9. Political system of the uk. The Commonwealth.

Great Britain is a parliamentary (constitutional) monarchy with an unwritten constitution consisting of historic documents such as the Magna Carta, the Petition of Right, and the Bill of Rights (1689); statutes; judicial precedents (common law); and custom. The constitution is flexible and may be changed by an act of Parliament.

3 branches: executive, legislative, judiciary. The British monarch is head of state. The Sovereign reigns, but doesn't rule. Functions: to give honours (peerages and knighthoods); to give her Royal Assent to the bill; to dissolve the Parliament; Commander-in-chief

Executive power, however, is wielded by a prime minister, who is head of government, and a committee of ministers called the Cabinet. . The prime minister is usually the leader of the majority party in the House of Commons. By custom, cabinet ministers are selected from among members of the two houses of Parliament. Cabinet ministers are also among the members of the Priw Council, the traditional, but now largely ceremonial, advisory body to the Crown.

The supreme legislative power is vested in the Parliament, which sits for 5 years unless sooner dissolved. Consists of 2 chambers: the House of Lords (hereditary, spiritual and life peers) and the House of Commons (650 elected members). H of C is the real governing body.

In English history, the Commonwealth was the government established by Parliament and headed by the English soldier Oliver Cromwell after the execution of King Charles I in 1649 and continuing until the Restoration in 1660.

Commonwealth of Nations, loose voluntary association of political entities that give symbolic or actual allegiance to the British crown. These entities include 53 sovereign nations and several dependencies. The Commonwealth has no official policymaking body, and the only formal political consultations among the member governments are the periodic meetings of their prime ministers to discuss common problems.

in iyj6 a trade and ind. crisis broke out as a result of which most of workers became unemployed. The Working Men's Association was organized in London by William Lovett. There was worked out a petition to Parl. , a charter. It contained 6 polit. demands: l. universal manhood suffrage (men over 21), 2. equal electoral districts (650 elector districts), 3. vote by secret ballot, 4. annually elected Parl-s it wasn't achieved), 5. payment of MPs (the workers c. not be elected to Parl. bee. They didn't have any property and c. not survive without any work. MPs didn't have any selary. It was the possibility for workers to be elected to Parl), and 6. abolition of the property qualifications for MPs (any person c. b. elected to Parl as a MP). Chartism was the first movement both working-class in character and national in scope that grew out of the protest against the social injustices of the new industrial order in Britain. The government replied to the charter by using London police and attacking meetings with great brutality, then by banning all meetings and arresting many people.

In 1840 the Charter's movement revived as the leaders came out of prison. The National Chartist Association was formed. It was the Is' modern polit. party. It had a paper the Northern Star. In 1841 another Petition was prepared. It contained economic demands: wage increase, shorter working hours, th eabolition of capitalist ownership of the land and the ind. means of production + the polit. points. The Parl. rejected it in 1842. The Association announced a strike all over the country. "All labour sh. cease to work until the people's charter become the law of the land"- the slogan. In Manchester the riot was esp. strong. The troops were sent to crush the workers and they were forced back to work. In 1848 the last petition came with 2 mln. signatures. But the government attacked charters' meetings all over the country arrested many leaders. Mass movements subsided after 1848. The newspaper developed into the working class press. It became the paper of the communist party in the 20 cent. - "The Daily Worker", in 1966 - "The Morning Star".

Chartism played a great historical role and forced the bourgeoisie to make certain concessions, reforms for the sake of avoiding new great upheavals; the 10-hour working day, the more liberal factory legislation were a result of this effort of British working class struggle.