D/ The Government

The Executive Power

The Prime Minister and the Cabinet.

January 2018: Prime Minister Theresa May

leads her first cabinet meeting of the new
 The Cabinet

Supreme decision making body in government

... made up of 20 or so senior ministers including:

the Foreign Secretary

the Home Secretary
the Chancellor of the Exchequer
the Secretaries of State for Defence, Industry and
Trade, Education, Health, Employment, etc.
 The British P.M.

A powerful function…

By convention, the leader of the political party which

obtained a majority in the general elections

Considerable powers derived from the royal

prerogative rights which the monarch no longer
exercices
 The British P.M.

Holds a position of almost supreme governmental

power:

-He / she is responsible to his Party

-He / she constitutes Her Majesty’s Government

-He / she controls the political agenda

-He / she is responsible to Parliament

10 Downing Street
Theresa May
Boris Johnson
 E/ The Parliament
The Legislative Power
the Sovereign

 an Upper House (the House of Lords)

 a Lower House (the House of Commons).

House of Commons
1) Main functions of
Parliament
- to debate the major issues of the day

- to monitor and debate government policies

- to vote for tax laws

- to examine and discuss Bills

- to pass laws or amend existing legislation

II) The House of
Commons
where the real power of Parliament lies.
 650 elected MPs

Her majesty's Government party

her Majesty's Opposition party

MPs are elected for a 5-year period.

 Vote of "no confidence"

The opposition may try to overthrow the government

 A dissolution pronounced by the Queen

 A new General Election scheduled.

 key players
-The Leader of the House of Commons

-The Shadow Leader of the Commons

-The Speaker.
 
-The Whips
III) The House of Lords
 A non-representative assembly

 2 types of "Peers":
- The Lords Spiritual
- The Lords Temporal:
Membership was once a right of birth to hereditary
peers

Reforms…

Today, only 92 members sit by virtue of a hereditary

peerage
Life Peers
 Primary purpose…
Scrutinising legislation proposed by the Lower House.

 Examining bills previously discussed and voted

in the House of Commons.

The Lords can delay but not defeat legislation passed

by the Commons.
A non-elected House
Defenders mostly argue that …

 That debates are freer from political considerations

in the House of Lords than in the House of Commons,