Introduction
For this paper, the Parliament of the United Kingdom was chosen as the example of a democratic legislature. The Parliament represents the country where different nations co-exist, unites them, and creates cross-national communication on the political level. The supreme authority in the United Kingdom means the legislative power on all territories that belong to the British Crown. The critical point about the UK Parliament is the importance of tradition in its structure and functioning, affecting the selection process, the arrangement of power, and the communication between the members of the Parliament. Brexit is one of the most critical events recently, and the UK Parliament had a pivotal role in this process. It is possible to state that the UK Parliament reacts successfully to the challenges of modern politics despite its traditionalism, as Brexit shows.
The Legislature
The representation of four national parts of the United Kingdom as one political institution is the primary function of the UK Parliament. It includes the political voices of England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland, which are the parts of the UK. This process of merging lasted for several centuries, which shows that the tradition of the British parliamentarian rule has a long history. For instance, the Parliament of Great Britain appeared due to the combination of the Parliament of Scotland and the Parliament of England in the 18th century. Before that time, the United Kingdom was represented by different legislative institutions. The Parliament of the United Kingdom was formed in the 19th century after the Parliament of Northern Ireland joined the UK legislative institution (Ihalainen et al., 2018). Therefore, every part of the United Kingdom had representatives in the Parliament, which allowed it to preserve balance in decision-making.
The tradition of historical roots determines the power arrangement in the UK Parliament. There are two assemblies in the Parliament, which allows to state that it is bicameral. The peculiar detail is that there are three parts in the bicameral legislature due to the monarchy in the United Kingdom. The three parts of the Parliament are the House of Commons or the primary chamber of the Parliament, the House of Lords, and the Crown-in-Parliament, which represents the British monarchy (Ihalainen et al., 2018). A person cannot be a member of several Houses simultaneously, which ensures that the principles of democracy and pluralism are pursued. This example shows that pluralism allowed the Parliament to preserve democracy even when the monarch’s powers were not limited as it is nowadays.
The process of selecting the candidates for the Parliament does not change for centuries, which is part of the political tradition in the United Kingdom. The Prime Minister is the head of the UK Parliament, and the Queen appoints the person from the House of Parliament. The majority of the House of Commons should agree with this candidate to ratify the Prime Minister. Nowadays, the Prime Minister gives the monarch the piece of advice concerning the appropriate candidate for this position (Ihalainen et al., 2018). These details show that the monarch’s power in the UK Parliament is more symbolic than real, and it is also part of the British tradition.
Selecting the candidates for the House of Lords and the House of Commons is also a traditional process, which means that the basic expectations about the legislators’ behavior are predetermined. For example, the members of the House of the Lords should have high social positions that suppose their hereditary status, education, and place in British society. The Lord Temporal and the Lord Spiritual are the Peers of the Realm and the bishop of the Church of England reciprocally. Similar rules preserve nowadays and make the election process easy to forecast. They are expected to sit together in the Parliament and vote similarly, which is also regulated by the tradition (Ihalainen et al., 2018). It allows us to assume that tradition is essential in the debates in the UK Parliament, and the British do not think that it is a violation of the rules of democracy. Instead, the functioning of the electoral system based on the predetermined rules contributes to the preservation of balance in the Parliament, which is critical in making the thought-through decision.
The status of the Parliament implies that it makes all political decisions based on votes. Some critical decisions require the agreement of the Queen, who has the right to veto documents. Though, most political findings that the UK Parliament ratifies are consistent with the will of the Queen (Ihalainen et al., 2018). In all cases, the Prime Minister has more practical rights in legislation and political life of the country than the Queen, which makes the Parliament the principal place where the debates happen, and the majority makes all political decisions of representatives.
Current Events
Brexit is the current event that is of particular interest because it reflects the autonomous political power of the UK Parliament. Most British citizens voted on the referendum in 2016 for the existence of the European Union, claiming that the United Kingdom does not profit from membership in this coalition. At the same time, Brexit was a biased political decision, and the British Parliament rejected this initiative initially. The main concern that the Parliament articulated was the risks from the withdrawal from the trade deal with the European Union. The Parliament agreed that the country required a transitional period for Brexit, which promoted this decision actively by the Conservative party and Boris Johnson as the Prime Minister (Gamble, 2021). This information shows that challenging decisions require long debates in the Parliament, and most voters should agree to one legislation to ratify the results.
The example of Brexit shows that the UK Parliament emphasizes the importance of hearing different voices to make balanced decisions. The referendum is helpful to give the politicians a clear understanding of the views that most citizens have. The tradition of public debates in the UK Parliament allows the House of Commons and the House of Lords to elaborate the compromised solution like the one-year transition period for leaving the European Union. In addition, the situation with Brexit shows that the Prime Minister has absolute power in the UK Parliament, and the views of the party of the Prime Minister determine the overall political discourse in the country.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the tradition is critical in the formation, structure, and functioning of the UK Parliament. This legislature has a long history, and British citizens pay much attention to preserving the national heritage. It explains the symbolic presence of the monarch in the UK Parliament and the Queen’s participation in the final stage of the decision-making process. Brexit illustrates the claims about the work of the UK Parliament because it shows the nation’s autonomy to make decisions concerning their future. Brexit shows that the UK Parliament allows Great Britain to preserve independence in the European Union regardless of the country’s membership in European legislatures.
References
Gamble, A. (2021). After Brexit and other essays. Bristol University Press.
Ihalainen, P., Ilie, C., & Palonen, K. (2018). Parliament and parliamentarism: A comparative history of a European concept. Berghahn Books.