專八人文知識精講(10)：英國政府機構知多少

The United Kingdom is a constitutional monarchy, the head of state is a king or a queen. The United Kingdom is governed, in the name of the Sovereign by His or Her Majesty's Government. The System of parliamentarygovernment is not based on a written constitution, the British constitution is not set out in any singledocument. It is made up of statute law, common law and conventions. The Judiciary determines common law andinterprets statutes.

聯(lián)合王國是君主立憲制國家,國家的首腦是國王或女王。聯(lián)合王國以君王的名義，由國王或女王陛下政府治理。英國的議會制度并不是基于成文憲法，英國憲法不由單一文件構成，而由成文法，習慣法和慣例組成。司法部門裁定習慣法或解釋成文法。

I.The Monarchy

君主制

1.Elizabeth II, her title in the United Kingdom is "Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God of the UnitedKingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and Her Other Realms and Territories, Queen, Head of theCommonwealth, Defender of the Faith.

伊莉莎白二世，她的全稱是"上帝神佑，大布列顛及北愛爾蘭聯(lián)合王國以及她的其他領土和領地的女王，英聯(lián)邦元首，國教保護者伊莉莎白二世。"

2.The Queen is the symbol of the whole nation. In law, She is head of the executive, an integral part of thelegislature, head of the judiciary, the commander-in-chief of all the armed forces and the "supreme governor"of the Church of England. She gives Royal Assent to Bills passed by parliament.

女王是國家的象征。從法律上講，她是行政首腦，立法機構的組成部分，司法首腦，全國武裝部隊總司令，英國國教"至高無上"的領袖。她任命首相和重要的政府官員。對議會通過的法案給予御準。

3.The monarch actually has no real power. The monarch's power are limited by law and Parliament. Constitutionalmonarchy began after the Glorious Revolution in 1688.

君主政體實際已無實權。它的權力受限于法律和議會。君主立憲制是從1688年的光榮革命后開始。

II.Parliament

議會

1.The United Kingdom is a unitary, not a federal, state. Parliament consists of the Sovereign, the House ofLords and the House of Commons.

英國是中央集權國家，而不是聯(lián)邦制國家。議會由君主，上議院和下議院組成。

2.The main functions of Parliament are: (1) to pass laws; (2) to provide, by voting for taxation, the means ofcarrying on the work of government; (3) to examine government Policy and administrations, including proposalfor expenditure; and (4) to debate the major issues of the day.

議會的主要作用是：(1)通過立法;(2)投票批準稅為政府工作提供資金;(3)檢查政府政策和行政管理，包括撥款提議;(4)當天的議題辯論。

3.The House of Lords is made up of the Lords Spiritual and the Lords Temporal. The main function of the Houseof Lords is to bring the wide experience of its members into the process of lawmaking. In other words, the non-elected House is to act as a chamber of revision, complementing but not rivaling the elect House.

貴族院(上議院)由神職貴族和世俗貴族組成。它的主要作用是用議員的豐富經(jīng)驗幫助立法。換而言之，非選舉的上議院是修正議院，補充而非反對由選舉產(chǎn)生的下議院。

4.The House of Common is elected by universal adult suffrage and consists of 651 Members of Parliament (MPs).It is in the House of Commons that the ultimate authority.

下議院(平民院)由成人普選產(chǎn)生，由651名議員組成。下議院擁有最終立法權。

5.Britain is divided 651 constituencies. Each of the constituencies returns one member to the House of Commons.A general Election must be held every five years and is often held at more frequent intervals.

英國被劃分為651個選區(qū)，每個選區(qū)選一名下議院議員。大選必須五年舉行一次，但經(jīng)常不到五年就進行一次選舉。

6.Britain has a number of parties, but there are only two major parties. These two parties are the ConservativeParty and the Labour Party. Since 1945, either the Conservative Party or the Labour Party has held power. Theparty which wins sufficient seats at a General Election to command a majority of Government. The leader of themajority party is appointed Prime Minister. The party which wins the second largest number of seats becomes theOfficial Opposition, with its own leader and "shadow cabinet ". The rule of Opposition is to help theformulation of policy. Criticizes the Government and debate with the Government.

英國有很多政黨，但有兩個主要的政黨-保守黨和工黨。從1945年以來，兩黨一直輪流執(zhí)政，在大選中獲多數(shù)議席因而在下議院擁有多數(shù)支持者的政黨組建政府，多數(shù)黨領袖由君主任命為首相。獲得第二多數(shù)議席的政黨則正式成為"反對黨"，有自己的領袖和影子內(nèi)閣。反對黨的目的是幫助制定政策，它可以經(jīng)常給政府提出批評性的建議和修正議案。

III.The Cabinet and Ministry

內(nèi)閣和內(nèi)閣部長

1. The Prime Minister presides over the Cabinet, is responsible for the allocation of functions among ministersand informs the Queen at regular meetings of general business of the Government. Cabinet members hold meetingsunder the chairmanship of the Prime Minister for a few hours each week to decide Government policy on majorissues.

首相主持內(nèi)閣，負責分配大臣們的職能，在定期會見女王時向女王報告政府事務。內(nèi)閣在 首相的主持下，每周開會幾小時，以決定在重大問題上政府的政策。

2. Ministers are responsible collectively to Parliament for all Cabinet decisions; individual Ministers areresponsible to Parliament for the work of their department.

內(nèi)閣的所有決定由大臣集體向議會負責，各大臣又為各自部門的工作向議會負責。

IV.The Privy Council

樞密院

1. The Privy Council was formerly the chief source of executive power in the state and give private advice tothe King. So the Privy Council was also called the King's Council in history. Today its role is largely formal,advising the sovereign to approve certain government decrees.

樞密院原來是政府行政權力的源泉，給君主提供"私人"建議。它在歷史上也稱為國王議會。今天它的主要作用是禮節(jié)性的，如建議君主批準政府的法令。

2. Its membership is about 400, and includes all Cabinet ministers, the speaker of the House of Common andsenior British and Commonwealth statement.

它的主要成員有400人左右，包括內(nèi)閣閣員，下議院院長及英國，英聯(lián)邦的高級政治家等。

V.Government Department and the Civil Service

政府各部和公務員

1.Commonwealth office, the Ministry of Defense…

主要的政府部門包括：財務部，內(nèi)務部，外交部，國防部等。

2. Members of the Civil Service are called Civil Services. They staff government departments. Civil Servantsare recruited mainly by competitive examination. Civil servants do not belong to any political party. Changesof Government do not involve changes in departmental staff, There are about 541800 civil servants in Britainnow.

文職人員部的成員被稱為公務員。公務員主要是通過競爭考試錄用。公務員部門不屬于任何政黨，政府的變更并不影響部門職員的變更。英國現(xiàn)約有541800名公務員。

VI.Local Government

地方政府部門

1. There are two main tiers of local authority throughout England and Wales: counties and the smallerdistricts. Now, England and Wales are divided into 53 counties which are sub-divided into 369 districts.

英格蘭和威爾士實行兩級地方政府制-郡和比郡小的區(qū)?，F(xiàn)在英格蘭和威爾士分為53個郡，郡下分為369個區(qū)。

2. Greater London is divided into 32 boroughs.

大倫敦被分為32個行政區(qū)。