Revision:Edexcel AS Politics Unit 2
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The UK constitution
- A constitution is a set of laws on how a country is governed.
- The British Constitution is an uncodified constitution.
- Allows for flexibility and change to occur without too many problems.
- Only constitutional experts who know where to look & how to interpret it have access to it.
- Amendments to Britain’s unwritten constitution are made by majority support in both Houses of Parliament to be followed by the Royal Assent.
- A historic feature of the UK constitution, the Royal Prerogative gives the Crown the power to declare war, to make treaties, to pardon criminals, and to dissolve Parliament.
- Today the role of the monarch in such matters is largely ceremonial, but the Royal Prerogative is general used by the PM.
- The single most important principle of the UK constitution is that of parliamentary sovereignty.
- Under this principle, Parliament can make or unmake any law on any subject whatsoever. No one Parliament is bound by the decisions of its predecessors, nor can it bind its successors.
- There is no higher body, such as a supreme court, that constrains the legal authority of Parliament.
- However, parliamentary sovereignty is now directly challenged by the UK's membership of the European Union, because EU membership necessitates the 'pooling' of sovereignty over areas where the member states have agreed to act together.
- All laws passed at the European level are considered legally superior to domestic law, and are ultimately protected by a higher constitutional court, the European Court of Justice and should European Community law and UK law conflict, EC law will prevail.
Sources of the British Constitution
- Statutes such as the Magna Carta of 1215 and the Act of Settlement of 1701.
- Laws and Customs of Parliament
- political conventions
- Case law
- constitutional matters decided in a court of law
- Constitutional experts who have written on the subject such as Walter Bagehot and A.V Dicey.
Criticisms of the British Constitution
- uncodified - not available to all the public and is too flexible.
- too much power to the executive - consitution does not bind government as it should.
- Archaic tradition/undemocratic - Monarch and the House of Lords have too much power constitutionally despite being undemocratic - undermines democracy.
- FPTP electoral system means majorities in government without majority of the vote - "elected dictatorship".
Parliament
House of Commons
- Most powerful of the two Houses of Parliament.
- Made up of 645 MPs, each elected in one of 645 constituencies throughout the UK. (one seat is empty because of the death of the candidate)
- Almost all MPs are elected as members of a political party.
Functions of The House of Commons
- Representation: MPs represent constituents and may represent 'interests' such as trade unions, or particular professions, provided these interests are declared. Almost all MPs represent political parties, and usually vote according to the party line (the whipping system).
- Government Personnel: Although parliament does not appoint the government, it provides a forum in which budding ministers can demonstrate and hone their political skills, while serving ministers can make or break their career depending on their performance at the Commons' dispatch box.
- Legitimisation: Permits the elected assembly, acting on the people's behalf, to grant (or withhold) its approval for most actions of the government, including legislation and the grant of money.
- Scrutiny of the Executive: The role in scrutinising the policies and actions of the government, in debates, parliamentary questions and within the influential cross-party select committees.
The Powers of the Prime Ministers
- Power to appoint, reshuffle or dismiss ministers
- Power to create peers
- Power to give out honours
- Power to appoint chairs of nationalised industries
- Power to make other appointments (e.g. top civil servants, ambassadors, bishops, judges).
- Power over ministerial conduct (rules are laid out in the ministerial code (Cabinet Office 1997)
- Powers relating to government business (e.g. setting the agenda for Cabinet meetings, setting up Cabinet committees and choosing whether or not to circulate minutes or papers).
- Powers over information (e.g. deciding whether or not to inform Parliament about government activities and using the lobby system to inform the media).
- Powers in international relations
- Power to call a general election
- Power to terminate a Parliament or government.
(Adapted from Tony Benn 1981)
Limitations or Constraints on Prime Ministers Powers
- Ministerial appointments require some recognition of the need for political balance and administrative competence. There is pressure (from colleagues or the media) to appoint certain people- all Prime Ministers at least listen to advice from senior colleagues before making appointments.
- The Prime Ministers ability to control the flow of business is restricted
- Apart from drawing up the party manifesto, most Prime Ministers do not initiate policy- they have a small staff and most expertise and detailed information is located in individual departments.
House of Lords
Functions of the House of Lords
- Scrutinizing Government actions and ensuring that they are acting the public interest. This takes place through the House of Lords EU Select Committee.
- Holding Government accountable. Ministers who are Lords are questioned by other Peers.
- Passing and amending legislation proposed by Government - The Salisbury Convention dictates that they do not challenge the mandate of the Government, but recommend amendments to legislation (and do so regularly).
- Developing Private Members' Bills, although usually unsuccessful due to the dominance of the Executive over the business of the House.
- With less demand on their time and many experts from a number of fields in the Lords they are able to give time to deliberation on the great issues of the day
- The legitimation of laws, granting democratic consent to Government bills is less relevant to the house of Lords as it is not elected, but it is still an essential part of the constitutional process.
- One of the most familiar actions of the House of Lords is its delaying actions. Since the 1949 Parliament Act is has been impossible for the Lords to defeat Government bills outright, but they can delay them for up to one year. This can force its scrapping if near the election.
- The Lords will not reject every piece of Government legislation, but when they do they will not only secure major media coverage of the issue, but also send a message to the government about the force of their objection, all of which refocuses the Government and may force a rethink.
Cabinet
Functions
- Decision making Arena (War on Iraq – 2 days)
- Arbitrating in departmental disputes (spending v treasury)
- Dealing with emergencies (ERM, foot and mouth)
- Coordination of govt. polices (‘joined up govt.’)
- Developing government agenda/parliament business (Queen’s speech)
- Leadership for the party in parliament
Committees
- Standing Committees: Permanent policy areas (economic affairs)
- Ad Hoc: temporary to deal with expected problems (HoL reform)
Collective Responsibility
- Convention – not legally binding
- Most important for cabinet, but is for all government members (John Denham over Iraq)
- All members of the government are collectively responsible for successes or failures
- Share responsibility of decisions even if they had no part in them
- They must refrain from criticising the government public ally
- If a minister cannot do they – resign
- Unity
- Cabinet should all resign if defeated on a motion of no confidence
- Collective responsibility not collective decision making
- Robin Cook and Clare Short.
Threats to Collective Responsibility
- Clare Short – no immediate resignation
- People may resign for other reasons (leadership challenge etc.)
- Doctrine was suspended by Wilson (EEC)
- Coalition Government (if PR)
- ‘Off the record leaks etc.’
Judiciary
- Separate from and independent of government
- Judges see themselves as independent
- Judges of the highest courts appointed by the Queen on advice of the PM and Lord Chancellor
- Other judges appointed by Lord Chancellor - a member of the cabinet
- Lord Chancellor - head of judiciary, a member of the cabinet and of the Lords making him a member of the supposedly independent divisions of the judiciary, legislature and the executive.
- Sovereignty of Parliament means that the judiciary do not have full authority to implement laws rejected by Parliament.
- Civil liberties such as freedom of speech and freedom of expression are 'negative' freedoms - i.e. there is no statue in law to protect them.
- Human Rights Act, though implemented, does not have precedence over any other law.
- Freedom of information act recently passed forces Parliament to make public legal advice over the Iraq war.
Constitutional reform
Since 1997, the Labour government has introduced the following constitutional reforms:
- Devolution and decentralisation which covers:
- A Scottish parliament with legislative and tax varying powers.
- A Welsh assembly with executive powers.
- An elected mayor for London.
- A Northern Ireland assembly and power sharing executive.
They also introduced:
- ECHR (European convention for human rights) into UK law.
- A freedom of information act.
- An electoral commission.
Criticism of New Labour reforms
Conservatives
- They argue that devolution would lead to devolved parliament and assemblies wanting more power and this would eventually lead to the break up of the Union.
- The reform to the House of Lords would create a second chamber filled with Labour appointments.
- The Human rights act has introduced more politics into the judiciary.
Liberals
- The Liberals feel the reforms are too ‘minimalist’.
- They would rather have a written constitution, a UK bill of rights, an elected upper chamber and PR for general elections.
Reform of House of Lords
- Labours had a two-stage plan to reform the House of Lords.
- Stage one was to end the rights of hereditary peers to vote.
- Stage two creates a new Upper House (or second chamber), which has not yet been agreed to.
Other options for reform include:
- Abolition of the second chamber – Some argue that a second chamber is no longer needed as the burden of government work is moving from Westminster to the European Union, devolved parliament and assemblies. Others say that the Upper House has a poor record on checking the excesses of the executive and revising and improving legislation.
- Remaining at stage one with a second chamber of appointed life peers – Appointment means areas in industry, science, arts, religion etc will be ‘represented’. This also ensures the Upper House is modernised like the reforms of the Commons. This is viewed by some as Labours preferred option.
- A democratically elected second chamber – The case for a elected second chamber include that the Lords are directly politically accountable. If a system such as PR were used then it would provide some regional representation, provide checks and balances on the government and ensure no single party dominance.
- A part appointed, part elected second chamber – Seen as a compromise. Has the expertise of appointed peers and also more democratic with elected peers.
Reform of the House of Commons
Reform to the House of Commons included:
- A change to House sitting hours – To make hours more family friendly and to stop all night sittings.
- PMQ change: Change to midday every Wednesday.
- Submission of questions – Amended from a ten days notice to a three days notice. Objective here is to make questions more topical and relevant.
- Pre-legislative scrutiny of bills – All bills to be examined more thoroughly prior to publication.
How effective is Parliament?
How effective is Parliament at doing it's job and what are the main problems it encounters in doing it's job?
- The key functions of Parliament and how effective each is:
Representation
Positivies
- The members chosen stand for policies that reflect the aspirations and wishes of their constituents
- Many Lords represent the views of interest/pressure groups
- The seats in the Commons are distributed to ensure an equal representation for all regions and nations within the UK
Negatives
- The electoral system does not provide a result proportionate to the votes cast (e.g. at the last election the Liberal Democrats secured 20% of the vote but less than 10% of the seats)
- Women and most minority groups are underrepresented see the figures <http://www.thinkhistory.btinternet.co.uk/howrepresentativeisparliament.htm>
- Even if it was representative Parliament would be constricted by Executive control and party discipline, so this role is relatively ineffective
Legislating
Positives
- All legislation has to pass through the House of Commons before becoming law
- The Lords are able to suggest amendmanets and delay bills - such as the recent Hunting Bill which has been delayed for a year by the House of Lords
Negatives
- The passage of bills is virtually guaranteed in the Commons due to the in-built majority of the executive and the convention that Parliament is not there to reject the legislation of an elected executive
- The lack of statutory powers of the Lords makes it weak - it cannot pass judgement on financial bills and other bills can be forced through using the Parliament Act (as was done with the War Crimes Act of 1991, PR for European Elections in 1999, and lowering the Homosexual age of consent to 16 in 2000)
Scrutiny
Positives
- Ministers are required to face oral questions in Parliament and to answer written questions
- Select Committees are able to highlight deficiences in Government and focus their attention on real problems - such as reducing the number of deaths in police custody on saturday nights, and the intelligence used to justify the war in Iraq
Negatives
- Select Committees have a majority of members of the Governing party and so are less inclined to openly criticise Government policy
- They are not able to compel attendance, they have no pwer over legislation, they lack resources and expertise, they do not attract able MPs seeking promotion, and the role does not provide additional pay!
- Lack of time, heavy briefing of Ministers and collective responsibility means that Oral questions often illicit answers which offer little information but simply restate official policy
- The culture of secrecy in Government means much information is unavailable making scrutiny less effective (e.g. the recent investigations into intelligence regarding Iraq, many documents were classified and many officials were not permitted to be questioned)
Redress of Grievance: (right of complain)
Positives
- Many MPs work hard to tackle constituents problems (e.g. Lembit Opik is currently lobbying hard for his constituents who are relations of the Military Policemen who died in Iraq)
Negatives
- Lack of time means MPs often cannot raise issues in any real depth
Deliberation: Consideration
Positives
- The Lords spends a great deal of time deliberating issues, and the expertise of its members ensures a high quality of debate and discussion
Negatives
- A lack of time and demands for party loyalty means MPs have little time for genuine debate, other than when free-votes are allowed (e.g. Fox-hunting or the Death Penalty)
Legitimation
Positives
- Due to the notion of Parliamentary Sovereignty only laws passed in Parliament have legal authority and this must be sought to provide legitimacy to Government policies
Negatives
- As the Lords is unelected the Upper House is unable to provide real legitimacy to Government legislation
- As the Government have an in-built majority in the Commons the Sovereignty of Parliament is really the Sovereignty of the Executive and Parliament becomes little more than a rubber stamping device for Government Policy. By October 2003 the Labour Government had not had one bill rejected by the Commons.
So what are the main problems Parliament faces when trying to do it's job?
- Resources available to them (or the lack thereof)
- The collective responsibility doctrine
- Lack of time
- Culture of secrecy in Government
- Executive Dominance
- Electoral system
- Membership of the Lords
- Party organisation
- Prime-ministerial patronage
- Career structure of MPs
Comments
These notes are aimed at people studying for Edexcel A Level Politics unit 2, but will be suitable for other people too.
Originally submitted by Socrates and others on TSR Forums.
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