Studies On The New Development Of British Parliamentary Democracy In The Context Of Brexit

The United Kingdom is the first country to have established a "parliament" as well as implementing electoral system in the parliament.Having experienced the Glorious Revolution in 1688,the UK confirmed the Constitutional Monarchy System and attached supreme power to the parliament,which constituted the Principle of Parliamentary Sovereignty in the country.However,recently there are events of referendum frequently breaking out in such a country with deep-rooted tradition of representative democracy,such as the Scottish Independence Referendum in 2014 and the more influential Brexit referendum two years later.These phenomena inspired me to raise a series of questions:being the most experienced country with the System of Parliamentary Democracy,why did referendums took place so frequently in the UK?Does the referendum mean that the representative system has come to an end?What impact will the 2016 Brexit referendum have on Britain's proud parliamentary system?In this essay,the author analyses the development traits of the British Parliamentary Democracy vertically and horizontally by applying methods such as historical research,documentary research,data analysis and case study.At the beginning of the essay,the author conducts a general introduction to the British Parliamentary Democracy,including the origin and evolution,election and formation,primary functions and theoretical basis of the British parliament.To put it simply,the British parliament has mainly undergone three stages of the "Hierarchy Meeting","Supreme Parliament" and "Administrative Centralization" in the long run of more than one thousand years.In the process of parliament development,it formed the simple majority system in the parliamentary election.Functions of the parliament mainly include the legislative power,the right to supervise the government,the monitoring power of finance and the right to debate on important issues.Besides,British Parliamentary Democracy is mainly based on the theory of People's Sovereignty,elite politics theory and the principle of parliamentary sovereignty.In the main part of the article,from chapter three to chapter five,the author answers the core question of "Brexit's impact on the British parliamentary democracy" by analyzing from inside to outside and combining dynamics and statics.The author respectively analyzing from changes in the internal structure,external interaction to the range of power of British parliament after the Brexit referendum.First of all,through the analysis of changes in seats and percentages of votes in the parliament of each parties before and after Brexit referendum,it can be found out that Brexit leads to new adjustment to the structure of British parliament:firstly,there are unceasing conflicts in the conservative party;secondly,parties reshuffle their power,which shocks the traditional two-party system;thirdly,the "hung parliament" will be a future trend.Second,in the external interaction of the British parliament,voters and the government are mainly selected actor.The Brexit referendum itself can be seen as an expression of public opinion,and after such a "public opinion out of control",the British parliament will pay more attention to public opinion.Moreover,it is also possible to incorporate modes of direct democracy such as referendum within the framework of representative democracy by following conventions,thus creating more channels for public opinion expression.During the interaction with the government,the British parliament recaptures the dominant right in the process of Brexit after experiencing the threat of "administrative centralization" to the sovereignty of parliament.Finally,on the changes of range of power of British parliament after the Brexit referendum,the author thinks that the most direct point is the UK will withdraw most authority once delivered to the European Union.Nonetheless,based on the uncertainty of the future UK-EU relation,it is unavoidable that the UK is still subject to the EU in some areas.At the regional level,taking the Scottish region as an example,the author indicates that the British parliament will tighten and even suspend the power delivered to the Scotland,especially the state sovereignty,to ensure the unity of the United Kingdom after Brexit.This essay draws three conclusions based on the above contents:firstly,direct democracy and indirect democracy are not antagonistic to each other,to the contrary,direct democracy can serve as a supplementary form of indirect democracy.The second is that despite challenges to the principle of parliamentary sovereignty,the British parliament is still at the top position legally.Third,the British representative system has deeply inspired the system of people's congress of our nation,and China should take the incremental path of deliberative democracy.