英美文化与国家概况British and American Studies ( British Part )
Unit Three
大学英语第一教研室余非编
2013年2月
Unit 3 Politics and Law
Contents:
1.Political Parties
2.Elections
3.Justice and Law Courts
4.Legal Profession
1.Political Parties
✧In the United Kingdom, politics is under the control of political parties, and this is known as
party politics.
✧There are two major political parties that contest the majority of seats of Parliament in the
general election.
✧Britain normally holds a general election every five years for British people to elect Members
of Parliament.
✧British voters regard the transfer of political powers from one party to another as an effective
way of making the government more responsive to their demands.
✧Under the British law, people are free to set up political parties, and a number of political
parties exist in the United Kingdom. The law grants equal treatment to all political parties.
✧However, only two of them are most important and they are known as the major parties.
✧Consequently, politics in Britain is based on a two-party system instead of multi-party
system.
✧The two major parties are respectively called the Conservative Party and the Labor Party.
British Parliament is always dominated by one or the other of these two major parties.
✧Small parties, usually called minor parties, cannot win the majority seats of Parliament and
have no chance to control the government.
✧The history of political parties in Britain can be traced back to the late 17th century when two
political parties, the Whigs and the Tories, were founded.
The Whigs (辉格党):
1. The name Whig is derived from a derogatory term first applied to Scottish rebels.
2.Towards the middle of the 19th century, the Whigs adopted a new name, the liberal Party.
3.After the First World War, the Liberal Party disintegrated and some of its members later
joined the Labor Party, which was founded in 1900. Its supporters are mainly from trade unions, liberals, socialists, and progressive intellectuals.
4.The basic doctrine of the Labor Party was based on socialism, but its goal was to promote
national and individual growth, not the uprising of one class by overthrowing another one. 5.Many of the Labor leaders are from the working class families, but the party is not a
representative of the working class in its real sense. It represents the interests of confusing class elements.
6.According to statistics from general elections, about 20% of upper-middle class, half of the
middle class, and 60% of the manual workers vote for the Labor Party. It is for this reason that the Labor Party is said to represent the relatively poor or the lower class.
The Tories（托利党）:
1.Those who opposed the doctrine of the Whigs were called the “ Tories ”. The name Tory,
derived from an old Irish word meaning runaway or fugitive.
2.In the mid-19 century, the Tory Party decided to adopt the new name --- The Conservative
Party--- because of the changed situation in Britain. Tory is still often used as a synonym for Conservative.
3.The main support of the Conservative Party comes from the middle and upper-middle classes,
which are believed to be more conservative.
4.The average educational level of the Conservatives is usually higher than that of other
political parties. It can be said that the higher one goes up in social and economic class, the more likely he is to vote for the Conservatives.
5.That is why some people label the Conserv atives as a party of “the rich”.
2.Elections
✧Members of Parliament are elected in nationwide general elections. The goal of the two
major parties is to gain the majority of the seats in the House of Commons so as to form its
