The British Rule and Judicial Systems: Great and Tremendous Power - Essay Example

1. of the concept As always the British history and politics intrigued me but to simply put it in brief and concise explanation, I have this feeling that there were many changes to British politics in the last few centuries with the British rule and judicial systems. We witnessed how the United Kingdom shifted from being a monarch to parliamentary political set up. However, it is ironic that it is still one of the most firm and stern monarchies with respect to power in the world history. The history of the United Kingdom is rich in detail about the rule of Kings and Queens with great and tremendous power and considerable successes. Some of them enjoyed more success than any other, but this eventually led to the change from absolute power to the current state of affairs. Today, the British rule is marked with the opportunity for parliamentary procedure with parliament having prime minister elected by the people to be in charge of the welfare of the whole United Kingdom. The prime minister’s technical rule is as one being assigned to be officially designated as a person to report and advise the Queen with decisions that the parliament have come up with or pushed forward. However, this very set up is just a perfect resemblance of the British Monarch and what it represented from the past. Furthermore, I believe that the Royal family is not exactly as empowered before as today. In line with this, I would like to research how the British rule changed from a Monarchy to a “Head Parliamentary” governmental system. Empirical: What did the British change to create a more democratic government? Normative: Ought the Head Parliamentary system to give British people a bigger say in the running of the country? For centuries, the United Kingdom has played a massive role in shaping world society. They have been a big player in many of the historical events of the past. The change in the British structure of government has entailed years, decades and centuries of critical events that helped in the process of making the UK a head parliamentary system. Wars, public unrest and societal pressure have lead to this “cause” and change to the British regime of power. And as I have mentioned in my normative question; I will research what the “effect” of this change in governmental structure has lead to and whether it has bought about more say for the average British citizen. 2. Properties of the concept defined In the question “what did the British change to create a more democratic government?” shows a concept because of the term “more democratic government”, which is intangible term but it can be measurable in terms of the average British people’s opinion of the ongoing British regime of power. At this point, it is also important to consider that the opinion about what is “more democratic government” may vary from the standpoint of an individual having a comparison of the UK’s monarchy and its prevailing political set up. Based on the stated properties of the concept of “more democratic government” it is important to consider that the said concept is intangible but it can be measured because the average British citizen could remarkably give their opinions on the subject matter. It is important that their varying opinions be considered in the first place. At this point, the concept of a “more democratic government” implies something that there is a need of coming up with other concepts to be compared with it. This implies that in order to measure it, it requires concrete definition of the said concept and the other concept to be compared with it. As stated earlier, the parliament is a representation of democracy because people are the ones who voted for the prime minister. However, for some the irony of the present political set up in the UK paves way to the variation of opinions among individuals whether their current political set up is “more democratic” or not or is there anything that the British government had changed in the first place. With this, it can be found out whether the current political set up of the UK is just a way of strengthening the political power of monarchy or genuinely empowering people. All of these can be addressed by understanding what monarchy is all about and what it means about “more democratic government.” 3. Units of analysis In measuring the concept of the present political set up in the United Kingdom, the important units of the analysis to be considered are the following: Average British citizen The recent British government The prime minister The average British citizen is one of the essential components in the analysis that we want to analyse. Firstly, these are the people who have basic understanding of the current political set up of the country. At some point, they also have historical knowledge about the UK’s political system. Thus, upon the measurement of the British current political set up, it is important that the information to be gathered from an average British citizen needs to be maximised and elaborately emphasised in detail. The second variable or component in the analysis is the recent British government. At this point, it is important to consider the recent policies and procedures applied in the state. The combined power of the prime minister and the Queen of the state needs to be elaborately considered in the analysis because this remarkably will give the detailed account of the recent British government profile. The other component in the units of analysis is the prime minister. At this point, it is important to elaborately discuss or define the essential and official roles and duties of the prime minister as political adviser of the Queen of the state and as appointed voice of the people. Understanding this will pave way to achieving the right direction of the UK’s current political set up and some changes that it indeed implemented over the course of time. 4. Conceptual definition (Pollock template) The concept of UK’s shift to democratic government from monarchy is defined as the extent to which the average British citizen, the recent British government and the prime minister exhibit the characteristics of varying opinions about what monarchy is all about and the implication of a “more democratic government” based on their recent observation on the recent political set up of the state and their historical knowledge of it. 5. Operational definition defined Measuring the concept is as important as defining it. As we know it, measurement of the concept implies knowing the validity and reliability of the measures used. It is also important to note that not all reliable measures are valid. Thus, only valid measures can be reliable. Reliability means consistency and stability of measuring the above stated concepts. Stability refers to the reliability of measure across the entire process of measurement while consistency is on specific observation. One important source of error in achieving reliable measure of the above concept is the consistency of individual’s response to a given question. In this case, the best antidote is to use Cronbach’s alpha. In this, the proponent needs to analyse individual response and will be able to determine consistency. Validity on the other hand is about knowing if we really are measuring the concept we need to measure. One important source of error in measurement of the above stated concept is in line with the respondents’ knowledge of the involved concepts in the first place. In this case, construct validity approach needs to be applied in order to gather empirical relationships between the measurement and the involved concepts. Read More