văn hóa anh the political life (1)

Britain is a constitutional monarchy. That means it is a country governed by a king or queen who accepts the advice of a parliament. The Prime Minister is the head of government in Britain and the Queen (or King) is the head of state. British people vote in elections for Members of Parliament (MPs) to represent them. There are lots of political parties in the UK but the big three are the Labour Party, the Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives. There are also parties representing different parts of the UK, such as the Scottish National Party and Plaid Cymru in Wales.

THUONG MAI UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF ENGLISH

BRITISH CULTURE

TOPIC: The political life in Britain

GROUP 2

Class:

Supervisor: Ms Phan Tú Lan

Hanoi- October, 2021

GROUP MEMBER

Number

Comment

Đông

to politics

Kim Duyên

democracy

The constitution

Duyên

18D170256

The style of politics

The party system

CONTENT

I Introduction

Britain is a constitutional monarchy That means it is a country governed by a king or queen who accepts the advice of a parliament The Prime Minister is the head of government in Britain and the Queen (or King) is the head of state British people vote in elections for Members of Parliament (MPs) to represent them There are lots of political parties in the UK but the big three are the Labour Party, the Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives There are also parties representing different parts of the UK, such as the Scottish National Party and Plaid Cymru in Wales

II 'Political life' definition

Political life is the view, aspirations, and beliefs of most citizens of the country towards political systems It can be said to be a psychological matter of the people It is also the type of people’s mentality in relation to political activities, not political activities itself as well as the style of a country's politics

III British political life in comparison with Vietnamese political life

1 The public attitude to politics

1.1 Attitude of British people to politics

In the past (centuries past):

● British people considered politics to be a topic that should not be mentioned in public conversation

● The conversation would become too heated, people would become bad-tempered and perhaps violent if anybody mentioned these topics

Nowadays:

● It is generally accepted that politics is a dirty business, even a necessary evil

● People rarely see any reason to become passionate about politics

● Nobody regards it as a ‘dangerous’ topic

● Politicians do not have a good reputation

● There has been an ignorance of enthusiasm for politicians

● There is, however, a general confidence in the stability and workability

of the political system

● For politicians: they see themselves as being politicians out of a sense of public duty and make sure that they do not appear too keen to do their job and they are not worried about the negative picture of them

● Some opinions of young people said about British politics can show the lack of enthusiasm of British people towards politics:

Ø I can’t relate to any of the politicians They all seem fairly similar and rarely listen to young people If politicians really listened to the voters, I think more young people would vote (by Fiona, 20, from London)

Ø Politicians need to start listening to us We would get engaged

in mainstream politics if we felt that our opinions were respected (by William, 24, from Sheffield)

Reason for the lack of enthusiasm towards politics: the attitude of

politicians – they alleged dishonesty and disloyalty The MP’s expense scandal was an excellent illustration On 08 May 2009, The Daily Telegraph (a national daily British newspaper) first published a set of Expenses from sitting MPs at the time that would expose the wrongdoings and corruption from deep within Parliament and the MPs, at that time, were accused of fiddling their expenses in various ways

1.2 Attitude of Vietnamese people to politics

● Vietnamese people in the past and present have expressed confidence in the political system and state agencies

According to a research about institutional support in Southeast Asian countries (2006 – 2008):

Countries Trust in the head of state

(%) Trust in the centralgovernment (%)

Indonesia 74,2 65,3

Among Southeast Asian countries, Vietnam has the highest institutional support and 95.5% of respondents strongly and quite believe in the head of state, and 96.2% strongly believe and quite believe in the central government

Reason for the belief of people to politics:

● In the past, our Party was deeply attached to the people, and led the people in many resistance wars (war against France, America, the August revolution) In order to gain peace in Vietnam, it is impossible not to mention the great leadership role of the leaders of Vietnam

● At present, the correct and wise leadership of the Party is the leading factor determining all victories of the revolution, setting up many miracles in Vietnam After the wars, our State entered the Doi Moi period, Vietnamese leaders continued to play an important role in leading Vietnam from post-war recovery to socio-economic development and to move to industrialization and modernization Especially when the Covid-19 epidemic is having severe impacts around the world, the timely and correct decisions of the Party and the State continue to help the country overcome obstacles and resume from the pandemic

● The right and wise leadership of the Party and State is the leading factor determining all victories of the revolution, setting up many miracles in Vietnam, worthy of the people's trust and expectations

2 The style of democracy

2.1 The style of democracy in Britain

The British are said to have a high respect for the law

However, while 'the law' as a concept is largely respected, the British are comparatively unenthusiastic about making new laws The general feeling is that, while you have to have laws sometimes, wherever possible it is best to do without them

The traditional idea is that both the individual and the state should try to avoid interfering with each other as much as possible

The duties of the individual towards the state are confined to not breaking the law and paying taxes There is no national service (military or otherwise); people are not obliged to vote at elections if they can't be bothered; people do not have to register their change of address with any government authority when they move house

Similarly, the government in Britain has a comparatively free hand In Britain this democracy involves less participation by ordinary citizens in governing and lawmaking than it does in many other countries There is no concept of these things being done by the people`` If the government wants to make an important change in the way that the country is run- to change for example, the electoral system or the powers of the Prime Minister - it does not have to ask the people

In the past:

England’s political life was dominated by the monarchy for centuries after the Middle Ages In a monarchy, a king or queen is Head of State This means that, while The Sovereign is Head of State

As Head of State, The Monarch undertakes constitutional and representational duties The Sovereign acts as a focus for national identity, unity and pride; gives a sense of stability and continuity; officially recognizes success and excellence; and supports the ideal of voluntary service

By the end of the 18th century, only 1 in 7 adult males had the vote and no women Out of a total population of 30 million only 1.43 million could vote MPs were not paid so only the rich could participate (Half the country’s MPs came from the rich south west of England)

The Reform Act of 1832, which is generally viewed as a historic threshold in

the development of parliamentary democracy in Britain, extended the suffrage

to about 7 percent of the adult population This was most important democratic reform in Britain

Nowadays:

The UK's political system can be described as a constitutional monarchy with a king or queen as Head of State However, it is the Houses of Parliament that make our laws, not the monarch

When a parliamentary Bill is given Royal Assent it becomes an Act of Parliament It is then up to the relevant government department to implement that law For example, the Transport department will deal with new Acts relating to transport

The monarch must remain politically neutral and does not interfere with the legislative process The monarch gives Royal Assent which is a mere formality The Prime Minister leads the government with the support of the Cabinet and ministers The Prime Minister is the leader of Her Majesty’s Government and is ultimately responsible for all policy and decisions

The Prime Minister also oversees the operation of the Civil Service and government agencies and appoints members of the government The Prime Minister is the principal government figure in the House of Commons

Unlike most other nations in the globe, MPs' discussions on national matters are usually informal and friendly

Why did the UK become a democracy?

There were many factors that led to the success of the democratic movement in Britain such as the industrialization and urbanization of British society, the influence of the Great War and the desperate need for reform to change unfair political practices

2.2 The style of democracy in Vietnam

The politics of Vietnam are defined by socialist republic framework which is ultimately controlled by a single-party

The president has the right to decide on executive brands The government, the main executive state power of Vietnam, is headed by the Prime Minister, who has several Deputy Prime Ministers and several ministers in charge of particular activities The executive branch is responsible for the implementation

of political, economic, cultural, social, national defense, security and external activities of the state The National Assembly is a unicameral legislative body

Meetings of the government on national problems are normally held in a formal setting

Vietnam is the State of the people, by the people, and for the people All powers belong to the people In Vietnam, Deputies (members) of the National Assembly are directly elected on a democratic basis through secret ballots All citizens who are 18 or older, regardless of ethnic group, gender, social position, belief, religion, level of education, occupation or length of residency have the right to vote, the exceptions being the mentally disabled and those people who have been deprived of the right to vote by law People aged 21 or older have the right to stand as a candidate at elections

3 The constitution

3.1 Definition

- The Constitution is a set of fundamental principles or established precedents according to which a state or other organization is acknowledged to be governed

3.2 Constitution of the United Kingdom:

Britain is a constitutional monarchy That means it is a country governed by a king or queen who accepts the advice of a parliament It is also a parliamentary democracy That is, it is a country whose government is controlled by a parliament which has been elected by the people In other words, the basic system is not so different from anywhere in Europe

The highest positions in the government are filled by members of the directly elected parliament In Britain, as in many European countries, the official head of state, whether a monarch or a president, has little real power

However, there are features of the British system of government which make

it different from that in other countries and which make it different from that in other countries and which are not “modern” at all Of course , there are rules, regulations , principles and procedures for the running of the country – all the things that political scientists and legal experts study and which are known collectively as' ‘ constitution”

There is no single written document which can be appealed to as the highest law of the land and the final arbiter in any matter of dispute Nobody can refer to

“article 6” or “ the first amendment” or anything like that , because nothing like that exists

Instead , Britain has been built up , bit by bit , over the centuries Some of them are written down in laws agreed by Parliament , some of them have been spoken and then written down ( judgements made in a court) and some of them have never been written down at all Nevertheless , it is understood that their latter rights are also part of the constitution

The British Constitution is unwritten in one single document, unlike the constitution in America or the proposed European Constitution, which is referred to

as an uncodified constitution Supporters of an unwritten constitution believe that it

is easier to make 10 changes to the UK Constitution than in countries with written constitutions But an unwritten Constitution will not work well if everybody in the country does not share the same attitudes and principles about what people’s rights and obligations are In other words, it works well in a society where everybody belongs to the same culture.However, in common with most other European countries today, Britain is now multicultural Therefore, the disadvantage is the difficulty to know what the state of the constitution actually is.Then the possibility is that Britain will finally get a written constitution

3.3.Comparison with the Vietnamese constitution

In Vietnam, The politics of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam are defined by a single- party socialist republic framework The National Assembly is the highest representative body of the people and the highest state power body of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam The constitution is the legal document of the basic viewpoint

of the Communist Party of Vietnam on economic and political reform, socialist democracy and citizens’ freedom rights The constitution clearly indicates that the

state power is in the hands of the people The state is of the people, by the people and for the people

In the UK, a constitution is a set of laws on how a country is governed The British constitution is unwritten in one single document, unlike the constitution in American or the proposed European Constitution, and as such, is referred to as a constitution in the sense that there is no single document that can be classed as Britain’s constitution The British Constitution can be found in a variety of documents Supporters of our constitution believe that the current way allows for flexibility and change to occur without too many problems

The president is the head of State and shall represent the Socialist of Republic

of Vietnam internally and externally The president shall be elected by the National Assembly The president shall remain in office until a new president is elected by the succeeding National Assembly The Government is the highest state administrative body of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, is the executive body of the National Assembly and the Prime Minister is the head of the Government

In Britain, The Prime Minister is appointed by the monarch based on who can command support of the majority in the house of common

4 The style of politics

4.1 The style of politics in Britain

Politics is the activity of mediating between competing demands in society and the way in which power is divided between individuals, between individuals and the state, and between different institutions that make up the state The United Kingdom is a unitary state with devolution that is governed within the framework of a parliamentary democracy under a constitutional monarchy in which the monarch, currently Queen Elizabeth II, is the head of state while the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, currently Boris Johnson, is the head of government

The first, political life in Britain is still influenced by the traditional British respect for privacy and love of secrecy One engages in political life by voting and actively participating in politics through individual and group actions and

by becoming informed about key issues and pending decisions by government