Membership to the EU and Loss of Sovereignty

Shape of the Modern World (Political History) - Task 6 After previous vetoed applications in 1961 and 1967 to what was then known as the European Economic Community (ECC), Britain was finally allowed to join the European Union (EU) in 1973 after becoming a signatory to the Treaty of Rome, under Labour Prime Minister Edward Heath. Since this however, some critics have argued that membership to the EU has led to a significant loss of parliamentary sovereignty. The term sovereignty refers to the right of a state to pass laws within its own territory or as Hinsley (1966) described, "The idea that there is a final and absolute authority in the political community". In this case, it could be the belief of some people that too much power has been transferred from our government to the EU - an organisation made up of mainly appointed representatives as oppose to being elected. It is the case that EU law overrides national law when the two conflict. This alone could show a ceding of sovereignty and as a supranational organisation the EU is more focused on working towards greater integration than national interest. Despite this surrendering of power to a higher authority, the EU only becomes the supreme decision making body in specified areas, although areas of national law could be affected without intention. For example, EU environmental decisions may indirectly impact agricultural

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The European Union and UK Businesses

The European Union and UK Businesses There are many rules that the European Union has set out in a series of Treaties. These Treaties have forged very strong legal links between the member states of the EU. The EU laws that are passed in the Treaties directly affect all UK businesses; these laws give UK businesses very specific rights and responsibilities that they must abide by or Tesco could face severe consequences if they fail to comply with the EU laws and regulations, these consequences can range from being fined 15% of their annual turnover and even in very extreme cases a country may refuse to trade with Tesco. In order for Tesco to make sure that they do not fall foul of the EU law, they will spend large amounts of money to update their policies in order to overview how they are complying with the EU policies and see if they need to update or reform the way in which they are running their business along side the EU laws that they have to abide by. Treaty of Paris (1951) The Treaty of Paris, signed on April 18, 1951 between Belgium, France, West Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands established the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), which subsequently became part of the European Union. The treaty expired on July 23, 2002, exactly fifty years after it came into effect. The treaty was seen as foundational in bringing together Europe in peace

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To what extent can Ramsay MacDonald be considered a Traitor to the Labour Party?

To what extent can Ramsay MacDonald be considered a Traitor to the Labour Party? There is no doubt that MacDonald was a traitor to his party but he wasn't a traitor to the nation. He wanted to make what he considered the best decision in the long term for the good of the nation as a whole, the debate is more about why MacDonald betrayed his party than whether or not he did. There are two opposing theories on how MacDonald should be remembered, one that suggests that MacDonald was not a traitor due to his long standing devotion to the labour party. The differences he has made to it and it's profile over the years that he was leader, and that the policy that divided the labour party was 'the best solution in the circumstances', and the necessity for him to put nation over party left him little choice the view shared by Robert Pearce, Austen Morgan, Marquand and Kenneth O. Morgan. MacDonald had a bad end even though he did a lot for the labour party, he was unlucky to be involved at the time. Other historians such as AJP Taylor, dismiss his decision to follow the idea of unemployment benefit cuts as a betrayal of Socialist ideals, and believe he should have gone down fighting for Socialism, MacDonald put country over party leading to a rift within labour thus he betrayed them. This debate is about whether MacDonald should have put party over the needs

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How healthy is the UK democracy

How healthy is representative democracy in the UK? Representative democracy in the UK fulfils the basic requirements of such a system but is by no means perfect. There has been an increasing level of support for both constitutional reform and a change in the election system in the UK over the last few years. Perhaps the main modern concern about democracy in the UK stems from evidence of growing political apathy. Some have seen this as nothing less than a "participation crisis." A representative democracy can not be healthy if increasing numbers of citizens are uninterested or unwilling to engage in political life. This is more evident in the declining voter turn out at general elections. Until 1992 voter turn out was usually around 75%, with a record of 84% being achieved in 1950, and even by 1997 with the election of Blair on a landslide labour victory 71% of people turned up to voice their opinion. However this started to change with the 2001 election attracting barely 59% of the public, the lowest since 1918. The same is also true of membership of political parties. Now only 1% of the populations is a member of a political party compared to 7% 50 years before. Labour party membership has fallen from 800,000 to 200,000 and conservative membership from 2.5million to 250,000! A representative democracy works on the notion of the public electing representatives to represent

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The ideology of the Democrats is liberal whilst that of the Republicans is Conservative. Discuss

The ideology of the Democrats is liberal whilst that of the Republicans is Conservative. Discuss 'Two glass jars with different labels, both empty'. This has been the traditional opinion of the differences between the parties ever since the federalist/anti-federalist issue was settled. However, in recent decades, we have seen the emergence of distinct ideological identities. That of liberalism - a belief that the federal government should have an active role in protecting the vulnerable & guaranteeing rights, and Conservatism - a belief that government should be restricted in order for the individual to achieve their potential. I will analyse to what extent the Democrats and Republicans adhere to these philosophies. Primarily, the Democrats have been associated with liberalism ever since FDR's New Deal of the 1930s. In this era, the government utilised Keynesian economics and expanded its reach nationally, helping the unemployed by providing jobs. Though these 'tax and spend' have become unfashionable in recent years, most Democrats would identify themselves as liberals. Recent policies would support this argument. In January 2009, a Democratic President and a Democratic Congress passed a 700 billion dollar economic stimulus package. This is clearly a liberal policy, affirming the state's role in the economy. Moreover, it was the same congress who passed the Patient

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The US system of checks and balances is ineffective, discuss.

The US system of checks and balances is ineffective, discuss. In the system set up by the U.S. Constitution, the national government is divided into three branches: legislative, executive, and judicial. These three branches are not independent of one another because the Constitution set up a system of checks and balances to help ensure that no one branch became too powerful. Each branch has powers that it can use to check and balance the operations and powers of the other two branches. The Legislative Branch is given the powers to make law however the legislature may also override presidential vetoes if they manage to gain a two thirds majority in both the Senate and House of Representatives. Although the Legislature can do this, it is realistically extremely unlikely that they will gain a 2/3rds majority as even if a single party does have a majority in one house, they may not in the other such as is the case currently where the Democrats have a majority in the Senate but not in the House of Representatives. They also have the power over the purse strings to actually fund any executive actions and so if they disagree with a government budget, they can interfere with this and stop it from going through. This was done to the Clinton government when he had lost both of his majorities and so had to ask the American people to support his budget. The removal of the president

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How successful has constitutional reform been since 1997 ?

How successful has constitutional reform been since 1997 ? Tony Blair's ' Things can only get better' campaign got him into the hearts of the british people, a 179 seat Majority in the House of Commons , and the position of prime minister in 1997 . This essay will aim to take you through the changes Blair made to meet his aims of Democratization, Decentralization , Restoration of rights , and Modernization . It will also apart from go into these four things in detail,attempt to show you how these changes affected the United Kingdom as a whole and if it was for good and at all successful and how successful these reforms are and were. Before the Labour party came in , in 1997, the conservatives enjoyed a long honeymoon period from 1964 to 1970 . And too much of the british political system was seen as undemocratic . Primarily the unselected house of lords and the first past the post electoral system . Labour came in promising ' a stake- holder society ; Welfare to work ; Joined -up government ; Economic prudence ; a third way.' The Labour partys' policy dealt with social Political, Economic problems as well as Foreign policy. In Terms of 'social' They increased spending on public services such as health, education, and welfare They also in 2001 , increased support for single working mothers, and partial nursery funding for pre school children . However the ban on fox

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Does the UK suffer from Democratic Deficit?

Does the UK suffer from Democratic Deficit? First and foremost, it can be said that the UK does suffer from 'Democratic Deficit', due to its unelected institutions, such as the House of Lords. The second chamber has the power to delay the process of passing policies. However some argue that the House of Lords is undemocratic as its members are not elected, therefore they are not representing the views of the public. What's more, the UK's voting system could be considered as 'undemocratic'. This is because people argue that FPTP results in unequal value of votes. Evidence this is the fact that it takes the average Liberal Democrat MP around 115 000 votes to be elected, whereas, the average Labour or Conservative MP is elected with only 35 000 votes. This statistic also shoes that FPTP favours large parties but seriously disadvantages small parties. This is undemocratic because in a true democracy all minorities should be given an equal voice. In addition, the effect of FPTP leads to an unproportional House of Commons. For example, in the 2010 general elections, the Liberal Democrats won 23% of votes, yet were only awarded with 9% of seats. Furthermore, another factor that suggests the UK is suffering from 'Democratic deficit' is its falling political

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Long-term factors are no longer important in explaining voting behaviour in the UK. Discuss.

Long-term factors are no longer important in explaining voting behaviour in the UK. Many factors can influence the way in which the electorate vote. Long-term factors are those that have a long term influence on the way in which somebody votes, for example the social class in which that person belongs to. Short-term factors are those which have a short term influence and most prominently during the lead up to an election. An example of such is the impact of mass media and leadership skills. In the last few elections, many long-term factors have become less important due to partisan and social de-alignment, whilst the short-term factors have been ever more emphasised and prominent. Social class is one of the important factors affecting voting behaviour but its influence is declining over time as we move from an industrial to a post-industrial society. Before, most working class (C2/DE) voted Labour while middle and upper class (A/B/C1) voted Conservative. However there has been a decline is Conservative support among AB voters since 1992 and in 2005, 37% of AB voters voted Conservatives as compared to 28% of CD voters that voted Labour. In the last three elections, Labour has also increased their support among C1 voters. Despite this, a large percentage of AB voters returned to Conservatives in 2010 as well as C1's and C2's. This shows that the influence of social class is

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"The House of Commons is a highly effective parliamentary chamber" to what extent do you agree with this view? (40)

________________ "The House of Commons is a highly effective parliamentary chamber" to what extent do you agree with this view? (40) ________________ The House of Commons is without a doubt the dominant chamber within Parliament , with huge influence and supreme power in UK politics. It consists of 650 elected MPs, each one representing the interests and concerns of a particular region of the country, known as a constituency. It has three very important main functions; legislation, scrutiny and representation, but it is often questioned how effectively it carries out these functions. I do agree that it is a highly effective parliamentary chamber, but also think there is evidence for this view to be contradicted. Parliament is Britain's Legislature, where legislation, the process of passing new laws, takes place. It is mainly carried out in the House of Commons and there are many different types of it, with the two most important being; government bills and private members bills. For a bill to become law is must pass through a number of parliamentary stages, which involves a lot of close reading, amending and debating in both the parliamentary chambers, however the House of Commons has far more legislative power, as the Lords can only suggest amendments or delay bills from becoming law (which the House of Commons can actually override anyway). It can be said the Commons

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