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Electoral System in UK

The british system of government is one of the oldest democratic systems in Europe. The UK set up democracy in whole Europe.

Elisabeth, 2nd is head. She is said to "reign but not rule".

There are 22 leading ministers for England, Scottland, Northern Ireland and Ireland.

I haven't exactly understood the following diagram. But I show it anyway. In case you know what it does: Please explain by editing this Text! (Login - Edit)

http://www.kiesler.at/static/wiki/uk_electoral_system.gif

The Parliament consists of Soreign?! (What's that?)

And why is it dissolved?

Lords = House of Lords, having 24 bishops
The house of Lords has the ultimate power

Commons = House of Commons, having 650 members

Apparently, the speaker is the officer of the house. And selected to present everything.

By the way: The minimal voting age is 18!

Notes of Mr. Gauster-Filek

The British System has an awfull lot of good aspects. Something is strange with both the US and the UK system. Until recently, both discriminated catholics!

In Britain, the Monarch can neither be nor be married to a catholic.

Charles and Camilla seem to be less of a problem. Camilla is catholic. But she's divorced as well and thus might not be considered a "real" catholic.

Al Smith was the first catholic, he lost very heavily.

The Bush Family

(another one of my questions)

What about the Bushs? The first Bush was from the Church of England. The second one (current President of the US) is officially a Methodologist -- he has mainly been "born again".

No Checks and Balances

The UK system does not work the way the US one does. There's the parliament, with the House of Commons and the House of Lords. The House of Lords has virtually unlimited powers.

It's a missnormal, that one gets into the House of Lords through Inheritance. The truth more often than not is, that only a small part is heritary.

The House of Lords

  • Heriditory Peers, most: life peers (former prime ministers, cabinet members, etc.)
  • Bishop of church of england
  • Can delay a law for a year
  • High level factfinding / debotig (?) institution

The house of Lords investigates complex laws. They do a good job in that but have no sense of politics.

The Law Lord: are officially the highest court, but don't discuss government.

Blair would like an Supreme court like in US, but that has been delayed because of 9-11.

Election Process

In Britain, each district has an election.

The Labour party has 40 % of the vontes, a large amount are members in the house of commons.

In Austria, you have an indirect election. The party gets a ticket for choosing a chancelor, which is similar to the british system.

In Britain, The Monarch has very little Power. The British System is not totalitarian.

House of Lords

The party discipline is high, unlike in US. Everyone of the party follows the party line.

Blair could lose the next election because of his Pro Iraq attitude. The Conservatives of the House of Commons supported war in Iraq, but the Labour party in the House of Commons was against it.

ElectoralSystemUS


Last modified 2005-03-12 21:54 by rck