General introduction to Britain英国简介.doc

General introduction to BritainThe United Kingdom, consisting of Great Britain (England, Wales, and Scotland) and Northern Ireland, is twice the size of New York State. England, in the southeast part of the British Isles, is separated from Scotland on the north by the granite Cheviot Hills; from them the Pennine chain of uplands extends south through the center of England, reaching its highest point in the Lake District in the northwest. To the west along the border of Walesa land of steep hills and valleysare the Cambrian Mountains, while the Cotswolds, a range of hills in Gloucestershire, extend into the surrounding shires.Important rivers flowing into the North Sea are the Thames, Humber, Tees, and Tyne. In the west are the Severn and Wye, which empty into the Bristol Channel and are navigable, as are the Mersey and Ribble.GovernmentThe United Kingdom is a constitutional monarchy and parliamentary democracy, with a queen and a parliament that has two houses: the House of Lords, with 574 life peers, 92 hereditary peers, and 26 bishops; and the House of Commons, which has 651 popularly elected members. Supreme legislative power is vested in parliament, which sits for five years unless dissolved sooner. The House of Lords was stripped of most of its power in 1911, and now its main function is to revise legislation. In Nov. 1999 hundreds of hereditary peers were expelled in an effort to make the body more democratic. The executive power of the Crown is exercised by the cabinet, headed by the prime minister.England has existed as a unified entity since the 10th century; the union between England and Wales, begun in 1284 with the Statute of Rhuddlan, was not formalized until 1536 with an Act of Union; in another Act of Union in 1707, England and Scotland agreed to permanently join as Great Britain; the legislative union of Great Britain and Ireland was implemented in 1801, with the adoption of the name the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland; the Anglo-Irish treaty of 1921 formalized a partition of Ireland; six northern Irish counties remained part of the United Kingdom as Northern Ireland and the current name of the country, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, was adopted in 1927.HistoryStonehenge and other examples of prehistoric culture are all that remain of the earliest inhabitants of Britain. Celtic peoples followed. Roman invasions of the 1st century B.C. brought Britain into contact with continental Europe. When the Roman legions withdrew in the 5th century A.D., Britain fell easy prey to the invading hordes of Angles, Saxons, and Jutes from Scandinavia and the Low Countries. The invasions had little effect on the Celtic peoples of Wales and Scotland. Seven large Anglo-Saxon kingdoms were established, and the original Britons were forced into Wales and Scotland. It was not until the 10th century that the country finally became united under the kings of Wessex. Following the death of Edward the Confessor (1066), a dispute about the succession arose, and William, Duke of Normandy, invaded England, defeating the Saxon king, Harold II, at the Battle of Hastings (1066). The Norman conquest introduced Norman French law and feudalism.The reign of Henry II (11541189), first of the Plantagenets, saw an increasing centralization of royal power at the expense of the nobles, but in 1215 King John (11991216) was forced to sign the Magna Carta, which awarded the people, especially the nobles, certain basic rights. Edward I (12721307) continued the conquest of Ireland, reduced Wales to subjection, and made some gains in Scotland. In 1314, however, English forces led by Edward II were ousted from Scotland after the Battle of Bannockburn. The late 13th and early 14th centuries saw the development of a separate House of Commons with tax-raising powers. Edward IIIs claim to the throne of France led to the Hundred Years War (13381453) and the loss of almost all the large English territory in France. In England, the great poverty and discontent caused by the war were intensified by the Black Death, a plague that reduced the population by about one-third. The Wars of the Roses (14551485), a struggle for the throne between the House of York and the House of Lancaster, ended in the victory of Henry Tudor (Henry VII) at Bosworth Field (1485).During the reign of Henry VIII (15091547), the church in England asserted its independence from the Roman Catholic Church. Under Edward VI and Mary, the two extremes of religious fanaticism were reached, and it remained for Henrys daughter, Elizabeth I (15581603), to set up the Church of England on a moderate basis. In 1588, the Spanish Armada, a fleet sent out by Catholic King Philip II of Spain, was defeated by the English and destroyed during a storm. During Elizabeths reign, England became a world power. Elizabeths heir was a StuartJames VI of Scotlandwho joined the two crowns as James I (16031625). The Stuart kings incurred large debts and were forced either to depend on parliament for taxes or to raise money by illegal means. In 1642, war broke out between Charles I and a large segment of the parliament; Charles was defeated and executed in 1649, and the monarchy was then abolished. After the death in 1658 of Oliver Cromwell, the lord protector, the Puritan Commonwealth fell to pieces and Charles II was placed on the throne in 1660. The struggle between the king and parliament continued, but Charles II knew when to compromise. His brother, James II (16851688), possessed none of Charles IIs ability and was ousted by the Revolution of 1688, which confirmed the primacy of parliament. Jamess daughter, Mary, and her husband, William of Orange, then became the rulers.Queen Annes reign (17021714) was marked by the Duke of Marlboroughs victories over France at Blenheim, Oudenarde, and Malplaquet in the War of the Spanish Succession. England and Scotland meanwhile were joined by the Act of Union (1707). Upon the death of Anne, the distant claims of the elector of Hanover were recognized, and he became king of Great Britain and Ireland as George I. The unwillingness of the Hanoverian kings to rule resulted in the formation by the royal ministers of a cabinet, headed by a prime minister, which directed all public business. Abroad, the constant wars with France expanded the British Empire all over the globe, particularly in North America and India. This imperial growth was checked by the revolt of the American colonies (17751781). Struggles with France broke out again in 1793 and during the Napoleonic Wars, which ended at Waterloo in 1815.The Victorian era, named after Queen Victoria (18371901), saw the growth of a democratic system of government that had begun with the Reform Bill of 1832. The two important wars in Victorias reign were the Crimean War against Russia (18541856) and the Boer War (18991902), the latter enormously extending Britains influence in Africa. Increasing uneasiness at home and abroad marked the reign of Edward VII (19011910). Within four years after the accession of George V in 1910, Britain entered World War I when Germany invaded Belgium. The nation was led by coalition cabinets, headed first by Herbert Asquith and then, starting in 1916, by the Welsh statesman David Lloyd George. Postwar labor unrest culminated in the general strike of 1926.King Edward VIII succeeded to the throne on Jan. 20, 1936, at his fathers death, but he abdicated on Dec. 11, 1936 (in order to marry an American divorce, Wallis Warfield Simpson), in favor of his brother, who became George VI.英美政治制度的不同From the legislative, judicial, administrative point of view on the three, along with British lawyer dual-system to compare the similarities and differences between British and American political system: same:have a parliament, and parliament hasdifferent: Britain is a constitutional monarchy, the United States is The Democratic RepublicBritains head of state is King, there is no real power; President of the United States is the highest executive power and military power: a bourgeois revolution in Britain is the main contradiction with the bourgeoisie of the feudal ruling class contradictions, and the United States was the colonial ruler of the bourgeoisie with the contradictions .2 capitalisms development needs a stable external environment, the United Kingdom and the United States to use the monarchy as a result grew out of the colony, the founding of the initial chaos caused by wars and so they need a relatively centralized form of rule, Britain and the United States to adopt a constitutional monarchy with a republic president. 3 objective, the bourgeois revolution in Britain earlier, limited the power of the bourgeoisie, the bourgeoisie is a constitutional monarchy on the feudal forces of compromise; the United States when the bourgeois revolution and capitalist development after a period of time, the force strength if the United States King also under ousted.Britain is a constitutional monarchy, the United States is a republic, because the United States in the past does not have its own independent monarchy, the British monarch as their sovereign, independent after the monarch did not.The United States is the presidential system, the Cabinet is the President of the Summit, the United Kingdom is a parliamentary system, is the prime minister heads the cabinet, the cabinet of the council. In the United States since before independence, by the British colonial presence of the Governor, but also on behalf of the Governor and the local peoples councils, the colonial government by the Governor, at the time most European countries is still the king heads the cabinet, so naturally the United States after independence Continuation of this form of organization by the President of the replacement of the Governor. Britain is due to a number of times the power of the bourgeoisie and the nobility, the kings right to limit the strength of Parliament be strengthened.【Evaluation: 】The United States and the right to struggle from democracy, to a large extent, competition from non-class, each class conflict and the role of a direct impact on the normal operation of the United States. Their independence of the judiciary, all-round. As a result, less vulnerable to the effects of space. This is the main reason for the rapid development of it. As for Britain, by Congress itself Intervention aristocracy, it is difficult to not involve the interests of the class, plus the British monarchy but also the constitutional law, a fundamental form of the pyramid as the main political, and the development of the public, free of the limited space available, combined with the reasons for World War II, development of natural Did not prompt the United States.The United Kingdom is a constitutional monarchy: Queen Elizabeth II is head of state of the UK as well as of fifteen other Commonwealth countries, putting the UK in a personal union with those other states. The Crown has sovereignty over the Crown Dependencies of the Isle of Man and the Bailiwicks of Jersey and Guernsey, which are not part of the United Kingdom though the UK government manages their foreign affairs and defence and the UK Parliament has the authority to legislate on their behalf.The United Kingdom has an uncodified constitution,37 as do only two other countries in the world. The Constitution of the United Kingdom thus consists mostly of a collection of disparate written sources, including statutes, judge-made case law, and international treaties. As there is no technical difference between ordinary statutes and constitutional law, the UK Parliament can perform constitutional reform simply by passing Acts of Parliament and thus has the power to change or abolish almost any written or unwritten element of the constitution. However, no Parliament can pass laws that future Parliaments cannot change.38The UK has a parliamentary government based on the Westminster system that has been emulated around the worlda legacy of the British Empire. The Parliament of the United Kingdom that meets in the Palace of Westminster has two houses: an elected House of Commons and an appointed House of Lords, and any Bill passed requires Royal Assent to become law. It is the ultimate legislative authority in the United Kingdom since the devolved parliament in Scotland and devolved assemblies in Northern Ireland, and Wales are not sovereign bodies and could be abolished by the UK parliament despite being established following public approval as expressed in referenda. The Houses of ParliamentThe position of Prime Minister, the UKs head of government, belongs to the Member of Parliament who can obtain the confidence of a majority in the House of Commons, usually the current leader of the largest political party in that chamber. The Prime Minister and Cabinet are formally appointed by the Monarch to form Her Majestys Government, though the Prime Minister chooses the Cabinet, and by convention HM The Queen respects the Prime Ministers choices.39The Cabinet is traditionally drawn from members of the Prime Ministers party in both legislative houses, and mostly from the House of Commons, to which they are responsible. Executive power is exercised by the Prime Minister and Cabinet, all of whom are sworn into Her Majestys Most Honourable Privy Council, and become Ministers of the Crown. The Rt Hon Gordon Brown MP, leader of the Labour Party, has been Prime Minister, First Lord of the Treasury and Minister for the Civil Service since 27 June 2007.39For elections to the House of Commons, the UK is currently divided into 646 constituencies, with 529 in England, 18 in Northern Ireland, 59 in Scotland and 40 in Wales,40 though this number will rise to 650 at the next General Election. Each constituency elects one Member of Parliament by simple plurality. General Elections are called by the Monarch when the Prime Minister so advises. Though there is no minimum term for a Parliament, the Parliament Act (1911) requires that a new election must be called within five years of the previous general election.The UKs three major political parties are the Labour Party, the Conservative Party, and the Liberal Democrats, who won between them 616 out of the 646 seats available in the House of Commons at the 2005 general election. Most of the remaining seats were won by parties that only contest elections in one part of the UK such as the Scottish National Party (Scotland only), Plaid Cymru (Wales only), and the Democratic Unionist Party, Social Democratic and Labour Party, Ulster Unionist Party, and Sinn Fin (Northern Ireland only, though Sinn Fin also contests elections in Ireland). In accordance with party policy, no elected Sinn Fin Member of Parliament has ever attended the House of Commons to speak in the House on behalf of their constituents as Members of Parliament are required to take an oath of allegiance to the Monarch.41For elections to the European Parliament, the UK currently has 72 MEPs, elected in 12 multi-member constituencies.42 Questions over sovereignty have been brought forward because of the UKs membership of the European Union.43The United States is a federal constitutional republic, in which the President of the United States (the head of state and head of government), Congress, and judiciary share powers reserved to the national government, and the federal government shares sovereignty with the state governments. Federal and state elections generally take place within a two-party system, although this is not enshrined in law.The executive branch is headed by President and is independent of the legislature. Legislative power is vested in the two chambers of Congress, the Senate and the House of Representatives. The judicial branch (or judiciary), composed of the Supreme Court and lower federal courts, exercises judicial power (or judiciary). The judiciarys function is to interpret the United States Constitution and federal laws and regulations. This includes resolving disputes between the executive and legislative branches. The federal government of the United States was established by the Constitution. Two parties, the Democratic Party and the Republican Party, have dominated American politics since the American Civil War, although other parties have also existed.There are major differences between the political system of the United States and that of most other developed democracies. These include increased power of the upper house of the legislature, a wider scope of power held by the Supreme Court, the separation of powers between the legislature and the executive, and the dominance of only two main parties. The United States is one of the worlds developed democracies where third parties have the least political influence.The federal entity created by the Constitution is the dominant feature of the American governmental system. However, some people are also subject to a state government, and all are subject to various units of local government. The latter include counties, municipalities, and special districts.This multiplicity of jurisdictions reflects the countrys history. The federal government was created by the states, which as colonies were established separately and governed themselves independently of the others. Units of local government were created by the colonies to efficiently carry out various state functions. As the country expanded, it admitted new states modeled on the existing ones.Separation of powers under the United States ConstitutionSeparation of powers is a doctrine whereby the legislative, executive and judicial branches of government are distinct to prevent abuse of power. The doctrine traces back to ancient Greece and was further developed by English and French philosophers. In the United Sta