UK Political System Flashcards
Authority
The right to take a particular course of action.
Power
The ability to do something or make something happen.
Governance
A form of decision making which involves a wide range of institutions, networks and relationships.
Government
A. The activity or system of governing a political unit.
B. The set of institutions that exercise authority and make the rules of a political unit.
Executive
The branch of government responsible for the implementation of policy.
Legislature
The branch of government responsible for passing laws.
Westminster model
A form of government exemplified by the British political system in which parliament is sovereign, the executive and legislature are fused and political power is centralised.
Judiciary
The branch of government responsible for interpreting the law and deciding upon legal disputes.
Rule of law
A legal theory holding that the relationship between the state and the individual is governed by law, protecting the individual from arbitrary state action.
Civil liberties
Fundamental individual rights and freedoms that ought to be protected from interference or encroachment by the state.
Elective dictatorship
Where there is excessive power in the executive branch of government.
Constitution
The laws, rules and practices which determine the institutions of the state, and the relationship between state and its citizens.
Legitimacy
Rightfulness: a political system is legitimate when it is based on the consent of the people and actions follow from agreed laws and procedures.
Sovereignty
Legal supremacy or absolute law-making authority.
Referendum
References vote on a single issue put to a public ballot by the government.
Constitutional monarchy
A form of monarchy in which the monarch is head of state but in which powers are exercised by parliament and by ministers.
Fusion of powers
Intermingling of personnel in the executive and legislative branches found in parliamentary systems,
Head of state
The chief public representative of a country such as a monarch or a president.
Separation of powers
The principle that legislative, executive and judicial branches of government should be independent of each other.
Judicial review
The process by which judges determine whether public officials or public bodies have acted in a manner that is lawful.
Quasi-federal state
A state in which the government of a unitary state devolves some of its powers to subnational governments. It has some of the features of a unitary state and some of a federal state.
Unitary state
A homogenous state in which power is concentrated at the political centre and all parts of the state are governed in the same way.
Devolution
The transfer of some policy-making powers from the centre to subnational institutions, but which sees the state wide legislature retain ultimate authority.
Multilevel governance
A system of decision-making in which policy competences are shared between local, regional, national and supranational institutions.
Party system
The set of political parties in a political system and the relationships between them.
