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The Legitimacy of Parliamentary Government

            The UK has a parliamentary government which is when government governs in and through parliament. It is based on a fusion between legislative and executive branches of government. Parliament and government are overlapping and interlocking institutions. Controversy has therefore risen as a result of the combination of the principle of parliamentary sovereignty and parliamentary government. The close relationship between government and parliament can lead to a situation in which the executive can use sovereign powers of parliament for its own ends, giving rise to the problem of elective dictatorship. For a new government to form, they need to receive the most seats in a general election so this means that the majority of the MP's within the House of Commons are from the same party as that of the government. This means that when a new proposal is put forward the governing party will most likely receive the majority of votes they need because they hold the majority of the seats. The result of this is that the MP's vote on behalf of the government instead on behalf of the constituents. This is because the prime minster is able to chose his own cabinet and the MP's are all eager to be promoted and so if they vote against what the government are proposing then their position in the house could be at stake. In the 1997 general election Labour won the most seats the had ever held before, 418, and Tony Blair became prime minister. Because of this vast majority the new labour government were able to impose any laws they deemed, resulting in elective dictatorship. .
             The legitimacy of the UK parliament can be questioned because of the representation within the House of Commons and overall in the House of Lords. In the House of Commons only 22% of the MP's are women which is not a fair representation of society. The ethnic minority is even lower with only 4% of MP's in the house representing other ethnicities - 62% of the total MP's in the HoC are white men and are over 40 years old.


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