Constitutions

Question 1

What does constitution mean?

Answer 1

Rules over how a country is governed, describing the relationship between the executive, legislative and judiciary.

Question 2

What are the three constitutional priorities?

Answer 2

• States the limits of the government power
• Determines how political power is distributed
• Asserts and guarantees the rights of citizens

Question 3

What is a codified constitution?

Answer 3

Is set out in a single, authoritative document.

Question 4

What is an uncodified constitution?

Answer 4

Made up from rules that are found in a variety of sources, there is no single document.

Question 5

Define what is meant by, states the limits of government power?

Answer 5

• establishes the competencies of government
• Keeps government within the rule of law and avoids power being used arbitrarily

Question 6

Define what is meant by, determines how political power is distributed within the state?

Answer 6

How power is distributed between central and regional government

Question 7

What are the three key features of a codified constitution?

Answer 7

• authoritative
• entrenched
• judiciable

Question 8

What does authoritative mean?

Answer 8

• constitutes a higher form of law - highest law in the land

Question 9

What does entrenched mean?

Answer 9

provisions in the constitution are difficult to amend or abolish

Question 10

What does judiciable mean?

Answer 10

• Higher law is judiciable, meaning all political bodies are subject to the authority of the courts/the law

Question 11

What does codification mean?

Answer 11

This means that a constitution has been written down, normally in a single document and is organised into a clear set of principles

Question 12

What does flexibility mean?

Answer 12

Where the rules that entrench a constitution are weak.

Question 13

What is a mixed constitution?

Answer 13

A constitution that is partly democratic and partly based on traditional rules, for example the UK.

Question 14

What is statute law?

Answer 14

• Laws passed by Parliament
• Most important source of constitution
• can overturn other sources
• highest form of law

Question 15

Examples of statute law

Answer 15

• Human Rights Act (1998)
• European withdrawal act (2018)
• Constitutional reform act (2005)

Question 16

What is common law? (Case law)

Answer 16

• Consists of rules and customs which have long been declared to be law by judges in deciding cases
• Can be set aside or amended by Statute

Question 17

What is the conventions?

Answer 17

• Key part of the unwritten elements of the constitution
• Do not have the status of law, merely a practice

Question 18

Examples of conventions?

Answer 18

• Royal assent must be given before a bill becomes a law
• Ministers must publicly back the PM’s decisions
• Individual ministerial responsibility

Question 19

What is authoritative works?

Answer 19

• Helps to define what is constitutionally ‘correct’
• Helps to interpret what the constitution means
• Authority comes from the esteem of the author

Question 20

What are treaties?

Answer 20

Agreements with external bodies that bind the UK in some way

Question 21

Examples of treaties?

Answer 21

• European Convention Of Human Rights
• North Atlantic Treaty (NATO)

Question 22

What are the three strands of Parliamentary Sovereignty?

Answer 22

• Parliament’s laws are supreme
• Parliament can legislate on an area of policy it chooses
• No parliament can bind it’s successor

Question 23

What are the challenges to Parliamentary Sovereignty?

Answer 23

• Increased use of referendums
• Is parliament sovereign or the government?
• Devolution
• The Human Rights Act
• Judgements of the judiciary

Question 24

What do we mean by the rule of law?

Answer 24

The idea that the law applies to everyone equally, no one is above the law and therefore arbitrary rule is prevented and avoided by a fundamental equality

Question 25

What is arbitrary rule?

Answer 25

A rule that is based on personal preference or discretion, rather than on logic, reason, or law.

Question 26

What does de jure mean?

Answer 26

Legally the case

Question 27

What does de facto mean?

Answer 27

the practical reality

Question 28

Who is the head of state in a Presidential system?

Answer 28

president

Question 29

Who is the head of state in a parliamentary system?

Answer 29

Monarch

Question 30

How is the executive formed in a Parliamentary system?

Answer 30

Formed from Parliament elections and the party with the majority is appointed by the monarch. Pm appoints the government from Parliament

Question 31

How is the executive formed in a presidential system?

Answer 31

Executive is elected by the people

Question 32

How is the legislature dissolved in a presidential system?

Answer 32

Election terms are fixed - House Of Representatives can impeach the president

Question 33

How is the legislature dissolved in a parliamentary system?

Answer 33

PM decides

Question 34

Who is the government accountable to in a presidential system?

Answer 34

The people

Question 35

Who is the government accountable to in a parliamentary system?

Answer 35

Parliament

Question 36

In a presidential system is it as single or collective executive?

Answer 36

single

Question 37

In a parliamentary system is it a single or collective executive?

Answer 37

collective

Question 38

Codified or uncodified, Gives extensive power to judges?

Answer 38

codified

Question 39

Codified or uncodified? Leaves the constitutional arrangements theoretically in the hands of elected politicians

Answer 39

uncodified

Question 40

Advantages of a codified constitution

Answer 40

- Clear rules, together in one doc - Limited government, safeguards the constitution from interference from day to day government - Education and citizenship, high educative value - Protecting rights

Question 41

Disadvantages of codified constitution?

Answer 41

- Rigidity, higher law is more difficult to change - Judicial tyranny - Legalistic, dry documents difficult to understand