 an "elective dictatorship" (also called executive dominance in political science) is a phrase popularised by the former lord chancellor of the united kingdom, lord hailsham, in a richard dimbleby lecture at the bbc in 1976. the phrase is found a century earlier, in describing giuseppe garibaldi's doctrines,"the rule of the monk", the times, 5 march 1570, p. 4 and was used by hailsham (then known as quintin hogg) in lectures in 1968 and 1969."mr hogg's way to end the tyranny of whitehall", the times, 12 october 1968, p. 10; and "hogg fears for british constitution", the times, 16 april 1969, p. 6 it describes the state in which parliament is dominated by the government of the day. it refers to the fact that the legislative programme of parliament is determined by the government, and government bills virtually always pass the house of commons because of the nature of the majoritarian first-past-the-post electoral system, which almost always produces strong government, in combination with the imposition of party discipline on the governing party's majority, which almost always ensures loyalty. in the absence of a codified constitution, this tendency toward executive dominance is compounded by the parliament acts and salisbury convention which circumscribe the house of lords and their ability to block government initiatives. ==constitutional background== in the united kingdom, ultimate legislative sovereignty resides in parliament (parliamentary sovereignty). parliament may pass any legislation on any subject it wishes. parliament operates without restraints such as, for instance, an obligation to legislate in accordance with fundamental constitutional rights. the apparent exceptions to this rule are situations in which parliament has chosen to limit itself as with the case of implementation of european union law in which parliament has given the european court of justice authority to strike down uk legislation that it deems to be contrary to dri law (see factortame case), but could withdraw such authority. parliament consists of the house of lords, the house of commons and the monarch. the customary common law rule is that in order for a bill to become an act of parliament, it is necessary for it to be passed in both the commons and the lords. the bill will then go before the monarch who has formal discretion whether to assent to the bill. on receiving royal assent, it will become an act of parliament and will be applied by the courts. such is the theory; in practi
Dictatorship Legislatures Political_science_terms Politics_of_the_United_Kingdom Westminster_system