THE GOVERNMENT
Who governs Britain? When the media talk about ‘the government’ they usually mean one of two things. The term ‘the government’ can be used to refer to all of the politicians who have been appointed by the monarch (on the advice of the Prime Minister) to help run government departments (there are several politicians in each department) or to take on various other special responsibilities, such as managing the activities of Parliament .There are normally about a hundred members of ‘ the government’ in this sense.Although there are various of ranks, each with their own titles, members of the government are usually known as ’ministers’. All ministers come from the ranks of Parliament , most of them from the House of Commons. Unlike in the USA and in some other countries in Europe, it is rare for a person from outside Parliament to become a minister. ( And when this does happen, the person concerned is quickly found a seat in one of the two Houses.)
The other meaning of the term ‘ the government’ is more limited. It refers only to the most powerful of these politicians of these politicians, namely the Prime Minister and the other members of the cabinet. There are usually about twenty people in the cabinet (though there are no rules about this.)Most of them are the heads of the government department.
Partly as a result of the electoral system, Britain, unlike much of western Europe, normally has ‘single-party government’. In other words, all members of the government belong to the same political party. Traditional, British politicians have regarded coalition government (with several parties involved) as a bad idea. Since the formation of modern political parties in the nineteenth century, Britain has had a total only twenty-one years of coalition governments .Even when, no single party a had majority of seats in the House of Commons, no coalition was formed. There was a ‘ minority government’ instead.
The habit of single-party government has helped to establish the tradition known as collective responsibility for every policy made by the government, however junior, shares the responsibility for every policy made by the government. This is true even if, as is often the case, he or she did not play any part in making it. Of course, individual government members may hold different opinions, but they are expected to keep these private. By convention, no member of the government can criticize government policy in public. Any member who does so must resign.
Britain is a democracy, yet its people are not, as one might expect in a democracy, constitutionally in control of the state. The constitutional situation is an apparently contradictory one. As a result of an historical process, the people of Britain are subjects of the Crown, accepting the Queen as the head of the state. Yet even the Queen is not sovereign in any substantial sense since she receives her authority from Parliament, and is subject to its direction in almost all matters. In short, she ‘reigns’ but does not rule. Technically, if confusingly, British sovereignty collectively resides in the three elements of Parliament: the Crown, and Parliament’s two chambers, the House of Lords and the House of Commons.
This curious situation came about as a result of a long struggle for power between the Crown and Parliament during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. In 1689 Parliament won that struggle, because it controlled most of national wealth. It agree to allow the Crown to continue to function within certain limits, and subject to Parliament’s control. No constitution written down either then or since, and the relationship between Crown, Parliament, and people-and their respective costitutional powers- has been one of gradual development in three vital respects:
Parliamentary ’sovereignty’; an independent judiciary; and consolidation of law . Various elements of what is usually considered ‘the constitution’ appear in different laws and conventions, but they are not specified as such. The state- itself sometimes called Crown- operates on precedent, custom and convention, and on unwritten rules and assumptions.
Operating on precedent, custom and commonsense is a very British arrangement, and the British have traditionally felt uncomfortable with a constitution based either on logic or theory.
THE CROWN
The reigning monarch is not only the head of state but also a symbol of the unity of the nation. The monarchy in Britain’s oldest secular institution, its continuity for over 1000 years broken only once by a republic that lasted a mere 11 years (1649-60). The monarchy hereditary, the succession passing automatically to the oldest male child, or in absence of males, to the oldest female offspring of the monarch .By Act (or law) of Parliament, the monarch must be a Protestant. Succession is automatic on the death of the monarch, confirmed later by a formal coronation ceremony. In law the monarch is head of the executive and of the judiciary, head of the Church of England, and commander-in-chief of the armed forces. However, since 1689, the monarch’s sovereign powers have been formally limited by the idea that national sovereignty resides in ‘the Crown in Parliament’-the idea that the Crown is sovereign by the will Parliament.
The remaining powers of the monarch are basically to summon, suspend until the next session and dissolve Parliament: to give royal assent
to legislation passed by Parliament; to appoint government ministers, judges, officers of the armed forces, governors, diplomats and bishops of the Church; to confer honours, such as peerages and knighthoods; to remit sentence passed convicted criminals; and finally to declare war on or make peace with an enemy power. In practice, of course, with the exception of a few exception of a few honours she is free to decide herself, the monarch discharges all these functions on the direction of the government. In most matters of state, the refusal of the Queen to exercise her power according to the direction of her Prime Minster would risk a serious constitutional crisis.