Politics Paper 2

Constitution

A set of laws and guidelines setting out how a political system works and where power is located in the system.

It defines the powers and functions of governments and the rights of citizens in relation to the government.

Uncodified

UK’s constitution is not written in one single document but instead derived from a number of different sources.

US are codified.

Unitary State

A political system where all legal sovereignty is contained in a single place in the central government.

Eg. Westminster

The 3 branches of a liberal democracy

Legislature(people who make the laws)

Judiciary(judge when a law is broken)

Executive(govern the country and create policy)

The 4 principles of the UK(in order of importance)

Parliamentary Sovereignty

Rule of Law(‘twin pillars of british constitution)

Unitary state(not freshly the case anymore)

Constitutional Monarchy

Prime Ministers since 1979

Callaghan-Labour

Thatcher-Cons

Major

Blair-Labour

Brown

Cameron-Cons

May

Johnson

Truss

Sunak

Starmer-Labour

Burnham