The UK

Question 1

Members of Parliament from the majority party who have less status and seniority than leaders and senior MPs; they sit in the benches farther from the floor of the House of Commons

Answer 1

Backbenchers

Question 2

a state-funded media company that operates and reports independently and free from state interference

Answer 2

British Broadcasting Corporatation (BBC)

Question 3

a body of high-ranking officials in the executive branch that is responsible for advising the chief executive, implementing public policy, and managing bureaucratic agencies

Answer 3

Cabinet

Question 4

in parliamentary systems, a situation where multiple parties partner to construct a majority and form a government

Answer 4

Coalition Government

Question 5

a legal system that attempts to exhaustively express the law in comprehensive legal codes when the law is first passed

Answer 5

Code Law

Question 6

a custom of British politics in which a cabinet ministers hold themselves responsible to support all policies of the government collectively or to resign if they do not feel capable of doing so

Answer 6

Collective Responsibility

Question 7

a legal system that enacts laws expressing general principles, allowing bureaucratic and judicial discretion in interpretation of the application of the law in specific cases, and adhering to precedents of court decisions regarding the interpretation

Answer 7

Common law

Question 8

Britain’s center-right party; one of the main competitors for power in Britain’s two-party system

Answer 8

Conservative (Tory) Party

Question 9

a geographic area represented by a member in the legislature

Answer 9

Constituency

Question 10

commitment to the rule of law and the principles expressed in a constitution

Answer 10

Constitutionalism

Question 11

the transfer of political power down from a central or national level of government down to a local or regional level

Answer 11

Devolution

Question 12

the political and economic union of more than a dozen European member states, all of which surrender some soerveign control over their own country in order to promote trade and cooperation among member states

Answer 12

European Union

Question 13

an election system in which the candidate with the most votes wins representation of a geographical district in the legislature; losing candidates or parties do not receive any represntation

Answer 13

First-past-the-post

Question 14

a law passed by Parliament that established a fixed five-year election cycle starting in 2015; the prime minister retains the power to call snap elections but now needs a two-thirds majority instead of a simple majority

Answer 14

Fixed -term Parliaments act of 2011

Question 15

the individual in the executive branch responsible for the day-to-day operation of the government

Answer 15

Head of Government

Question 16

the individual in the executive branch who acts as the ceremonial symbol of the country at public events

Answer 16

Head of State

Question 17

members of the house of lords who inherit their position by birth status

Answer 17

Hereditary peers

Question 18

the lower house of Parliament

Answer 18

House of Commons

Question 19

The upper house of Parliament

Answer 19

House of Lords

Question 20

a situation in which no party secures a majority in parliamentary elections and the parties are unable to agree on a combined coalition government; its result is new elections

Answer 20

Hung Parliament

Question 21

Britain’s center-left party; one of the main competitors for power in Britain’s two-party system

Answer 21

Labour Party

Question 22

a group within the house of lords that acted as the highest appellate court in Britain until the creation of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom

Answer 22

Law Lords

Question 23

a national “third” party in Britain with a centrist ideology

Answer 23

Liberal Democratic Party

Question 24

members of the house of lords who are appointed for a lifetime term; their seats are not transferred to their firstborn child

Answer 24

Life Peers

Question 25

the principal party in opposition to the party that forms government; it is opposed to the policies of the government but loyal to the country and the regime

Answer 25

Loyal Opposition

Question 26

an agreement between between England's king and nobility in 1215 that established limitations on the power of the king; an early example of constitutionalism

Answer 26

Magna Carta

Question 27

an economy in which the government plays a strong role of ownership and operation of industries, regulation, and provision of welfare-state benefits while preserving the role for the market

Answer 27

Mixed Economy

Question 28

Britain's public health service system, which provides health care to all British citizens at taxpayer expense

Answer 28

National Health Service (NHS)

Question 29

a concept of medieval times of the nobility's responsibility to care for their serfs, reimagined during the collectivists period as the wealthy's responsibility to pay for welfare-state benefits to care for the poor

Answer 29

Noblesse oblige

Question 30

the bicameral legislature in Britain

Answer 30

Parliament

Question 31

the British constitutional principle that acts of Parliament are considered supreme in law; courts do not possess the power of judicial review to overturn these acts

Answer 31

Parliamentary sovereignty

Question 31

a regional minority party concentrated in Wales

Answer 31

Plaid Cymru

Question 32

a condition of receiving the most votes, though not necessarily a majority, for elective office

Answer 32

Plurality

Question 33

in a parliamentary system, the chief executive chosen by the legislature as the leader of the legislature's majority party

Answer 33

Prime Minister

Question 34

a televised event once a week where the prime minister responds to questions from the opposition leader and other MPs

Answer 34

Prime Minister's Questions (PMQs)

Question 35

an election system for a legislature that gives each political party a percentage of seats in a legislature approximately equal to the percentage of the vote the party received in the election

Answer 35

Proportional Representation (PR)

Question 36

in Britain, elite private secondary schools where students are trained for a future in public service

Answer 36

Public Schools

Question 37

acronym meaning semi-independent agencies with regulatory power over a particular policy area or industry

Answer 37

Quangos

Question 38

a regional minority party concentrated in Scotland

Answer 38

Scottish National Party (SNP)

Question 39

leaders of the opposition party who would become the new prime minister and cabinet if their party won an electoral majority

Answer 39

Shadow Cabinet

Question 40

an election system in which one representative is chosen to represent each geographic constituency in a legislature

Answer 40

Single-member-district (SMD)

Question 41

a regional minority party, concentrated in Northern Ireland, that advocates Irish independence and rejects the authority of a British Parliament

Answer 41

Sinn Fein

Question 42

in Britain, a member of Parliament chosen to preside over proceedings and maintain order in House of Commons

Answer 42

Speaker of the House

Question 43

the highest appellate court, established to replace the Law Lords and demonstrate the separation and independent power of the judiciary

Answer 43

Supreme Court of the United Kingdom

Question 44

an economic policy agenda that emphasized neoliberal reforms, such as privatization of state-owned enterprises, reductions in welfare-state spending, and deregulation of business

Answer 44

Thatcherism

Question 45

a national British minority party that advocates withdrawing from the EU and other institutions that limit Britain's national sovereignty

Answer 45

UK Independence Party

Question 46

a vote by the legislature in a parliamentary system to force resignation of prime minister and cabinet and call for new elections

Answer 46

Vote of no confidence