Often tested

Parliamentary democracy: from the ballot box to the Prime Minister and cabinet

Britain is run as a parliamentary democracy. The whole country is split into areas called constituencies. At a General Election, the people living in each constituency choose one MP to represent them, and together these MPs make up the House of Commons.

Nearly every MP belongs to a political party. Whichever party has more than half of the MPs forms the government. If no party has over half, two parties may agree to govern together as a coalition.

Here is how it works: voters elect MPs, the monarch invites the leader of the largest party in the Commons to be Prime Minister, and the Prime Minister then appoints the cabinet. Let's start with the Prime Minister.

The Prime Minister and the cabinet

The Prime Minister (or PM) leads whichever party is in power. The PM chooses the members of the cabinet and has the final say over many important public jobs.

The PM lives and works at 10 Downing Street, a short walk from the Houses of Parliament in central London. The PM also has the use of a country house outside London, called Chequers.

A Prime Minister doesn't always stay until the next election. MPs from the governing party can decide to replace their leader, or the PM may choose to step down. And if the governing party is defeated at a General Election, the PM normally resigns.

The cabinet: about 20 senior ministers

The PM picks around 20 senior MPs to run government departments as ministers. Among them are:

• the Chancellor of the Exchequer, in charge of the economy
• the Home Secretary, in charge of crime, policing and immigration
• the Foreign Secretary, who deals with Britain's relations with other countries
• other ministers, known as Secretaries of State, who cover areas such as education, health and defence

This group of ministers is called the cabinet. It normally meets every week to make the most important decisions about government policy, and Parliament often has to discuss or vote on those decisions.

Below the cabinet ministers, every department has more junior ministers, with titles such as Ministers of State or Parliamentary Under-Secretaries of State. Each of them handles one part of the department's work.

The Chancellor's odd title goes back to a medieval royal finance office. Its officials did their sums and collected taxes at a table covered with a chequered cloth, moving counters around on it rather like pieces in a board game, and that cloth gave the Exchequer its name.

Chapter contents: The British Constitution