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辅导课程四 主讲教师：肖 丹 Chapter 7 Government and Administration I. The Monarchy For a thousand years Britain has had a hereditary king or queen as the head of state. The continuity of the monarchy has been broken only once when, between 1649 and1660, a commonwealth was established. Although the monarchy has survived, it seems that it has no real power today. The present sovereign, Queen Elizabeth II, came to the throne on February 6, 1952; and was crowned on June 2, 1953. Although the seat of the monarchy is in Britain, the Queen is also head of state of a number of Commonwealth states such as Australia, Canada, and New Zealand. In each such state the Queen is represented by a Governor-General. The eldest son of Queen Elizabeth II———Prince Charles, Prince of Wales———is the heir to the throne. The Queen is the symbol of the whole nation. II. Parliament The United Kingdom is a unitary, not a federal, State. The term “parliament” originally meant a meeting for parley or discussion. Parliament consists of the Sovereign, the House of Lords and the House of Commons. Now the two Houses of Parliament, the Lords and the Commons, share the same building , the Palace of Westminster. 1. The House of Lords Now the House of Lords is made up of the Lords Spiritual and the Lords Temporal. The Lords Spiritual are the Archbishops of Canterbury and York and 24 senior bishops of the Church of England. The main function of the House of Lords is to bring the wide experience of its members into the process of lawmaking. The potential membership of the House of Lords is about 1,200. 2. The House of Commons The House of Commons is elected by universal adult suffrage and consists of 651 Members of Parliament (MPs). A General Election must be held every five years and is often held at more frequent intervals. The party which wins sufficient seats at a General Election to commend a majority of supporters in the House of Commons usually forms the Government. III. The Cabin