The State System of Great Britain

The United Kingdom is a constitutional monarchy, which means that the sovereign reigns but does not rule.

Strictly speaking, Parliament consists of three elements: the Sovereign (that is the King or the ruling Queen), the House of Lords and the House of Commons.

The Queen (or King) is officially head of state, head of the executive, head of the judiciary, head of the legislature, Commander-in-chief of the armed forces, “Supreme governor” of the Church of England. The monarch is expected to be politically neutral, and should not make political decisions.

The Parliament legislature consists of 2 chambers the House of Lords and the House of Commons.

Members of the House of Commons are elected by the adult suffrage of British people in general elections, which are held at least every 5 years. The country is divided into 650 constituencies each of which elects one MP. The Commons has 650 MPs, of whom only 6.3% are women. The party, which wins the most seats, forms the Government and its leader becomes Prime Minister.

The House is presided over by the Speaker who is appointed by the Government after consultation with the leader of the Opposition. All the members of the House of Commons are paid salary.

The House of Lords consists of the Lords Temporal and the Lords Spiritual.

The Lords Spiritual are the Archbishops of York and Canterbury, together with 24 senior bishops of England.

The Lords Temporal consist of

- hereditary peers, who have inherited their titles;

- life peers who are appointed by the Queen on the advice of the Government for various services to the nation;

- the Lords of Appeal (Law Lords) who become life peers on their judicial appointments. The latter serve the House of Lords as the ultimate court of appeal. This appeal court consists of nine law lords who hold senior judicial office. They are presided by the Lord Chancellor and they form a quorum of 3 or 5 when they hear appeal cases.

The house of Lords has no real power but acts rather as an advisory council for the House of Commons.

The person who presides over the Lords deliberations is the Lord Chancellor. He is one of the principal officers of State, and is nowadays a distinguished lawyer. His office is very different from that of Speaker. The Speaker does not speak in the House, but is so named because he speaks on behalf of the Commons to the Sovereign. He renounces party politics on his election, and acts as impartial chairman. He does not change with the Government, but is reelected each Parliament. He controls the member's parliamentary behaviour, and this function contrasts with the power of the Lord Chancellor. The Lord Chancellor is active in party politics, being one of the chief spokesmen for the Government. He has no authority to speak on behalf of the whole House and has no power of discipline.

A new session of Parliament opens every year. The duration of Parliament is five years. In practice it ends sooner. Parliament's life is ended by the Sovereign who dissolves it. It is a constitutional convention that the Queen dissolves Parliament only at the request of the Prime Minister. The Queen issues a Proclamation to bring into being a new Parliament. The life of a Parliament is divided into Sessions, which ends by Prorogation, and each House may put off its meetings by resolution.

The main functions of Parliament are:

1) to make laws regulating the life of the community;

2) to make available finance for the needs of the community and to appropriate the funds necessary for the service of the State;

3) to criticise and control the Government.

The executive consists of government – that is the Prime Minister and Cabinet. The Prime Minister chooses a team of ministers, of whom 20 or so are in the Cabinet. Ministers may be members of either the House of Lords or the House of Commons. Certain offices usually carry a seat in the Cabinet: the Prime Minister, the Home and Foreign Secretaries, the Defence Secretary, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Secretary for Scotland, the Lord Chancellor and others. The meetings of the Cabinet are usually held at 10, Downing Street, which is the residence of the Prime Minister.

The Cabinet is responsible for initiating and directing the national policy, government departments, local authorities and public corporations.

The Sovereign's group of close advisers in high matters of state is known as the Privy Council. In theory it advises the Sovereign to make a certain course, but in practice it is a court and consists of the Law Lords.