Chapter 3 Government and the Commonwealth

Learning Goals

Ⅰ. British Constitution is made up of:

    Statutory Law (成文法) :the Magna Carta ,the Bill of Rights ……

    Common Law (判例法)

    Conventions (习惯法)

II. Government

    2.1 The Legislature

    2.2 The Executive

Queen: is a “constitutional monarch”, officially the head of state, thecommander-in-chief of all armed forces of the Crown, but the country isactually run by the government and led by the Prime Minister.

2.1 The Legislature

      Parliament: the law-making body ofBritain

      2.1.1 The House of Lords:  examining and revising billsfrom the House of Commons, also acting as the highest court of appeal;

      2.1.2 The House of Commons: three major functions

Ⅲ. Political Parties

The Parliament operates on a two-party system.

the Whig Party辉格党—Liberal Party自由党

the Tory Party托利党—Conservative Party保守党（major）

The Labor Party工党(major)

The Conservative Party supports free enterprise and privatization of state-owned enterprises.

The Labor Party holds that the government acts as a “redistributive” agent, transferring wealth from the rich to the poor by taxing.

Ⅳ. Election

A general election (普选制) isheld every five years in the 650 constituencies 选区.

Ⅴ. The Commonwealth

5.1 the origin of the Commonwealth

   The British Empire ---the British Commonwealth of Nations ---- the Commonwealth of Nations----the Commonwealth

5.2 Characteristics and Functions

     It is a voluntary association ofindependent sovereign独立自主的states, advocating democracy, human rights, and to promote economiccooperation and growth of its members 

Step 1 TheUnited Kingdomis a constitutional monarchy, the head of state is a king or a queen. TheUnited Kingdomis governed, in the name of the Sovereign by His or Her Majesty’s Government. The System of parliamentary government is not based on a written constitution, the British constitution is not set out in any single document. It is made up of statute law, common law and conventions. The Judiciary determines common law and interprets statutes.
联合王国是君主立宪制国家,国家的首脑是国王或女王。联合王国以君的名义,由国王或女王陛下政府治理。英国的议会制度并不是基于成文宪法,英国宪法不由单一文件构成,而由成文法,习惯法和惯例组成。司法部门裁定习惯法或解释成文法。

I．The Monarchy
君主制
1.Elizabeth II, her title in the United Kingdom is “Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and Her Other Realms and Territories, Queen, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith.
伊莉莎白二世，她的全称是“上帝神佑，大布列颠及北爱尔兰联合王国以及她的其他领土和领地的女王，英联邦元首，国教保护者伊莉莎白二世。”

2.The Queen is the symbol of the whole nation. In law, She is head of the executive, an integral part of the legislature, head of the judiciary, the commander-in-chief of all the armed forces and the “supreme governor” of the Church of England. She gives Royal Assent to Bills passed by parliament.
女王是国家的象征。从法律上讲，她是行政首脑，立法机构的组成部分，司法首脑，全国武装部队总司令，英国国教“至高无上”的领袖。她任命首相和重要的政府官员。对议会通过的法案给予御准。

3.The monarch actually has no real power. The monarch’s power are limited by law and Parliament. Constitutional monarchy began after the Glorious Revolution in 1688.
君主政体实际已无实权。它的权力受限于法律和议会。君主立宪制是从1688年的光荣革命后开始。

III．Parliament
议会

1.TheUnited  Kingdomis a unitary, not a federal, state. Parliament consists of the Sovereign, the House of Lords and the House of Commons.
英国是中央集权国家，而不是联邦制国家。议会由君主，上议院和下议院组成。

2.The main functions of Parliament are: (1) to pass laws; (2) to provide, by voting for taxation, the means of carrying on the work of government; (3) to examine government Policy and administrations, including proposal for expenditure; and (4) to debate the major issues of the day.
议会的主要作用是：（1）通过立法；（2）投票批准税为政府工作提供资金；（3）检查政府政策和行政管理，包括拨款提议；（4）当天的议题辩论。

3.The House of Lords is made up of the Lords Spiritual and the Lords Temporal. The main function of the House of Lords is to bring the wide experience of its members into the process of lawmaking. In other words, the non-elected House is to act as a chamber of revision, complementing but not rivaling the elect House.
贵族院（上议院）由神职贵族和世俗贵族组成。它的主要作用是用议员的丰富经验帮助立法。换而言之，非选举的上议院是修正议院，补充而非反对由选举产生的下议院。

4.The House of Common is elected by universal adult suffrage and consists of 651 Members of Parliament (MPs). It is in the House of Commons that the ultimate authority.
下议院（平民院）由成人普选产生，由651名议员组成。下议院拥有最终立法权。

5.Britainis divided 651 constituencies. Each of the constituencies returns one member to
the House of Commons. A general Election must be held every five years and is often
held at more frequent intervals.
英国被划分为651个选区，每个选区选一名下议院议员。大选必须五年举行一次，但经常不到五年就进行一次选举。

6.Britainhas a number of parties, but there are only two major parties. These two parties are the Conservative Party and the Labour Party. Since 1945, either the Conservative Party or the Labour Party has held power. The party which wins sufficient seats at a General Election to command a majority of Government. The leader of the majority party is appointed Prime Minister. The party which wins the second largest number of seats becomes the Official Opposition, with its own leader and “shadow cabinet ”. The rule of Opposition is to help the formulation of policy. Criticizes the Government and debate with the Government.
英国有很多政党，但有两个主要的政党—保守党和工党。从1945年以来，两党一直轮流执政，在大选中获多数议席因而在下议院拥有多数支持者的政党组建政府，多数党领袖由君主任命为首相。获得第二多数议席的政党则正式成为“反对党”，有自己的领袖和影子内阁。反对党的目的是帮助制定政策，它可以经常给政府提出批评性的建议和修正议案。

III.The Cabinet and Ministry
内阁和内阁部长

1. The Prime Minister presides over the Cabinet, is responsible for the allocation of functions among ministers and informs the Queen at regular meetings of general business of the Government. Cabinet members hold meetings under the chairmanship of the Prime Minister for a few hours each week to decide Government policy on major issues.
首相主持内阁，负责分配大臣们的职能，在定期会见女王时向女王报告政府事务。内阁在 首相的主持下，每周开会几小时，以决定在重大问题上政府的政策。

2. Ministers are responsible collectively to Parliament for all Cabinet decisions; individual Ministers are responsible to Parliament for the work of their department.
内阁的所有决定由大臣集体向议会负责，各大臣又为各自部门的工作向议会负责。

IV．The Privy Council
枢密院

1. The Privy Council was formerly the chief source of executive power in the state and give private advice to the King. So the Privy Council was also called the King’s Council in history. Today its role is largely formal, advising the sovereign to approve certain government decrees.
枢密院原来是政府行政权力的源泉，给君主提供“私人”建议。它在历史上也称为国王议会。今天它的主要作用是礼节性的，如建议君主批准政府的法令。

2. Its membership is about 400, and includes all Cabinet ministers, the speaker of the House of Common and senior British and Commonwealth statement.
它的主要成员有400人左右，包括内阁阁员，下议院院长及英国，英联邦的高级政治家等。

V．Government Department and the Civil Service
政府各部和公务员部

1. The principal Government department main includes: the Treasury, the House of office, the Foreign and Commonwealth office, the Ministry of Defense…
主要的政府部门包括：财务部，内务部，外交部，国防部等。

2. Members of the Civil Service are called Civil Services. They staff government departments. Civil Servants are recruited mainly by competitive examination. Civil servants do not belong to any political party. Changes of Government do not involve changes in departmental staff, There are about 541800 civil servants inBritainnow.
文职人员部的成员被成为公务员。公务员主要是通过竞争考试录用。公务员部门不属于任何政党，政府的变更并不影响部门职员的变更。英国现约有541800名公务员。

VI．Local Government
地方政府部门

1. There are two main tiers of local authority throughoutEnglandandWales: counties and the smaller districts. Now,EnglandandWalesare divided into 53 counties which are sub-divided into 369 districts.
英格兰和威尔士实行两级地方政府制—郡和比郡小的区。现在英格兰和威尔士分为53个郡，郡下分为369个区。

2. GreaterLondonis divided into 32 boroughs.
大伦敦被分为32个行政区。

tions

                to draft, pass laws, bills andacts of Parliament;

                to scrutinize仔细检查 , criticize and restrain the actions of the government;

                to influence the futuregovernment policy;

2.2 The Executive

    2.2.1 The Prime Minister—powerfulleader, head of the government;

    2.2.2 The Cabinet(内阁): supremedecision-making body in the British government

    2.2.3 Privy Council（枢密院）: togive advice;

    2.3 The Judiciary

Ⅰ. British Constitution is made up of:

    Statutory Law (成文法) :the Magna Carta ,the Bill of Rights ……

    Common Law (判例法)

    Conventions (习惯法)

II. Government

    2.1 The Legislature

    2.2 The Executive

    2.3 The Judiciary