Legislature, executive and judiciary

Political Science · Government and institutions. The idea in plain words, the rules to remember, the mistake to avoid and a worked example, written and checked by Mega Lecture.

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The idea

The legislature makes laws, controls taxation and the budget, and holds the government to account through debates, questions and committees. It may have one chamber (unicameral) or two (bicameral). In federations the upper chamber usually represents the units.

The executive carries out the laws, runs the administration, conducts foreign policy and defence, and prepares most bills and the budget. It has a political part (head of state, ministers) and a permanent part (the civil service).

The judiciary interprets the law, settles disputes, protects rights and, in many states, guards the constitution. Judges must be free from pressure by the other organs. This supports the rule of law: government itself must act under the law.

Rules to remember

Bicameral: two chambers (UK, USA, India, Pakistan). Unicameral: one chamber (New Zealand, Denmark).
The lower house is usually stronger in parliamentary systems because it is directly elected, controls money and can remove the government.
Nominal executive: the head of state in whose name acts are done. Real executive: Prime Minister and cabinet in a parliamentary system.
Delegated legislation: rules made by ministers or agencies under powers given by an Act of the legislature.
Judicial independence is protected by security of tenure, fixed salaries and appointment free from political control.
A. V. Dicey, Introduction to the Study of the Law of the Constitution (1885).
Dicey's rule of law: (1) supremacy of regular law, no arbitrary power, no punishment except for a breach of law proved in the ordinary courts; (2) equality before the law, officials and citizens under the same courts; (3) constitutional rights are the result of the ordinary law as decided by the courts.

Common mistake

Rule of law is not the same as rule by law. A ruler who uses laws as a tool but stands above them does not satisfy Dicey: his point is that officials too are bound by the ordinary law and answer to the ordinary courts.

Worked example

A police officer damages a citizen's property without lawful authority. The citizen sues, and the officer is tried in the ordinary civil court like any private person. Which of Dicey's principles does this show?

The officer holds public office but receives no special court and no immunity.
He answers under the same law and before the same court as an ordinary citizen.
This is Dicey's second meaning of the rule of law.

Answer: Equality before the law: officials and citizens alike are subject to the ordinary law and the ordinary courts.

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