United Kingdom

Abstract

The United Kingdom’s Parliament took centuries to develop into the institution that it is today, and its role continues to evolve. Created initially as a way to allow the Crown to collect taxes from his or her subjects, the powers of Parliament gradually expanded to supplement and then act on behalf of the Crown in almost all areas. Parliament has met at Westminster, in London, for centuries. The electoral process is heavily regulated by legislation and the “first past the post” system was recently affirmed by a national referendum. The frequency that Parliament must call elections was recently affirmed in statute as being every five years.