Educazione civica in inglese, Dispense di Inglese

Scarica Educazione civica in inglese e più Dispense in PDF di Inglese solo su Docsity! The UK and its Institutions Britain is a constitutional monarchy without a formal written Constitution, but a set of rules and regulations which are continually being modified by custom, judgement in courts as well as elected representatives of the country. The British Constitution developed from the Magna Carta of 1215. The document limited the power of the king and obliged him to follow certain rules of government. From then, the king could not be above the law. Other important steps in the British progress toward a constitutional monarchy were: the Bill of Rights, which limited once more the power of the king and set out the rights of Parliament; and the Act of Settlement, which secured a line of protestant succession to the crown of England and Ireland. The Crown is the symbol of the executive power and represents both the Sovereign and the Government. The Monarch is the living embodiment of the Crown. He is Britain’s Head of State, Head of the Commonwealth and of the Church of England. She opens and closes Parliament and can also dissolve it in case of a government crisis. The UK Parliament and Government The Parliament is the most important democratic institution in the UK and is made up of the Monarch and two chambers: the House of Commons – 650 members chosen at general election. It is the supreme legislative authority in the UK. It makes laws by passing Acts of Parliament and discusses important political issues; the House of Lords – 700 members, not elected by the people, who have inherited family titles or have been given titles from the Monarch. It is the second Chamber in the UK’s Parliament, and it has less power than the House of Commons. Its members examine, revise Bills and suggest amendments from the House of Commons. The Parliament has been sitting in the same place, the Palace of Westminster. The Government is made up of about 100 members of the political party which wins the most seats at a general election and has the most Members of Parliament in the House of Commons and the main opposition party is the Shadow Cabinet which has the job of proposing alternatives to the government’s ideas. The Prime Minister is the head of the government and the leader of the party with the majority of members in the House of Commons. He is responsible for controlling government policy. Important steps in the history of human rights 1863: Creation of the International Committee of the Red Cross. 1864: The Geneva Convention is adopted. 1893: New Zealand gives women the right to vote (1st country in the world). 1945: The United Nations (un) is created. 1948: The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is adopted by The United Nations. 1950: The European Convention on Human Rights is adopted by the Council of Europe. 1961: Amnesty International is created. 1966: International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights is adopted by the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. 1984: The Convention against Torture. 1989: The Convention on the Rights of the Child. This is the most widely ratified human rights treaty. 2007: The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The struggle for democracy: getting the vote Voting rights before 1832 In early-19th-century Britain very few people had the right to vote. The electorate in England and Wales consisted of less than 3% of the total population and in Scotland the electorate was even smaller. Large industrial cities like Birmingham and Manchester did not have a single Member of the Parliament between them, whereas small villages were still sending two Members of the Parliament to Westminster. The British electoral system was unrepresentative and outdated. Pressure for reform During the late 18th century and the early 19th century, pressure for parliamentary reform grew rapidly. Some of it came from men who already had a large say in how Britain was run: country gentlemen angry about the use of patronage at Westminster, or manufacturers and businessmen keen to win political influence to match their economic power. However, the issue of parliamentary reform reached a wider audience, particularly after the French Revolution. Influenced by works such as Thomas Paine's Rights of Man, radical reformers demanded that all men be given the right to vote. Reform groups such as the Sheffield Corresponding Society and the London Corresponding Society were committed to universal 'manhood' suffrage. Two decades later, the radical public speaker Henry Hunt spoke at numerous political meetings on the same theme. During one of them in St Peter's Field, local yeomanry attacked the crowd. After this 'Peterloo Massacre', the government passed a series of repressive measures, and parliamentary reform still seemed a distant prospect. The reform Acts The three parliamentary reform Acts introduced in 19th-century Britain satisfied moderate reformers rather than radicals. The Prime Minister, Lord Grey, supported reform to 'prevent the necessity of revolution' and was responsible for the first Reform Act. However, the Act gave the vote in towns only to men who occupied property with a high annual value, which excluded six adult males out of seven from the voting process. With the Second Reform Act, only two in every five Englishmen had the vote. Even the third Reform Act fell some way short of introducing universal manhood suffrage. Campaigns for universal suffrage Radical reformers pressed for more extensive parliamentary reform throughout the 19th century. The six- point programme of the Chartists included demands for universal suffrage, annual parliaments, and voting by secret ballot. When Chartism was at its most influential, meetings to discuss 'constitutional reform' took place in Britain. In the mid-1860s the Reform League also mobilised support outside Parliament for electoral reform. Conclusions For many people, 19th-century parliamentary reform was a disappointment because political power was still left in the hands of the aristocracy and the middle classes. Universal suffrage, with voting rights for women (though not for those under 30), did not arrive in Britain until 1918. By the time of the third Reform Act, Britain was less democratic than many other countries in Europe. The changes made in the British political system between were still important. The electorate increased substantially in size. Parliamentary seats were redistributed to give greater weight to larger towns and cities. Also, the Ballot Act made it far more difficult for voters to be bribed or intimidated. Moreover, Britain managed to introduce reform without revolution. This achievement contributed greatly to Britain's political stability. Parliament expands suffrage 1918 During the war, a select group of parliamentary leaders decided on a policy that would expand the suffrage to all men over the age of 21, and propertied women over the age of 30. Asquith, an opponent, was replaced as prime minister in late by David Lloyd George. During the war there was a serious shortage of able-bodied men and women were able to take on many of the traditionally male roles. Complicated factory jobs handled by skilled men were diluted or simplified so that they could be handled by less skilled men and women. The result was a large increase in women workers, concentrated in munitions industries. This led to an increased societal understanding of what work women were capable of. Some believed that politicians had to cede at least some women the vote so as to avoid the promised re-resurgence of militant suffrage action. The Women's Suffrage Federation, led by Sylvia Pankhurst created co-operative factories and food banks in the East End to support working class women throughout the war. Local government officials proposed a simplification of the old system of franchise and registration, and a Labour cabinet member in the new coalition government called for universal suffrage, with an age cut-off of 21 for men and 25 for women. Most male political leaders showed anxiety about having a female majority in the new electorate. Parliament turned over the issue to a new Speakers Conference, a special committee from all parties from both houses. They began meeting in secret. A majority supported votes for some women and agreed on a higher age cut off for women. Women leaders accepted a cut-off age of 30 in order to get the vote for most women. Finally, in 1918 Parliament passed an act granting the vote to women over the age of 30 who were householders, the wives of householders, occupiers of property with an annual rent of £5, and graduates of British universities. In 1918, the Parliament (Qualification of Women) Act was passed, allowing women to be elected into the House of Commons. With the Conservative Party it passed the Representation of the People Act that extended the voting franchise to all women over the age of 21, granting women the vote on the same terms as men. Women in prominent roles Emmeline Pankhurst was a key figure gaining intense media coverage of the women's suffrage movement. Pankhurst, with her two daughters, Christabel and Sylvia, founded and led the Women's Social and Political Union, an organisation that was focused on direct action to win the vote. Her husband Richard also supported women suffrage ideas since he was the author of the Married Women’s Property Acts. Along with her two daughters, Christabel Pankhurst and Sylvia Pankhurst, she joined the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies. With her experience with this organisation, Emmeline founded the Women's Franchise League and the Women’s Social and Political Union. Frustrated with years of government inactivity and false promises, the Women's Social and Political Union adopted a militant stance. After many years of struggle and adversity, women finally gained suffrage but Emmeline died shortly after this. Another key figure was Millicent Fawcett. Two events influenced her to become even more involved: her husband’s death and the division of the suffrage movement over the issue of affiliation with political parties. Millicent, made sure that the parts separated came together to become stronger by working together. She supported a bill to give vote rights to single and widowed females of a household. By supporting the British in World War I, she thought women would be recognised as a prominent part of Europe. Millicent Fawcett came from a radical family. Her sister was Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, an English physician and feminist, and the first woman to gain a medical qualification in Britain. Elizabeth was elected mayor and gave speeches for suffrage. Emily Davies became an editor of a feminist publication, Englishwoman's Journal. In addition to suffrage, she supported more rights for women such as access to education. She was a large supporter in the times where organisations were trying to reach people for a change. With her was a friend who also published articles and books on the same themes, (such as Women and Work, Enfranchisement of Women, and Objections to the Enfranchisement of Women, and American Diary). Mary Gawthorpe was an early suffragette who left teaching to fight for women's voting rights. She was imprisoned after heckling Winston Churchill. She left England after her release, eventually emigrating to the United States and worked in the trade union movement.