Politics in Britain

The political system

United Kingdom

• Basic Characteristics– Approx. 63 million people– Comprised of England,

Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland

System of Government:– Constitutional monarchy– Parliamentary system– First Past the Post

Electoral System– Unitary state

Unwritten constitution

• Lack of a written constitution

Parliamentary system

• Parliament selects the prime minister– prime minister is not elected by popular vote– normally the head of majority party or coalition

• Cabinet responsibility to parliament– major legislation and votes of confidence

voters Parliament

Majority party

Minority party

Prime minister& cabinet

British government

Constitutional Monarchy:Monarch (Queen Elizabeth II) is the Head of State• Whitehall Street

– executive agencies / Cabinet (e.g.Department of Defence)

• 10 Downing Street– prime minister’s residence

• Westminster: Bicameral– House of Commons– House of Lords

Electoral system

• Single-member district

• First-past-the-post (winner-take-all) system

Election results

Parliament

• The House of Commons– 650 members (Fixed Number)– voting is 100% along party lines in most votes– party loyalty versus constituency interests continues

to be a major concern

• the House of Lords– 792 members (not fixed number)– Lords Temporal And Lords Spiritual– Not elected

Margaret Thatcher

• Served (1979 - 1990) longer without interruption than any other British prime minister in 20th century

•cut taxes•reduced social services•stimulated the private sector (privatization of public services)“The Right to buy scheme”•Increased military spending

John Major

• Prime Minister of Great Britain (1990-97)

• Joined the United States in the Gulf War (1990) against Iraqi invasion of Kuwait

• Continued the privatization policies of Margaret Thatcher (e.g. privatization of British Rail)

New Labour Party

• Tony Blair (1997-2007)• Rebranded the Labour Party

with “new labour”• Movement to the political centre

(Brokerage politics)• the largest majority in parliament

(419/659) that the Labour Party has ever held in 1997

• Conservative vote fell to its lowest share since 1832 in 1997

• Tony Blair: “New Labour is a party of ideas and ideals, but not of outdated ideology. What counts is what works.”

Pragmatic Politician: Brokerage Politics

Tony Blair & “Third Way”

• “Third way” alternative to big government policies of the old Labour Party (socialism) and Thatcherism (free market economics):– rejected the historic ties between Labour

governments and the trade union movement

• A vague philosophy to draw support from across the social-economic spectrum.

• Transcended ideologies (brokerage)

Gordon Brown

• Labour Prime Minister (2007-2010)

• Nationalized some banks after the 2007 stock market crashed (e.g. Northern Rock)

• A continuation of New Labour policies with respect to the role of government in an economy

He’s smiling!

David Cameron

• Prime Minister (2010-Present)• Member of the Conservative

Party• Responsible for Austerity

Measures: drastic cuts to the public service: layoffs and reducing wages of public employees

• Britain’s involvement in the war in Libya (removal of Muammar Gaddifi)