British Prime Minister - Coursework Example

Starting from the days of Magna Carta, British parliamentary system evolved to reach the present political model. Britain never had a written constitution and instead, depends on covenants, political and historical traditions and precedents. Still, it is considered to be the mother of all constitutions in the world and all her institutions are in their respective places. "There is no lack of statutory provisions regarding the various institutions of government, considered individually. What is lacking is a documentary and authoritative statement of the relations between these institutions," Birch (1990, -p.21).Not unnaturally democracies of the world are careful about their democratic legacies and more so Britain.

The Prime Minister's office is full of constitutional checks and balances that are in place, so that an unscrupulous individual who might one day happen to occupy this exalted office, would not be able to misuse the power pattern in any way. Skepticism about politicians could be harmful to some extent, but it pays to be careful. "Unlike Civil servants, however, Prime Ministers are men who may be in a job one day and out the next. And so, having pursued power and seized it, they proceed to use and abuse it in order to dominate the Press in apparently paranoid pursuance of survival," says March (1978, p.3). Some of the balances and checks that prevail on the office of the British Prime Minister will be discussed here.

SEPARATION OF POWERSAlso called Trias Politica a term used by French political thinker Baron de Montesquieu, who lived during the 18th century, the Age of Enlightenment, which is closely linked with the scientific revolution, emphasizing reason, science, and rationality. Montesquieu was the originator of separation of powers, today used in all democratic states, as a check on powerful heads of states, so that the constitutional powers are not misused and the constitution itself is not usurped.

Separation of power mainly works on three branches, legislature, judiciary, and executive.