Characteristics of State
Capacity UK has always been a strong state with high capacity. The new laws, which is known as the bills are agreed by both the Houses of Parliament and the Queen before they can become the Acts of Parliament. Under such strict conditions, the bills passed are highly legitimated by adopted by the society.
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Autonomy After 1999, Scotland and Wales started to assume some regional governmental powers through the institution of parliament and assembly. However, North Ireland has always home rule themselves since the early 20th century. The increase autonomy of introducing Scottish and Welsh representative assemblies raised the question of separating Britain parliament from the UK parliament.
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Authority The power of the government lies in the hands of the Parliament which is consisted of the House of Commons, the House of Lords, and the crown. However, most power is controlled by the Commons which members are elected from single-member constituencies. The head of the executive power, on the other hand, is usually drawn from the party that has most seats in the common, such person is known as the prime minister.
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Legitimacy Although unified as a sovereign state in the early 1700s, UK has been a legitimate country due to its stable political system. The core part of the UK which is Britain started its history long ago during the Anglo-Saxon era in the 5th century and the people are tied under its monarchic political system since a long time ago. Although the Britain has now become a parliamentary democratic country with a constitutional Monarch as Head of State, its long history has gained it traditional legitimacy. On the other hand, UK also has charismatic legitimacy, take its previous Prime Ministers for example: Winston Churchill, David Cameron, and Margaret Thatcher were all famous and popular Prime Ministers of UK. Also due to its political system, UK also enjoys the reputation of having rational-legal legitimacy.
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Power UK has always been an influential country throughout history. As a member of the EU, UK has built up support of other countries for its position on many issues and better access to the economies of the rest of the world. Also it pushes the rich world to live up to its obligations to the world’s poorest countries. However, such influences were due to its strong military power. Recent years, due to its economic struggles and high national dept, there is a huge decrease in UK military spending. UK Prime Minister David Cameron announced a 7.5% cut in the military budget in October 2010 including a 10% cut in the number of personnel will fall around 10%, and 40% of tanks will be retired and the country will lose its aircraft carriers. Such cut results in military challenges in the future years of 2015 to 2020.
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