UK Politics

The politics of the UK have always been a whirlwind: from its colonialist past starting in the seventeenth century to leaving the European Union in 2020, there is a lot to account for. How did we get here and what are the main parties, electoral systems, and actors of UK politics? In this explanation, we will try to answer these questions to guide you during your political studies journey.

To understand all of the topics that we will discuss in this explanation, let’s start with the Oxford dictionary definition of politics:

UK political history

The UK has a long and eventful political history. We have divided it into three main periods to make our analysis easier: the Anglo Saxon rule of England, the Norman period, and the move to parliamentary sovereignty.

The Anglo Saxons in UK politics

The Anglo Saxons ruled England during the Early Middle Ages. There were three key elements to how they ran the country:

1. Trial by jury: anyone who was accused of a crime had the right to be judged by a jury of peers, and if found guilty, they would then be sentenced by the reigning monarch.
2. The witan: these were a group of people who advised the monarch on decisions such as taxes and the military.
3. Habeas corpus: this was the right for a prisoner to appeal their detention if they were able to prove that they were detained unlawfully.

Many elements of the Anglo Saxon way of ruling the country are present in the UK Constitution and throughout the world.

Fig. 1 - Earldoms of Anglo-Saxon England in 1025

The Normans in UK politics

After the Battle of Hastings in 1066, the King owned all the land and made everyone in the country pledge their allegiance to him. The king gave responsibility to nobles to manage different parts of the land and, in return, the nobles would supply money to the monarch. This was calculated by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, who also has a role in modern-day politics.

Democracy in UK politics

Democracy is a type of governmental style where individuals who meet the eligibility requirements vote for the government. This means that those who are in power or in charge have been given the responsibility by the electorate to lead and make decisions on their behalf. There are many characteristics of democracy, so let’s explore a few:

1. Free, fair, and frequent elections: as mentioned before, democracies are governments that are enabled by the electorate, so they must have the right to either consistently re-elect or replace whoever they please.
2. Rule of law: this means that the law can’t only be in the interest of a single person or group, but in the interest of the majority as everyone must abide by it. No one is above the law, whether this is the monarch or the prime minister.
3. Human rights: the law must include human rights which affords people protections as laid out in the Constitution.
4. Judicial independence: the judicial branch of the government, which tends to be the Supreme Court, must have the right to act independently. This ensures that no one is above the law and citizens of the country are rightfully protected by it.

There are two main types of democracy that we need to explore:

Direct democracy

Like the name may suggest, this is a type of democracy where decisions are made by the electorate. They take decisions into their own hands and follow these respective decisions.

Representative democracy

This is the type of democracy that the UK follows. Here, the electorate vote for representatives to make decisions on their behalf. This is sometimes also called indirect democracy. There are many types of representative democracy summarised in the table below.

Table 1. Types of representative democracy.

Political participation in UK politics

As the UK is a representative democracy, this means the electorate is involved and can participate through elections. Nevertheless, this is not the only way. In the UK there are various ways for the electorate to participate in a democracy:

1. Party members: becoming part of a political party.
2. Pressure groups: joining a pressure group, they tend to focus on a single issue.
3. Think tanks: they lobby the government to advocate policies and ideas with the backing of research.
4. Corporations: they can also lobby the government and usually focus on their company’s interests.

Voting behaviour in UK politics

Voting behaviour is the study of trends in elections. This can include why a particular group of people tend to vote in a particular way and explores the long- and short-term factors in elections.

Fig. 2 - Results of the UK 2005 general election by age. Blue=conservatives votes; Red=Labour; Yellow=LibDems; Green Others

Electoral systems in UK politics

In the UK we have several different types of elections. For example, general elections and council elections, and alongside this, we have many electoral systems. An electorate system is a type of system used to count the electorate’s votes and determine who the electorate voted in favour of. These are:

• Referendums
• First-past-the-vote
• Single transferable vote
• Supplementary vote
• Party-list proportional representation
• Alternative vote system
• Additional member system

The consequences of the different electoral systems also lead to different types of governments, these are:

1. Minority government: the party in power has the most seats, but do not have more than half the seats in the government and therefore, are not a majority.
2. Coalition government: the party in power partners with another political party to gain a majority.

UK political parties

A political party is an organisation of individuals who hold similar political beliefs and try to become a member of the government. Nearly all members of the government are affiliated with a political party. Independent candidates are rare. For a long time, there were three main parties in the UK: Labour, the Conservatives, and the Liberal Democrats, and as of late it’s been a battle between the Conservatives and Labour. But the politics of the UK have gradually moved away from this two-party system, and with the popularity of the Liberal Democrats waning, smaller parties have had an opportunity to make a significant impact.

Political parties function to become part of the government, to represent the people who voted for them, and do this based on the ideas they represent and have publicised. They also have to develop policies. This can mean changing their stance on a particular issue or making sure their position on an issue align with the opinion of those who voted for them. Another function of political parties is education. During the campaign, a political party attempts to educate the electorate on their policies and the reasoning behind these policies.