英国政治体系简介 英文版
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland[13] (commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK, or Britain)[14] is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country,[15][16] spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands. Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK with a land border, sharing it with the Republic of Ireland.[17][18] Apart from this land border, the UK is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, the North Sea, the English Channel and the Irish Sea. The largest island, Great Britain, is linked to France by the Channel Tunnel.
The United Kingdom is a constitutional monarchy and unitary state consisting of four countries: England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.[19] It is governed by a parliamentary system with its seat of government in London, the capital, but with three devolved national administrations in Belfast, Cardiff and Edinburgh, the capitals of Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland respectively. The Channel Island bailiwicks of Jersey and Guernsey, and the Isle of Man are Crown Dependencies and not part of the UK.[20] The UK has fourteen overseas territories,[21] all remnants of the British Empire, which at its height in 1922 encompassed almost a quarter of the world's land surface, the largest empire in history. British influence can continue to be observed in the language, culture and legal systems of many of its former colonies.
The UK is a developed country, with the world's sixth largest economy by nominal GDP and the seventh largest by purchasing power parity.[8] It was the world's first industrialised country[22] and the world's foremost power during the 19th and early 20th centuries,[23] but the economic cost of two world wars and the decline of its empire in the latter half of the 20th century diminished its leading role in global affairs. The UK nevertheless remains a major power with strong economic, cultural, military and political influence. It is a nuclear power and has the fourth highest defence spending in the world. It is a Member State of the European Union, holds a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council, and is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations, G8, OECD, NATO, and the World Trade Organization
The United Kingdom is a constitutional monarchy: Queen Elizabeth II is head of state of the UK as well as of fifteen other Commonwealth countries, putting the UK in a personal union with those other states. The Crown has sovereignty over the Crown Dependencies of the Isle of Man and the Bailiwicks of Jersey and Guernsey, which are not part of the United Kingdom though the UK government manages their foreign affairs and defence and the UK Parliament has the authority to legislate on their behalf.
Since the United Kingdom is one of the three countries in the world today that does not have a codified constitution,[37] the Constitution of the United Kingdom consists mostly of written sources, including statutes, judge made case law, and international treaties. As there is no technical difference between ordinary statutes and "constitutional law," the UK Parliament can perform "constitutional reform" simply by passing Acts of Parliament and thus has the power to change or abolish almost any written or unwritten element of the constitution. However, no Parliament can pass laws that future Parliaments cannot change.[38]
The UK has a parliamentary government based on the Westminster system that has been emulated around the world — a legacy of the British Empire. The Parliament of the United Kingdom that meets in the Palace of Westminster has two houses: an elected House of Commons and an appointed House of Lords, and any Bill passed requires Royal Assent to become law. It is the ultimate legislative authority in the United Kingdom since the devolved parliament in Scotland and devolved assemblies in Northern Ireland, and Wales are not sovereign bodies and could be abolished by the UK parliament despite being established following public approval as expressed in referenda.
The Houses of ParliamentThe position of Prime Minister, the UK's head of government, belongs to the Member of Parliament who can obtain the confidence of a majority in the House of Commons, usually the current leader of the largest political party in that chamber. The Prime Minister and Cabinet are formally appointed by the Monarch to form Her Majesty's Government, though the Prime Minister chooses the Cabinet, and by convention HM The Queen respects the Prime Minister's choices. The Cabinet is traditionally drawn from members of the Prime Minister's party in both legislative houses, and mostly from the House of Commons, to which they are responsible. Executive power is exercised by the Prime Minister and Cabinet, all of whom are sworn into Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council, and become Ministers of the Crown. The Rt Hon Gordon Brown MP, leader of the Labour Party, has been Prime Minister, First Lord of the Treasury and Minister for the Civil Service since 27 June 2007.[39]
For elections to the House of Commons, the UK is currently divided into 646 constituencies, with 529 in England, 18 in Northern Ireland, 59 in Scotland and 40 in Wales,[40] though this number will rise to 650 at the next General Election. Each constituency elects one Member of Parliament by simple plurality. General Elections are called by the Monarch when the Prime Minister so advises. Though there is no minimum term for a Parliament, the Parliament Act (1911) requires that a new election must be called within five years of the previous general election.
The UK's three major political parties are the Labour Party, the Conservative Party, and the Liberal Democrats, who won between them 616 out of the 646 seats available in the House of Commons at the 2005 general election. Most of the remaining seats were won by parties that only contest elections in one part of the UK such as the Scottish National Party (Scotland only), Plaid Cymru (Wales only), and the Democratic Unionist Party, Social Democratic and Labour Party, Ulster Unionist Party, and Sinn Féin (Northern Ireland only, though Sinn Féin also contests elections in Ireland). In accordance with party policy, no elected Sinn Féin Member of Parliament has ever attended the House of Commons to speak in the House on behalf of their constituents as Members of Parliament are required to take an oath of allegiance to the Monarch.[41]
For elections to the European Parliament, the UK currently has 78 MEPs, elected in 12 multi-member constituencies,[42] though this total will drop to 72 at the 2009 elections. Questions over sovereignty have been brought forward due to the UK's membership of the European Union
The United Kingdom does not have a single legal system due to it being created by the political union of previously independent countries with Article 19 of the Treaty of Union guaranteeing the continued existence of Scotland's separate legal system.[74] Today the UK has three distinct systems of law: English law, Northern Ireland law and Scots law. Recent constitutional changes will see a new Supreme Court of the United Kingdom come into being in October 2009 that will take on the appeal functions of the Appellate Committee of the House of Lords.[75] The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, comprising the same members as the Appellate Committee of the House of Lords, is the highest court of appeal for several independent Commonwealth countries, the UK overseas territories, and the British crown dependencies.
参考资料：维基
Politics of the United Kingdom
The politics of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Irelandhas taken place in the framework of a constitutional monarchy, in which the Monarch is head of state and the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom is the head of government. Executive power is exercised by the UK government, the devolved governments of Scotland and Wales, and the Executive of Northern Ireland. Legislative power is vested in both the government and the two chambers of Parliament, the House of Commons and the House of Lords, as well as in the Scottish parliament and Welsh and Northern Ireland assemblies. The judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature, the highest national court being the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom.
The UK is a multi-party system and since the 1920s, the two largest political parties have been the Conservative Party and the Labour Party. Though coalition and minority governments have been an occasional feature of parliamentary politics, the first-past-the-post electoral system used for general elections tends to maintain the dominance of these two parties, though each has in the past century relied upon a third party to deliver a working majority in Parliament.[1]
Growing support for Nationalist parties in Scotland and Wales led to proposals for devolution in the 1970s though only in the 1990s did devolution actually happen. Today, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland each possess a legislature and government alongside that of the United Kingdom, responsible for devolved matters. However, it is a matter of dispute as to whether increased autonomy and devolution of executive and legislative powers has contributed to a reduction in support for full independence. The principal pro-independence party, the Scottish National Party, won 20 extra MSPs at the 2007 Scottish parliament elections and now forms the Scottish Government as a minority administration, with plans to hold a referendum on negotiating for independence, before 2011. In Wales, the nationalist party, Plaid Cymru, is the junior coalition partner in the Welsh Assembly Government although unlike the Scottish National Party it does not officially advocate complete secession from the United Kingdom. In Northern Ireland, the largest Pro-Belfast Agreement party, Sinn Féin, not only advocates Northern Ireland's unification with the Republic of Ireland, but also abstains from taking their elected seats in the Westminster government, as this would entail taking a pledge of allegiance to the British monarch.
The constitution is uncodified, being made up of constitutional conventions, statutes and other elements.
This system of government, known as the Westminster system, has been adopted by other countries as well, such as Canada, India, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Malaysia and Jamaica, countries that made up part of the British Empire.
Monarchy of the United Kingdom
The head of state, theoretical and nominal source of executive, judicial and legislative power in the UK, is the British monarch, currently Queen Elizabeth II. However, sovereignty in the UK no longer rests with the monarch, since the English Bill of Rights in 1689, which established the principle of Parliamentary sovereignty. Nonetheless, the monarch is still known as the sovereign.
Executive
Executive power in the United Kingdom is exercised on behalf of the Sovereign, in whom executive power is nominally vested, by the UK government and the Scottish Government, the Welsh Assembly Government and the Northern Ireland Executive.
The United Kingdom Government
The monarch appoints a Prime Minister as the head of Her Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom, guided by the strict convention that the Prime Minister should be the member of the House of Commons most likely to be able to form a Government with the support of that House. In practice, this means that the leader of the political party with an absolute majority of seats in the House of Commons is chosen to be the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister then selects the other Ministers which make up the Government and act as political heads of the various Government Departments. About twenty of the most senior government ministers make up the Cabinet and approximately 100 ministers in total comprise the government. In accordance with constitutional convention, all ministers within the government are either Members of Parliament or peers in the House of Lords.
As in some other parliamentary systems of government (especially those based upon the Westminster System), the executive (called "the government") is drawn from and is answerable to Parliament - a successful vote of no confidence will force the government either to resign or to seek a parliamentary dissolution and a general election. In practice, members of parliament of all major parties are strictly controlled by whips who try to ensure they vote according to party policy. If the government has a large majority, then they are very unlikely to lose enough votes to be unable to pass legislation.
雪桑鼻咽：[答案] The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland[13] (commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK, or Britain)[...existence of Scotland's separate legal system.[74] Today the UK has three distinct systems of law: English law, Northern ...
林西县15758529198： 英国的政体是什么?需英文版的,有名词和解释,100字左右 - ？
雪桑鼻咽：[答案] The United Kingdom is a constitutional monarchy:Queen Elizabeth II is head of state of the UK as well as of fifteen other Commonwealth countries,putting the UK in a personal union with those other states.The Crown has sovereignty over the Crown ...
林西县15758529198： 英国政治体制简介？
雪桑鼻咽： 君主立宪 参众两院
林西县15758529198： 英国的政治体制 - ？
雪桑鼻咽： 英国实行君主立宪制的资本主义,日本为其仿效者,其掌权者为内阁议会,代表者是首相
林西县15758529198： 关于英国的君主制 - ？
雪桑鼻咽： 在英国,君主不直接支配国家政权,由内阁掌握行政权并对议会负责.君王的权力虚有其表,是国家的象征,这样的政治体制称之为议会制君主立宪制.英国封建君主制有其特殊性.与西欧封建制一样其封建性即契约性为本质特征,但英王拥...
林西县15758529198： 求“英美政治体制比较” 英文文章一篇!!机器翻译勿扰! - ？
雪桑鼻咽： 内容摘要]:英国创立的第一套西方资本主义政治制度体系被誉为西方政治制度的源泉与典范;美国则在吸收、借鉴英国的基础上,形成了当代资本主义国家中最为完善...
林西县15758529198： 概括英国近代政治制度特点、急 ？
雪桑鼻咽： 特点:第一、英国实行议会民主制,体现“议会至上”的原则.议会至上,即立法权在三权中居于核心地位.第二、实行内阁制,作为“议会至上”原则在行政权与立法权...
林西县15758529198： 英国政治体制怎么构建的?政治机构间的关系是? - ？
雪桑鼻咽： 英国实行君主立宪制,国王是国家元首,担当礼仪性职业.议会是国家权力与立法机关,分上下两院, 其中下议院中由占多数议席的政党或政党联盟组成执政党,执政党的党魁组成内阁担任首相,内阁对议会负责
林西县15758529198： 英语回答英国和美国的政治经济制度??? - ？
雪桑鼻咽： 英国政体为君主立宪制 The United Kingdom is a constitutional monarchy: Queen Elizabeth II is head of state of the UK as well as of fifteen other Commonwealth countries, putting the UK in a personal union with those other states. The Crown has ...
林西县15758529198： 英国和美国的政体异同点的英文版 - ？
雪桑鼻咽： From the legislative, judicial, administrative point of view on the three, along with British lawyer dual-system to compare the similarities and differences between British and American political system: same:have a parliament, and parliament has ...
