A Parliament with a strong party system, such as that of the UK, is inherently flawed as a means of holding Government accountable Discuss

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“A Parliament with a strong party system, such as that of the UK, is inherently flawed as a means of holding Government accountable” Discuss

Parliament began as a court of advisors to the King. It later developed into a more formal body with representatives from different regions and its function moved gradually towards the control of the King’s powers. Soon the power of the Crown was ‘controlled’ so heavily that the power to legislate began to move to Parliament. Since then, Parliament’s role has retracted, and we are left with a Parliament intended to ensure that the early Monarch’s replacement, Government, is kept in check. In this capacity it has two main roles, to ensure firstly that Government is trying to enforce good and proper policies, by means of effective scrutiny of legislation, and secondly to maintain good and proper implementation of these policies. In this essay I will discuss these two roles of Parliament, and investigate whether, considering the nature of the Assembly today, they are still performed effectively.

Parliament is composed of three parts; the Monarch, House of Lords, House of Commons. Each has their own role in the maintenance of a fair government, the importance of which increases respectively. The Queen’s role today is minimal, although, the right to deny an act royal assent is reserved for the queen’s pleasure; assent has not been withheld since 1707 when Queen Anne denied a Scottish Militia Act her assent. The role of the Queen in legislating has become one of formality and convention, Royal Assent is required to enact any bill, but a bill which has passed the two houses will always be given assent barring some extraordinary, and quite unforeseeable, circumstance. The largely unelected House of Lords has a limited role in legislation for the very reason that it is unelected. The House has only powers of delay, and even then cannot delay money bills. The large majority of legislation occurs in the House of Commons, from which, almost entirely, is drawn the Government – either the majority party following a general election, or occasionally a coalition between two or more. The Prime Minister is the elected leader of the majority party, and he chooses his cabinet personally. Whilst all bills proposed by the Government must pass through both houses before they are enacted as law, it is only the House of Commons which might hope to have any effect on proposals. There are a number of factors which seriously limit Parliament’s ability to keep Government in line.

There was a time when the superpowers that today’s political parties are did not exist. Parliament was a collection of locally elected men. Groups existed, but they were formed following the election, and did not represent a group of people with definite shared opinion. It was only with the introduction of universal suffrage which led to the development of the campaigning machines which we see today. The prominence of the political party in commons today somewhat limits that freedom of MPs. The political necessity of disagreeing with a proposal may limit the effectiveness of the rest of Parliament’s scrutiny, indeed it has been said “the purpose of many opposition amendments is not to make the Bill more generally acceptable but to make the Government less generally acceptable.” This attitude does not allow Parliament to effectively assess the work of Government, as instead they are too preoccupied with politics.

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When we look into the nature of the selection of Government- the choice of the party which has a majority in Commons, we find the source of a number of further problems. The cabinet is usually able to push unpopular Bills through commons by relying on their majority. The whips will ensure that all members of the party vote according to party lines, and as such, the bill will be passed. The House of Lords may now only delay the bill. This is a clear demonstration of the inability of Parliament to control government. It is here that we ...

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