The UK is a unitary parliamentary democracy, which is a constitutional monarchy both by law and custom. His Majesty’s Government, whose prime minister is formally nominated by the king to operate in his person, is in charge of exercising executive power within the parliamentary system of the United Kingdom. A member of parliament who can command the confidence of the House of Commons must be appointed by the King. This person is typically the leader of the majority party or apparent majority party, but the King may choose a different person if they claim they cannot anticipate the House’s confidence.
After assuming office, the prime minister has the authority to appoint ministers. The House of Commons and the House of Lords are the two houses of Parliament. With unrestricted legislative authority based solely on convention, the Crown in Parliament is the highest legislative body in the United Kingdom. When bills are submitted for royal assent, they often become law after passing both houses.
What is the role of parliament?
The Parliament has delegated some of its legislative power to the parliaments of Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. The Privy Council, H.M. Ministers, and other powers are given a myriad of other limited powers through statute to enact legislation on specific topics. In the ranking of the V-Dem Democracy Indices 2023, the British multi-party political system was ranked 22nd in terms of electoral democracy in the world. The Conservative and the Labor parties have been the two major parties since the 1920s. Before the Labour Party’s formation, other parties like the Liberal Party were active alongside the Conservatives.
The two parties have relied on a third party, such as the Liberal Democrats, to offer a working majority in Parliament in the last century. Dominance of the two parties is accustomed to the first-past-the-post system of election used in the general elections, though there are such situations in parliamentary politics as coalition and minority governments. There was a coalition government between 2010 and 2015, the first since 1945, headed by the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats.
The partnership terminated after the elections to parliament on May 7, 2015. The Conservative Party secured an absolute majority of 330 seats out of 650 in the House of Commons, and their coalition partners lost all but eight seats.
In 1920, Ireland was partitioned, and Northern Ireland acquired home rule, but by 1972, civil unrest compelled the administration to be restored directly under the government. Devolution proposals were aired in the 1970s due to nationalist parties’ support in Scotland and Wales, but devolution did not materialize until the 1990s. All three of Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland have a parliament or an assembly and a government; in Northern Ireland, devolution depends on participation in some all-Ireland institutions.
Role of the Scottish pro-independence party
The UK has been able to devolve legislative and executive power in the constituent regions of the UK, and this could have increased support for independence. The Scottish government is currently led by the Scottish National Party which is the largest pro-independence party in Scotland, which ahead of Scottish parliament elections in 2011, won an overall majority of the number of seats (MSPs) in the Scottish parliament, in a 2014 referendum, 44.7% of the total voters expressed support in favour of Scottish independence, and 55.3% indicated their opposition. Irish nationalist parties like Sinn Féin promote the victory of Irish reunification in Northern Ireland. In Wales, other Welsh nationalist parties like Plaid Cymru promote Welsh independence.
The power of the Crown
Within the legal framework of the Commonwealth countries and their subdivisions, the Crown is the state in all respects. The phrase lacks a clear legal definition and might indicate different things depending on the situation. It is used to identify the monarch as the king or queen of their lands, in their personal position, or as the Head of the Commonwealth. ‘The Crown’ can also refer to the rule of law, although in everyday speech it refers to the government and civil service.
In every nation’s monarchy, the Crown is the legal representation of the legislative, executive, and judicial branches of government. The idea of the Crown originated in England as a division between the monarch’s person and personal belongings and the actual crown and kingdom property. It became ingrained in the legal lexicon of the United Kingdom, its Crown dependents, and the other 15 independent countries as a result of English and then British colonization. It should not be mistaken for any actual crown, such as those found in British regalia.
The king is the one who wears the crown. In England, the crown is a representation of kingship. The crown is a collection of all sovereign powers in the legal sense. The King, Parliament, and Cabinet make up the Crown. To put it another way, the King, the Houses of Parliament, and the Cabinet in England make up the Crown. As a result, the king is merely a component of the English Crown.
UK: The global state of democracy
According to the Global State of Democracy framework, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (the UK) performs middling well in the rights category and high in the representation, rule of law, and participation categories. Except for Electoral Participation, Access to Justice, and Personal Integrity and Security, the UK ranks in the top 25% of the world in practically every category. Both freedom of expression and access to justice, including indicators of judicial corruption, have drastically decreased in the UK between 2019 and 2024. Despite having one of the strongest service industries (especially in the retail and financial sectors) and the sixth-largest economy in the world, it has some of the highest rates of income inequality of any significant European economy.
Eleven suggestions for disqualifying candidates and members of the Welsh Parliament (Senedd) for willful misrepresentation were addressed by the Welsh government in March. The Senedd’s Standards of Conduct Committee released the ideas in February, and they come after the government promised in July 2024 and again in December 2026 to present legislation before the 2026 Senedd elections. The administration responded by promising to increase the independence of the Senedd’s standards process and to create laws, including a recall system that would allow voters to remove Senedd members who violate the parliamentary code of conduct from office in between elections.
On November 26, 2024, the last batch of asylum-seekers disembarked from Bibby Stockholm, a barge that held 500 individuals in hazardous conditions. Since the government stated in July 2024 that it would not extend the contract with Bibby Marine, the marine operations business that runs Bibby Stockholm, asylum-seekers have been gradually moved off the barge. Accommodations will be offered elsewhere in the United Kingdom to those whose asylum requests are still pending. After mooring in Dorset for a year and a half, the barge is scheduled to depart UK waters on January 8, 2025, when the lease expires. In September 2025, an investigation into the death of Leonard Farruku, an Albanian asylum-seeker who perished on the barge in December 2023, is set to begin.
Foreign policy of the UK government
The Integrated Review in March 2021 (IR21) laid out the UK’s foreign policy stance, which was revised in the Refresh in March 2023 (IR23) in reaction to major global events like Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The “shift into a multipolar, fragmented, and contested world has occurred more swiftly and decisively than expected,” according to The Refresh. The IR23 Refresh, according to one horizon scan contributor, placed more emphasis on collaboration with Europe and “middle-ground powers” than the Integrated Review.
In IR21, the UK government declared that
“a commitment to universal human rights, the rule of law, free speech, fairness, and equality”
would guide UK foreign policy. The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) was established in September 2020 to concentrate attention on development assistance and soft power in order to strengthen ties with foreign allies. The NHS, the UK Health Security Agency, and British universities all share their knowledge globally as part of this.
The UK utilizes its standing abroad to strengthen ties in organizations such as NATO and the G7. The Ministry of Defence suggested that the UK should remain in foreign countries to protect our friends and discourage enemies. The UK has also, since 2021, signed further agreements, including the Mineral Security Partnership with 14 countries, including the EU, the Global Combat Air Programme with Italy and Japan, and AUKUS with Australia and the US.
Political parties
The Conservative and Unionist Party and the Labour Party were the two biggest political parties in the United Kingdom in the 1920s in terms of seats in the House of Commons. Scottish National Party is a party with fewer Members of Parliament, but the one with the second-largest party membership, as it only seeks nomination within Scottish constituencies. The contemporary Conservative Party originated in 1834 due to the Tory movement or party, which commenced in 1678. The party and its members are still known as Tories, and the party is known by the colloquial name of Tory Party.
In 1988, a right-wing breakaway party, the Social Democratic Party (SDP), which used to be the Liberal Party in 1981, merged with the Liberal Party, forming the Liberal Democrats (or Lib Dems). The Liberals and SDP had been jointly competing in the same elections seven years earlier as the SDP Liberal Alliance. The Whig movement or party, which started concurrently with the Tory Party and was its historical competitor, as well as the Radical and Peelite tendencies, gave rise to the modern Liberal Party in 1859.
