Political set-up

The United Kingdom is a parliamentary monarchy. The Monarch is the head of the state. Now it’s Elizabeth II. The Queen of Great Britain is not absolute, but constitutional. Her powers are limited by Parliament. The power is hereditary, and not elective. She appoints all the Ministers and the Prime Minister, but she takes no part in the process of decision-making. The real power in the United Kingdom belongs to the British Parliament (the legislative body) and the British Government (the executive one). The Parliament consists of the House of Lords and the House of Commons together with the Queen in her constitutional role.

The House of Commons plays the major part in law-making, it has a true power. The 650 members of the House of Commons are elected every five years.

The House of Lords does not have much power but it is very important as it can offer and change laws, it may delay certain Bills but cannot finally veto them. The members of the House of Lords are landlords, bishops and peers. They are not elected.

The British parliamentary system depends on political parties. The Government is formed by the political party, which has the majority support in the House of Commons. Its leader becomes the Prime Minister, who chooses members of Parliament from his or her party to become the Cabinet Ministers.

The British system is known as a “two-party system”. It means that one of the two strongest parties is in power. From 1832 to 1918 the dominant parties were the Conservative (or Tory) on the one hand and the Liberals (or Whigs) on the other. Later the Labour party backed by the trade unions replaced the Liberals as the main party of reform, and since 1924 the political scene has been dominated by the Conservative and Labour parties.

The United Kingdom is a member of the European Union (EU), the United Nations Organization (UNO), the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the Commonwealth.