英语国家概况 Chapter 3 思维导图

高等学校英语拓展教育系列教程，英语国家概况，包括：Constitution:Made up of three main arts、Parliament、Government等板块。

Chapter3 Government and the Commonwealth

Constitution:Made up of three main parts

Statutory law

Laws that have actually been passed by Parliament

The most important and take precedence over the others if there is a crash

Common law

Deduced from customs or legal precedents and is interpreted in court cases by judges

Never been precisely defined

Conventionns

Rules and practices which are not legally enforceable

Be regarded as vital to the working of the government

Division of powers among the legislature,the ececutive and the judiciary

Parliament

It passes laws

It authorizes taxes and government budgets

It scrutinizes and investigates government administration

It debates current issues

Government

The Legislature:Parliament

the Crown

the monarchy must consent to pass a law (a matter of course)

the House of Lords (Upper):Lords Spiritual, Lords Temporal and Law Lords

Archbishops,senior bishops,hereditary peers and life peers

To examine and revise bills from the Lower House

the House of Commons (Lower):consists of 650 members elected by the people from 650 constituencies. (MPs)

The party which holds the majority of "seats" in the House of Commons forms the government, with its leader acting as the Prime Minister

To makes laws for the UK

To control government's finances

To scrutinize government administration

The Executive

the Prime Minister

Responsible for all the governmental

Appoint government officials

Head of the Cabinet

Liaison between the Monarch and the government

the Cabinet ministers

Two principles

Collective responsibility

The Cabinet members must act unanimously

Individual ministerial responsibility

The ministers are responsible for the work of the departments that they are in charge of

assistants to the ministers

The Judiciary

Rather complicated in that England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland all have there own legal systems,with minor differences in law,organization and practice

the magistrates' court

the Crown Court

(Green dealt Civil cases)

the High Court

the Court of Apeal

(Pink dealt appeals)

the Supreme Court

Political Parties:The power to run the country lies in the elected Parliament

The Conservative Party

Middle and uppermiddle class

center-right

Nationalization High taxation "From cradle to grave" The "Left"

The Labor Party

The poor in the society ; the working class

center-left

Free enterprise Privatization The "Right"

The Liberal Democrats

Election

General Election: The term of each Parliament is five years.At the end of each term,a general election is held for a new House of Commons

First-Past-the-Post

Basic Political System in the UK

Constitutional monarchy

Parliamentary democracy

United state

The Structure of the Political System

Monarch : Head of State in the U.K. and Commonwealth

Legislative Parliament

Executive Cabinet

Judiciary Supreme Court