The Constitution

Question 1

Bill of rights

Answer 1

An authoritative statement of the rights of citizens, often entrenched as part of a codified constitution.

Question 2

Constitution

Answer 2

The set of laws, rules and practices that create the basic institutions of the state and its component and related parts, and stipulate the powers of those institutions and the relationship between the different institutions and between those institutions and the individual.

Question 3

Limited government

Answer 3

A system in which the powers of government are subject to legal constraints as well as checks and balances within the political system.

Question 4

Entrenched

Answer 4

Difficult to change: often requiring supermajorities - or approval by popular referendum.

Question 5

Fundamental law

Answer 5

Constitutional law that is deliberately set above regular statute in terms of status, and given a degree of protection against regular law as passed by the legislature.

Question 6

Statute law

Answer 6

Law derived from Acts of Parliament and subordinate legislation.

Question 7

Common law

Answer 7

Law derived from general customs or traditions and the decision of judges.

Question 8

Judicial review

Answer 8

The power of senior judges to review the actions of government and public authorities and to declare them unlawful if they have exceeded their authority.

Question 9

Royal prerogative

Answer 9

Discretionary powers of the Crown that are exercised by government ministers in the monarch’s name.

Question 10

Conventions

Answer 10

Established norms of political behaviour; rooted in past experience rather than the law.

Question 11

Unitary state

Answer 11

Sovereignty is located at the centre. Central government has supremacy over other tiers of government, which it can reform or abolish. A unitary state is a centralised and homogeneous-political power is concentrated in central government and all parts of the state are governed in the same way.

Question 12

Devolution

Answer 12

The power by which a central government delegates power to another, normally lower, tier of government, while retaining ultimate sovereignty.

Question 13

Parliamentary sovereignty

Answer 13

The doctrine that parliament has absolute legal authority within the state. It enjoys legislative supremacy:parliament may make law on any matter it chooses, its decisions may not be overturned by any higher authority and it may not bind its successors.

Question 14

Cabinet government

Answer 14

A system of government in which executive power is vested not in a single individual but in a cabinet whose members operate under the doctrine of collective responsibility.

Question 15

Constitutional monarchy

Answer 15

A political system in which the monarch is the formal head of state but the monarch’s legal powers are exercised by government ministers.

Question 16

Parliamentary government

Answer 16

A political system in which government takes place through parliament and in which the executive and legislative branches are fused.

Question 17

Prime-ministerial government

Answer 17

A system of government in which the prime minister is the dominant actor and is able to bypass the cabinet.

Question 18

Asymmetric devolution

Answer 18

A form of devolution in which the political arrangements are not uniform but differ from region to region.

Question 19

West Lothian Question

Answer 19

Originally posed by Labour MP Tam Dalyell, in a Commons debate in 1977…why should Scottish MPs be able to vote on English matters at Westminster, when English MPs cannot vote on matters devolved to the Scottish Parliament?

Question 20

Barnett formula

Answer 20

A mechanism devised in 1978 by the then chief secretary to the Treasury, Labour MP, Joel Barnett. The formula translates changes in public spending in England into equivalent changes in the block grants for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, calculated on the basis of population. Under this formula, these nations had higher public spending per person than England.