Next, the Commons has a duty to fulfill its deliberative functions. Through this function, parliament debates certain important issues of the day. The setting is usually peaceful and there is an exchange of views between the government and opposition. Through this debating, for example, parliamentary issues can be resolved. Recently, however, there has been a serious problem with the deliberative function of parliament. It is now unnecessary for MPs to attend the House of Commons every day and to debate every topic. However, MPs do still have to attend and debate in the Commons in order to debate important issues and bills which are in the process of being passed. Through the MPs not attending parliament, as was done so well in days of old when MPs used to give long and enthusiastic speeches, the House of Commons is not fulfilling its deliberative function well as some topics will now not be discussed as MPs are in the House of Commons less therefore less subjects will be discussed.
The third function of parliament is scrutiny. This is the process by which the government is held to account by parliament. Parliaments therefore must react to the actions and policies of the government and then deem whether they are lawful or not. The Whips office carries
out part of this process. Their simple aim is to keep parliament under control. The whips office is said to have a little black book that contains all of the MPs sins that they have committed. This, though good in keeping the MPs in check, also gives considerable power to the Whips. They are therefore able to have power over the MPs through slight blackmail. They can therefore influence them to vote for a certain bill for example. In that respect the House of Commons does not effectively carry out its scrutiny function as bills are not getting voted for, for the right reasons, it is because MPs are being forced to vote for things to protect things they do not want people to know. Prime Ministers questions are also a very significant aspect of scrutiny. Because of the fusion of legislative and executive powers under our parliamentary system of government, the head of our executive is a member of the legislature. This means he or she gets direct questioning by MPs which occurs once a week for 30 minutes. Prime ministers question often draws lots of media attention but does not lead to much scrutiny so here the function is not carried out well because it just mainly emphasizes the conflict between the two parties. The select committees were established to shadow and scrutinize each major government department. There are now 18 such departmental select committees, which have 11 MPs, drawn from the parties in rough proportion to the number of seats they hold. The committees make inquiries and issue reports on matters of public interest connected to their department. Select committees do provide good scrutiny. For example, the 1999 report of the Select Committee on the newly formed Department for the environment, Transport and the Regions was a devastating attack on how John Prescott had run his ministry.
The House of Commons must also carry out its recruitment function. This is the process by which, for example, potential MPs are recruited by a party to stand for their constituency. This is also the means by which a political leader is selected, the door to which is very small. An MP is not able to become a political leader unless he or she is a similar member of the governing party. An example of political recruitment is the selection of the Conservative candidate for Corby and East Northamptonshire, Louise Bagshawe. Currently there are only 17 female Conservative MPs which is around 9 per cent of the party's total number of MPs which is 192. In contrast with this, 94 of the 349 Labour MPs are female, 27 per cent. Ms Bagshawe has no particular attribute which make her a good candidate. It can therefore be argued that the reason why she has been selected as a candidate is predominantly because she is a woman due to the fact that the Conservative party are currently attempting to increase the number of female MPs in the party. Through this the recruitment function is not carried out effectively.
The fifth function is legitimation. This function is very important the parliament and the government as it gives authority to any law that is passed by parliament and we as a nation must therefore obey that law. Though a law may be given authority, it does not necessarily mean it can be enforced. For example for the Hunting Ban was a piece of legislation which was poorly written, above all, it is unenforceable. It is not possible to have police regularly watching to see if the hunt obeys the law. The Commons does give authority to laws; however, its authority is consistently disobeyed. There are two types of legitimation: manifest and latent. Manifest legitimation is clear and open. The best examples of this being taxation and legislation. Taxes are justified in a democracy by being the result of a vote in the representative assembly in parliament. Latent legitimation is hidden, or behind the scenes. This means that the whole political process is made legitimate by having at its heart
an elected, representative body. In the end, Parliament links the people to the government. People can appeal to their MP if they are concerned by what has happened to them as individuals or collectively as members of a group. Parliament gives legitimacy to the whole state. Legitimation is such a nebulous concept that it is hard to see how successful it is. If parliament is fulfilling its other functions, presumably it will command greater respect and hence will be an important source of legitimation.
The final function of the commons is that of representation. MPs have a duty to represent their constituency in the House of Commons. Clearly, no single candidate will have 100% of the vote, other people will have voted for the opposition. It is therefore necessary for the successful candidate to represent everyone in the constituency regardless of whether they voted for them or not, in essence, the MP represents the interests of their constituency. There has been much controversy over what the representative function of parliament actually means. There is one view that every kind of person in society should be represented by one of their “Own”. Therefore there would be a gay representative for gays etc. However, this clearly separates society. In all, the representative function is performed well. The MPs do listen to their constituents, no matter who they voted for. In some cases though, MPs do take a different stance.
To conclude the above six functions are key to the success of parliament. Without one, the system would not function correctly. Every function is not performed perfectly and some are clearly far less effectively executed than others, for example, the function of scrutiny where MPs expenses were not moderated or controlled well enough.
by
looker17 (student)
