Component 2: UK Government

Question	Answer
CONSTITUTION	A set of principles that establishes the distribution of power within a political system, relationships between political institutions, the limits of government jurisdiction, the rights of citizens and the method of amending the constitution itself.
UNENTRENCHED	An un-entrenched constitution has no specific procedure for amendment
ENTRENCHED	Entrenchment is more than important than codification: It means to make it difficult to change the constitution. Entrenchment protects a constitution from short term amendments. which could prevent dictatorship as they won't be able to pull down important laws. The constitution is too important to be placed in the hands of a temporary govt. Therefore constitutional change must meet: Widespread support, such as a referendum. If it is in the long term interests of the country.
UNCODEFIED	An unwritten constitution is one where the constitutional rules are not written down.
CODEFIED	(Constitution) Most states have a written constitution, which is contained in one document. This constitution can be amended through special procedures e.g. the US constitution has been amended 26 times.
UNITARY	Within a unitary constitution, ultimate sovereignty resides within central government. Despite 'local' government bodies having power/responsibility, it is subject to the central government to allow it.
PARLIAMENTARY	Parliamentary government A political system in which government takes place through parliament, and which the executive and legislative branches are fused.
SOVEREIGNTY	Legal supremacy; absolute law-making authority that is not subject to higher authority
THE RULE OF LAW	A system of rule where the relationship between the state and the individuals is governed by law, protecting the individual from arbitrary state action
STATUTE LAW	Law derived from acts of parliament and subordinate legislation
COMMON LAW	Common law, also known as case law or precedent, is law that has been developed by judges, courts and similar tribunals.It will have been stated in decisions that decide individual cases but in addition can have precedential effect on future cases. Common law is a third branch of law.
CONVENTIONS	Established norms of political behaviour rooted in past experiences rather than the law
AUTHORITATIVE WORKS	Works of authority on the United Kingdom constitution are books written by constitutional theorists that are considered to be authoritative guides to the UK's uncodified constitution.
TREATIES	formally concluded and ratified agreements between states.
DEVOLUTION	Devolution is the statutory delegation of powers from the central government of a sovereign state to govern at a subnational level, such as a regional or local level. It is a form of administrative decentralization.
PARLIAMENT	An assembly that has a power to debate and make laws
HOUSE OF COMMONS	The lower house of the parliament of Britain. It includes representatives from England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales, all elected by the people. It is more powerful than the House of Lords, the upper house of parliament.
HOUSE OF LORDS	The House of Lords is the second chamber of UK Parliament. It shares the task of making and shaping laws and checking and challenging the government's work. It's members are appointed, not elected.
CONFIDENCE AND SUPPLY	an arrangement in a hung parliament in which an opposition party agrees not to vote against a minority government in votes of confidence or budgetary matters but reserves the right to oppose other legislation
SALISBURY CONVENTION	a constitutional convention in the United Kingdom under which the House of Lords will not oppose the second or third reading of any government legislation promised in its election manifesto.
PARLIAMENTARY PRIVILEGE	Parliamentary privilege grants certain legal immunities for Members of both Houses to allow them to perform their duties without interference from outside of the House. Parliamentary privilege includes freedom of speech and the right of both Houses to regulate their own affairs.
LEGISLATIVE BILLS	Legislation begins with the submission of a bill to the legislature for consideration. A bill is a draft, or tentative version, of what might become part of the written law. A bill that is enacted is called an act or statute.
PUBLIC BILL COMMITTEES	A Public Bill Committee is a committee set up by the House of Commons to examine the details of a particular Bill.
BACKBENCHERS	MP's who do not hold a ministerial or shadow ministerial position
SELECT COMMITTEES	Select Committees work in both Houses. They check and report on areas ranging from the work of government departments to economic affairs. The results of these inquiries are public and many require a response from the government.
OPPOSITION	the major political party opposed to the party in power and seeking to replace it.
EXECUTIVE	Executive Government” broadly refers to the arm of government responsible for carrying out or administering laws enacted by the legislature.
CABINET MINISTER	a member of a parliamentary cabinet.
GOVERNMENT DEPARTMENTS	A department is composed of employed officials, known as civil servants, and is politically accountable through a minister. Most major departments are headed by a secretary of state, who sits in the cabinet, and typically supported by a team of junior ministers. There are also non-ministerial departments.
ROYAL PEROGATIVE	Discretionary powers of the crown that are exercised in the monarchs name by government ministers
SECONDARY LEGISLATION	Law made by ministers, who have been granted this authority by an act of parliament, rather than parliament Secondary legislation allows the Government to make changes to a law without needing to push through a completely new Act of Parliament
INDIVIDUAL RESPONSIBILITY	I The convention that ministers are responsible to parliament for the policy of their department, the actions of officials within it, and their own personal conduct.
COLLECTIVE RESPONSIBILITY	The convention that all members of the government are collectively responsible for government policy. Ministers who oppose a key element of government policy should resign.
PRESIDENTIAL GOVERNMENT	A presidential system is a democratic and republican system of government where a head of government leads an executive branch that is separate from the legislative branch. This head of government is in most cases also the head of state, which is called president.
SUPREME COURT	The final court of appeal in the United Kingdom for civil cases, which also hears appeals in criminal cases from England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. Established in 2009 to assume the judicial functions of the House of Lords
JUDICIAL NEUTRALITY	Judicial neutrality means that judges should be neutral in their stance to the law, and seek to apply laws passed by Parliament in an impartial, unbiased and technical manner.
JUDICIAL INDEPENDANCE	Judicial independence is the concept that the judiciary needs to be kept away from the other branches of government. That is, courts should not be subject to improper influence from the other branches of government, or from private or partisan interests.
JUDICIAL REVIEW	The power of senior judges to review the actions of government and public authorities, declaring them unlawful if they have exceeded their authority
ELECTIVE DICTATORSHIP	A state in which Parliament is dominated by the government of the day. The legislative programme of Parliament is determined by the government, and the nature of the majoritan first-past-the-post electoral system, which almost always produces majority government means that, with party discipline, government bills virtually always pass the House of Commons.
EUROPEAN UNION	A political union, often called the EU, to which the member states of the EEC are evolving. Based on the Maastrict Treaty, it envisions the eventual establishment of common economic, foreign, security, and justice policies.
FOUR FREEDOMS	Four kinds of freedom mentioned by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in a speech in 1941 as worth fighting for: freedom of speech and expression, freedom of worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear. Roosevelt spoke of the Four Freedoms before the United States entered World War II.
LEGAL SOVEREIGNTY	Legal sovereignty is that authority of the state which has the legal power to issue final commands. It is the authority of the state to whose directions the law of the State attributes final legal force.
POLITICAL SOVEREIGNTY	Political sovereignty refers to the highest level of absolute power through which independent states are controlled by designated authority
ULTRA VIRES	From the Latin, meaning ‘beyond the authority’ or beyond ones powers. The process of judicial review can be used to determine whether or not a minister or other government officers has acted ultra vires: that is , beyond the authority granted to them in law

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Component 2: UK Government

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	Created by mæve Bristor about 6 years ago