declaration of warAn Outline of the UK and the USAAn Outline of the UK and the USABritish Politics The General Election Five types of elections:United Kingdom general elections,elections to devolved parliaments and asse
27、mblies,elections to European Parliament,local elections and mayoral electionsUnited Kingdom general elections are the elections held when the Members of Parliament(MPs)forming the House of Commons are electedCandidates aim to win particular geographic constituencies in the UK.Each constituency elect
28、s one MP by the first past the post system of election.The party with the most seats,i.e.the most MPs,usually forms the government,and the second largest party forms Her Majestys Opposition An Outline of the UK and the USAAn Outline of the UK and the USABritish Politics The General Election Eligibil
29、ity Must be a citizen of the UK,the Republic of Ireland,or of a Commonwealth countrylegally resident in the UK 18 years old or over on the date of the election is eligible to vote Not eligible if currently a member of the House of Lords,imprisoned for a criminal offence,mentally incapable of making
30、a reasoned judgment,an undischarged bankrupt,or have been convicted of corrupt or illegal practices in connection with an election with the previous five years An Outline of the UK and the USAAn Outline of the UK and the USABritish Politics The General Election Timing A general election is held in B
31、ritain every five years,as the maximum term of a parliament is five yearsThe whole of the United Kingdom is divided into 650 electoral districts,called constituencies.Each constituency has approximately an equal size of population,usually about 60,000 voters and elects one member to the House of Com
32、mons.An Outline of the UK and the USAAn Outline of the UK and the USABritish Politics The General Election Post-election Polls close at 10 p.m.and the votes are,in most constituencies,counted immediately The earliest results are declared by about 11 p.m.,with most having been declared by 3 or 4 a.m.
33、;some constituencies do not declare their results until the following dayThe majority party forms the government;For the current Prime Minister,if a majority in the new Parliament has been achieved by their party,there is no need for reconfirmation or reappointment by the Monarch.If a majority not a
34、chieved,the Prime Minister submits a resignation to the Monarch.The Monarch then commissions the leader of the new majority party to form a new governmentAn Outline of the UK and the USAAn Outline of the UK and the USABritish Politics The General Election Two Major Parties Prior to the mid-19th cent
35、ury politics in the United Kingdom was dominated by the Whigs and the Tories;Not modern parties,only loose alliances of interests and individuals With the evolvement till the middle of the 19th century,the Whigs was renamed the Liberal Party;the Tories renamed the Conservative Party The Conservative
36、 Party and Liberal Party dominated the political scene until the 1920s.The Liberal Party was finally replaced by the newly emerging Labour Party;An Outline of the UK and the USAAn Outline of the UK and the USABritish Politics The General Election Two Major Parties Since 1922,the Conservative and Lab
37、or Parties have dominated British politics,and have alternated in government.The Conservative Party gets support upper-middle classes The Labor Party gets support from about 20%of the upper-middle class,half of the middle-class,and 60%of the manual workersAn Outline of the UK and the USAAn Outline o
38、f the UK and the USABritish Politics The General Election Minor Parties The Social Democratic Party is a new party which was founded by a group of leaders from the Labor Party on March 26,1981,who defected because they thought the party was becoming too leftwing The Liberal Party The Communist Party
39、 built up by some Marxist groups on July 21,1920 An Outline of the UK and the USAAn Outline of the UK and the USABritish Politics The General Election The Judicial System The UK has three distinct systems of law:English law,Northern Ireland law and Scots law The Judicial Committee of the Privy Counc
40、il,comprising the same members as the Appellate Committee of the House of Lords,is the highest court of appeal for several independent Commonwealth countries,the UK overseas territories,and the British crown dependencies The law as a whole consists partly of statutes or Acts of Parliament and partly
41、 of common law made up of past decisions of judges,and custom,and partly of equity The system of law is almost the same in England and Wales,but somewhat different is Scotland and Northern Ireland An Outline of the UK and the USAAn Outline of the UK and the USABritish Politics The General Election T
42、he Senior Courts The Senior Courts Comprises the following courts，Court of Appeal，High Court of Justice and Crown Court The Court of Appeal deals only with appeals from other courts or tribunals.The Court of Appeal has two divisions:the Civil Division and the Criminal Division The High Court of Just
43、ice functions both as a civil court of first instance and a criminal appellate court for cases from the subordinate courts.It consists of three divisions:the Queens Bench,the Chancery and the Family divisions The Crown Court is a criminal court of both original and appellate jurisdiction which in ad
44、dition handles a limited amount of civil business both at first instance and on appealAn Outline of the UK and the USAAn Outline of the UK and the USABritish Politics The General Election Subordinate Courts The most common subordinate courts in England and Wales are the Magistrates Courts,Family Pro
45、ceedings Courts,Youth Courts and Country Courts The Magistrates Courts handles minor criminal cases,as well as certain licensing applicationsYouth courts deals with offenders aged between the ages of 10 and 17 inclusiveFamily Proceedings Courts hear Family law cases including care casesBoth the Yout
46、h Courts and the Family Proceedings Courts are not open to publicAn Outline of the UK and the USAAn Outline of the UK and the USABritish Politics The General Election Country Courts County Courts are constitutional courts with a purely civil jurisdiction County courts have divorce jurisdiction and u
47、ndertake private family cases,care proceedings and adoptions County Courts are local courts in the sense that each one has an area over which certain kinds of jurisdiction-such as actions concerning land or cases concerning children who reside in the area-are exercised An Outline of the UK and the U
48、SAAn Outline of the UK and the USABritish Politics The General Election Jury In England and Wales jury trials are used for criminal cases,the jury consists of twelve juror(between the ages of 18 and 75)in criminal and civil cases;in Scotland,fifteen in criminal cases,twelve in civil cases in the Hig
49、h Court of Justice and seven in civil cases in the County Court The jurys job is deciding whether the accused person is guilty or innocent in the light of the evidence.They have no hand in deciding on the“sentence”which is up to the judges Jury trials have been increasingly regarded as expensive,time-consuming,and anachronistic An Outline of the UK and the USAAn Outline of the UK and the USAJoyful momentAn Outline of the UK and the USAAn Outline of the UK and the USAExercises An Outline of the UK and the USAAn Outline of the UK and the USA
