...whereas Select Committee is part of scrutiny process. In the former committee, the bill is examined by line by line to ensure that its wording and language is clear to allow any amendments on the bill. In the latter committee, there are two departments – governmental and non-governmental. They examine government departments’ expeditures , policies and policies. There are between 16 to 50 members in the PBC who are selected by Committee of Selection whose 7 out 9 members are ships. On the other hand, there are 11 members in the SCs and to eliminate “the conflict of interest, all the members are backbench members who are elected using the Alternative vote system. 2a What are the main functions of Parliament and how well does it perform them? [5] < This question is a 20-mark question > 3a What are the differences between direct and representative democracy? [5] In direct democracy, people are directly involved in decision-making processes, whereas in representative democracy, people elect MPs who will represent and form a government in Parliament. For instance, some qualified members of Athenian society were involved in decision-making and a referendum is a limited form of direct democracy. Also general elections are kind of parliamentary democracy, they are held every five years to election a representative and a government. There is potential danger that decision-making mechanisms can be affected by an organised faction and demagogue in direct democracy. 4a What...
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...In recent years there has been much debate within Parliament over the possible codification of the British Constitution and it is always a topic that people often find very hard to agree on. Though some parts of what may be a codified constitution have been introduced, such as The Human Rights Act which established a codified set of rules and the introduction of devolution, Britain is currently uncodified and so this brings up the arguments of whether update the system or not The initial argument for the change is it was remove the transparency of rules and laws, the key constitutional are collected into a single document all clearly stated with great difficulty of alteration. This portrays exactly what the beliefs of Parliament are and restricts law breaking. Not only does this deter people from committing offences but also makes it simple to enforce as every charge wish be on the same wavelength. An argument to contradict this however would be that's not every crime committed is the same so the variation in the punishment given would also have to vary and with the defining of the law there is actually potential for it to become less democratic. Along with this as times are forever changing and technology is being updated, the demand for laws to be amended is crucial as without it people could technically exploit the system ‘legally’. Another bonus of a codified Constitution is the fact that it is authoritative meaning it is a higher-level and so it lines all political...
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...E SSAY COLLECT ION Crisis in the Eurozone Transatlantic Perspectives ESSAY COLLECTION Crisis in the Eurozone Transatlantic Perspectives This publication is a part of CFR’s International Institutions and Global Governance (IIGG) program and has been made possible by the generous support of the Robina Foundation. The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is an independent, nonpartisan membership organization, think tank, and publisher dedicated to being a resource for its members, government officials, business executives, journalists, educators and students, civic and religious leaders, and other interested citizens in order to help them better understand the world and the foreign policy choices facing the United States and other countries. Founded in 1921, CFR carries out its mission by maintaining a diverse membership, with special programs to promote interest and develop expertise in the next generation of foreign policy leaders; convening meetings at its headquarters in New York and in Washington, DC, and other cities where senior government officials, members of Congress, global leaders, and prominent thinkers come together with CFR members to discuss and debate major international issues; supporting a Studies Program that fosters independent research, enabling CFR scholars to produce articles, reports, and books and hold roundtables that analyze foreign policy issues and make concrete policy recommendations; publishing Foreign Affairs, the preeminent journal...
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...Edexcel AS Politics Edexcel AS Politics ExamBuster 2009 Introduction to Unit 1- People and Politics Understanding the Examination and Exam Technique Choosing your questions In this unit you are presented with four questions. They are of equal value and each question covers one of the four sections of the specification. These are: Democracy and political participation Party policies and ideas Elections Pressure groups There is no significance to the order in which questions appear. Each question is divided into three sections (a), (b) and (c). When choosing which questions to do, the following principles are recommended: It is almost certain that you will be better off choosing your strongest question to do first. You should choose questions on the basis of how well you can answer the section (c) part. The (c) part carries 25 of the 40 marks available for the whole answer. Do not choose a question simply because you can do part (a) especially well. The (a) question is only worth 5 marks. It would be illogical to choose your strongest (a) part if you cannot do well on section (c). If you cannot decide between several (c) parts, i.e. you can do more than one equally well, make your choice on the basis of part (b) which carries 10 marks. But remember, it is the (c) parts that will determine most what your overall mark will be. So, when you first look at the exam paper, look at the (c) sections first. Assessment Objectives Each question is divided into three sections,...
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...The Secession of Crimea The crisis in Ukraine has been long cooking since 2004 and the Orange Revolution (1). Since then, there has been a strong opposition to pro-Russian supporters. The situation in the country was relatively calm until 2010, when President Yanukovich won elections and his rival candidate, Yulia Timoshenko, was arrested. In November 2013 the protests started gaining velocity, violent conflicts erupted and opposition blew up in Kiev, responding to Yanukovich’s new agreement on working closer with Russia, whilst stopping negotiations with the European Union. The conflicts did not reach the Crimean peninsula, nevertheless the Crimean Parliament, which is granted limited autonomy, asked Russia to protect them. Crimea has been part of the Ukrainian state –or formerly the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic- since 1954 and provides great strategic value, since the Black Sea ports of Crimea offer unproblematic access to the Eastern Mediterranean Sea. Crimea has been the base of the Russian Black Sea Fleet for several decades and is therefore of great importance to Russian military strategy. For the Russian Federation, the base in Sevastopol is the only access into international waters, since the northern ports in e.g. Siberia are subject to freezing. According to the State Statistics Committee of Ukraine, the population is composed of 58.5% ethic Russians, 24.4% Ukrainians and 12.1% Crimean Tartars among others, amounting to a total population of approximately...
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...the wall that was separating West and East Germany was opened and the Cold War came to an end. The breakdown of the Soviet Union and the collapse of Communism that accompanied it brought about the victory of market economy and democracy in Europe. It also engendered the emergence of new states in the East and the resurgence of nationalism across the continent. Czechoslovakia disappeared in 1992 with the creation of the Czech and Slovak republics, Yugoslavia has been torn apart by ethnic conflict and Kosovo is still fighting for its independence.[1] Indeed, the map of Europe has experienced considerable transformations. Over the last decades, the European Union has grown at a rapid pace and has accelerated its enlargement process gradually eroding frontiers and challenging its citizens with new forms of loyalty. While the integration process consistently expands and deepens, so does the need for more democracy which some perceived of suffering from a deficit in the Union. Since 1989, the revival of regional identity has strongly been felt and regionalist and micro-nationalist movements have gained in political strength, representation and size; they have achieved a certain notoriety. Across the community, those movements question the nature of the nation-state, which they often view as obsolete, and present challenges both to the larger state they are part of and to the European Union. To answer the question of whether contemporary regionalist and micro-nationalist...
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...constitution has seen a significant amount of change. Westminster has devolved some of its power, an Act protecting and stating human rights has been established and a referendum is due to be held in 2014 on whether or not Scotland should have a codified constitution. While one could argue that discussions as to whether the upper house should be elected or appointed have not yet reached a decision, and it has taken over a decade for a devolved assembly to have the chance to be independent, it would appear that constitutional changes have gone as far as they are ever going to, however it ... gone far enough. Parts of the British political system were seen as undemocratic, especially during Labour’s terms in office in the late 1990’s, in particular the House of Lords (HOL). The Labour government set out to remove all hereditary peers in 1999; instead they abolished all but 92 and now promoted life peers as an alternative. Many Lords and Ladies are offered a place in the HOL either for service, such as previous MP’s, or due to their particular knowledge in a field, such as Alan Sugar as he has a vast amount of knowledge in business. However this was the last reform made, no more hereditary peers have been abolished, the question on whether or not to make the upper house elected is still on-going and previous conservative MP’s still hold more seats than any other party thus making the HOL unrepresentative and undemocratic. Therefore many argue this constitutional change has not gone...
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...economic impact of EU membership on the UK This note examines the various channels through which membership of the EU affects the UK economy. A general sense of the EU’s economic impact can be gained by reading Section 1 alone. Subsequent sections deal with particular issues, such as the EU’s effect on UK trade relations, in more detail, and compare the UK’s situation with alternative arrangements. Contents 1 Introduction and summary 2 2 Cost-benefit analyses of EU membership 5 3 The effect of the EU on UK trade relations 6 4 Impact of immigration from the EU 16 5 The impact of EU regulation 20 6 Fiscal consequences of EU membership – the EU budget 23 7 The EU’s effect on consumer prices 28 8 Foreign direct investment (FDI) 30 Appendix table: a comparison of the EU with alternative trading arrangements 32 Boxes Would independence over trade policy lead to better results? 15 The EU budget – winners and losers 27 Trade barriers and economic efficiency 29 Related Library briefings Leaving the EU, Research Paper RP13/42 In brief: UK-EU economic relations, Standard Note SN6091 Norway’s relationship with the EU, Standard Note SN6522 Switzerland’s relationship with the EU, Standard Note SN6090 The UK and Europe: time for a new relationship?, Standard Note SN6393 1 Introduction and summary 1.1 Understanding the economic impact of EU membership EU membership influences...
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...Composition, Role and Powers of the House of Commons: * It is an elected chamber, hence enjoys democratic legitimacy. * Composed of 650 MPs, whereby each has been elected to represent a constituency. * It therefore has supremacy and the commons may thus pass any bill that they wish and the Lords may only delay it becoming law. * Executive can therefore only govern if it retains the confidence of the House of Commons. * It the executive loses the vote of confidence, it has no option but to resign and hence provoking a general elections. * Given that there are two Houses of Parliament, the system is called Bicameral. Composition, Role and Powers of the House of Lords: * It compromises of four types of Lords. * The vast majority is Life Peers, where they have been appointed to the House of Lords by the Prime Minister on his own recommendations and that of other party leaders. * While a smaller number of People’ Peers have been appointed by the House of Lords Appointments Commission. * There are 92 Hereditary Peers. * There is Lords Spiritual, the 26 Bishops of the Church of England. * However they are not elected and therefore does not enjoy democratic legitimacy the powers of the Lords are inferior to those of House of Commons. * This means all they can do to proposed legislation that they disapprove of its delay it for one year. * But they cannot do this to the budget. * According to the Salisbury Convention, they...
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...context of normative (International Society) and materialist approaches (World System’s Theory). First, European imperialism’s export of a flawed Westphalian state system is summarized. How Europe is “caught” between MENA and the US and co-opted into a division of labour toward the region is then surveyed. The gap between the normative rhetoric and actual inequitable outcomes and structures constructed under the Euro-Mediterranean partnership is examined, looking at the three “baskets” of economic developmental, political reform and cultural convergence. Four “hard cases,” EU policies toward Palestine, Iran, Syria and Turkey, illustrate the ambiguities of the EU’s approach to MENA. MENA public opinion’s ambivalence toward Europe reflects these realities. The conclusion is that the EU’sMENA policy is caught between the rhetoric of post-colonialism and practices of neo-colonialism. Keywords: EU, Middle East, Euro-Mediterranean partnership, neo-liberalism 1. Introduction Europe literally made the contemporary Middle East states system. International society approaches stress the export of institutions and norms, notably the modern nation-state, from the European core. As Little...
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...Integration of America 9. Economic Integration of Europe 10. Economic Integration of Africa 11. Modes of Economic Integration 12. Problems of Economic Integration 13 Danger of Economic Integration 1. Meaning and Level of Economic Integration: Meaning of Economic Integration: Economic Integration means agreements between groups of countries in a geographic region to reduce and ultimately remove tariff and non-tariff barriers to ensure free flow of goods, services and factors of production between each other. Example: GATT and WTO are the biggest association of more than 140 member countries, which strive to reduce the barriers. However, more than regional, WTO has a global perspective. By entering into regional agreements, groups of countries aim to reduce trade barriers more rapidly than can be achieved under WTO....
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...government. I want to be Prime Minister of this country not a President (Source: David Cameron, The Times, 5th October 2006) “The Cabinet is the committee at the centre of the British political system. Every Thursday during Parliament, Secretaries of State from all departments as well as other ministers meet in the Cabinet Room in Downing Street to discuss the big issues of the day. The Prime Minister chairs the meeting, selects its members and also recommends their appointment as ministers to the monarch. The present Cabinet has 23 members (21 MPs and two peers). The secretary of the Cabinet is responsible for preparing records of its discussions and decisions”. (Source: From a modern textbook) (a) What criticism is David Cameron making of Tony Blair’s style of decision making in source 1? [5] (b) Explain the main functions of the cabinet [10] (c) To what extent have UK Prime Ministers become “presidential”? [25] Or 2 QUESTION TWO THE JUDICIARY A powerful coalition of judges, senior lawyers and politicians has warned that the Government is undermining the civil liberties citizens...
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...The Fluid Landscape of Legal Systems Question 2 Roger Cotterrell has written the following: “What all of these indications add up to is the recognition that neither legal systems nor societies can be thought of as unified and integrated in the way that western thought has often assumed. A comparative legal perspective is no more than the systematic recognition that law is always fluid, pluralistic, contested and subject to often contradictory pressures from both inside and outside its jurisdiction; that it reflects an always unstable diversity of traditions, interests, allegiances, and ultimate values and beliefs. If the comparative perspective on law was once a view of the exotic ‘legal other’ or of the ‘external relations’ of one’s own law with the law of other peoples in other lands, now it is a view of transnational legal patterns and of the cultural complexities of law at home. We live in conditions where the law of the nation-state must respond to a great plurality of demands from different population groups within its jurisdiction. At the same time, it must respond to powerful external pressures. Legal thought in national contexts is being fragmented from within in a new ‘jurisprudence of difference’…and globalized from without in demands for transnational harmonization or uniformity. (“Culture, Comparison, Community” by Roger Cotterrell) Kindly react to this statement, supporting your personal views and conclusions with research, analysis, examples and well-reasoned...
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...year with regard to European Union institutions and governance. More significant than these five-yearly events, however, was the long-delayed ratification and implementation of the Lisbon Treaty. In June 2009, EU leaders approved a Decision ‘on the concerns of the Irish people on the Treaty of Lisbon’, which they annexed to the European Council conclusions. They also agreed that ‘at the time of the conclusion of the next accession Treaty [. . .] the provisions of the annexed Decision’ would be included ‘in a Protocol to be attached [. . .] to the Treaty on the European Union and the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union’ (Council, 2009a). The purpose of the promised Protocol was to facilitate a second referendum in Ireland on the Lisbon Treaty and to help ensure a successful outcome. The Irish government soon announced that the referendum would take place on 2 October. The prospect of a favourable result looked bright, thanks to the global economic crisis, which hit Ireland particularly hard. Although ratifying the Treaty would not make a material difference, it would send a positive signal to international investors and affirm Ireland’s good fortune to be in the euro area at a time of global financial turmoil. Armed with legally binding guarantees from the EU to allay the concerns of many who opposed the Treaty in the first referendum, and the decision by the European Council to retain one © 2010 The Author(s) Journal compilation © 2010 Blackwell Publishing Ltd...
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...NONE, ONE OR SEVERAL? PERSPECTIVES ON THE UK’S CONSTITUTION(S) DAVID FELDMAN* An inaugural lecture is the occasion when the University of Cambridge can look its gift horse in the mouth, weighing the new professor in the balance against his or her distinguished predecessors. The Rouse Ball Professorship of English Law has been held in the past by a long series of distinguished scholars, from Sir Percy Winfield to my immediate predecessor, Sir Jack Beatson whom we are delighted to welcome back today. Their work has influenced generations of lawyers. They certainly influenced me. Before I encountered Criminal Law: The General Part,1 a great little volume by Professor Glanville Williams, Learning the Law, was my ‘Guide, Philosopher and Friend’ (as it still says on the cover of the latest edition, now edited by my colleague Professor Tony Smith)2 as I approached the study of law. Another Rouse Ball Professor, the late Sir William Wade, had a formative effect on my understanding of land law and administrative law both through his famous books, Megarry and Wade on the Law of Real Property (now edited by a former Fellow of Downing College, Dr. Charles Harpum)3 and Administrative Law (now in the hands of my colleague Dr. Christopher Forsyth),4 not to mention the lectures that I attended as an undergraduate in (softly be it said) the University of Oxford. Two wonderfully stimulating and enjoyable books by the Emeritus Rouse Ball Professor and * Rouse Ball Professor of English Law in...
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