Limba Engleza Part I

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Elena ntorsureanu

English in Administrative Settings
Part I

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Constitutional Issues .. 3

2. Central Government 13

3. Local Government 24

4. The Balance of Power ... 36

5. Rule Making Procedures .. 48

6. Civil Servants . 58

7. The European Dimension . 69

Bibliography ...79

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UNIT 1 CONSTITUTIONAL ISSUES

Section A The Fundamental Law in the United Kingdom

There is a learned debate about whether Britain actually has a constitution. It clearly
lacks one in a widely used sense of the term: there is no single comprehensive written
code, or document, which sets out the rules affecting the relations between government
institutions and between these institutions and citizens. On the other hand, it does have
one in the sense that there is a body of laws, customs and conventions which define the
composition and powers of organs of the State and regulate the relations of the various
state organs to one another and to the private citizen. In other words, there are established
procedures affecting the conduct of government and politics, and these are largely
adhered to.

Britain has for long been widely regarded as a country that illustrates the claim that it is
not necessary to have a codified constitution to be a constitutional democracy. After all,
Britain has been a stable democracy for over a century and scores relatively highly as a
protector of civil liberties. Some commentators identify the term constitutional with a
system of formal checks and balances on the government and a separation of powers
between government and other bodies.

Expressions of dissatisfaction with the workings of the political system often broadened
into a general concern about the health of British democracy and sometimes fuel
demands for the adoption of a written constitution. In the past, the existence of a
competitive two-party system, with its implicit checks and balances, independent groups
sharing lite values and traditions, and a broad political consensus may have made
constitutional safeguards seem unnecessary. Party competition, lite selfrestraint in the
exercise of power, and a broad political consensus had provided some insurance against
the abuse of power. But critics complain that these safeguards can no longer be taken for
granted.

There is a historical explanation why the British constitution is not codified in one
document. Since the system had evolved over centuries there already existed established
ways of conducting politics in Britain before written constitutions became fashionable. It
is only in the last two hundred years or so starting with the United States, that written
constitutions have spread. Most constitutions were originally adopted by states when they
became independent or suffered a rupture in their evolution through internal collapse or
invasion. In Britain, neither the system of government nor a formal set or rules has been
adopted at one point in time. Instead there is a political system, or set of arrangements,
and a style of politics that have evolved over centuries, rather than a constitution.

In a strict sense the British constitution is not unwritten, for large parts are documented.
An outstanding feature is that its principles are not codified but dispersed across statute
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law, common law, judges interpretations of these laws, and conventions though texts
and commentaries on the constitution do provide some integration.

There are several sources of the constitution including:
1. Statute law, or law made by Parliament, which overrides common law and provides a
substantial part of the constitution. It includes such measures as the Bill of Rights (1689),
the Act of Union with Scotland (1707), successive Representation of the People Acts, and
the Government of Ireland Act (1920). These laws are made and may be unmade by Act
of Parliament, like any other. Even the provision that the House of Commons may not
prolong its own life beyond a five-year span without the consent of the House of Lords
may be changed by the normal legislative process.

2. Case law, or judges interpretations of statutes. Judges do not rule on the validity of a
law, duly passed by Parliament, but they do have the right to decide whether it has been
properly applied. By their interpretations the judges have an opportunity to shape the
application of the law.

3. European community law, expressed in the European Communities Act to which
Britain was a co-signatory in 1972, and subsequently amended by the Single European
Act (1987) and the European Communities (Amendment) Act (1993), which gave effect
to the Maastricht Treaty, now European Union law. British authorities are required to
accept the rules and regulations of the treaties, commitments flowing from them, and
future decisions taken by Community institutions. Community laws and regulations are
made by the European Commission and the Council of Ministers, and the European Court
of Justice declares which laws are self-executing.

4. Common law, for example, the traditional rights and liberties of subjects which have
been handed down by precedents and upheld by the courts.

5. Conventions or rules which, though lacking the force of law, have been adhered to for
so long that they are regarded as having a special authority. The conventions differ in
their firmness. Firm ones include the expectation that Parliament will be called at least
once a year, that the monarch will give her assent to legislation which has duly passed
through the appropriate stages in the two Houses of Parliament, and that the Prime
Minister and government will resign or dissolve Parliament following defeat on a
confidence vote in the Commons. On the other hand, some recent political developments
are matters of debate because no conventions have evolved. One can certainly envisage
political situations in the future where lack of relevant precedents will create uncertainty
about the appropriate course to follow.
Adapted from British Politics, Dennis Kavanagh

A.1. Reading Comprehension
Answer the following questions:
1. What is a constitution?
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2. What are the advantages of a written constitution?
3. Is it necessary for a state to have a codified constitution to be a constitutional
democracy?
4. What does the term constitutional mean?
5. Were constitutional safeguards necessary in the past?
6. Why is the British Constitution not codified?
7. When were most constitutions adopted by states?
8. Which are the sources of the British Constitution?
9. What measures does statute law include?
10. In what way does European Community Law affect the UK?

A.2. Talking Point
Enlarge upon:
There is but one law for all, namely, that law which governs all law, the law of our
Creator, the law of humanity, justice, equity the law of nature, and of nations.
Edmund Burke

A.3. Language Focus
A.3.1. The Simple Present Tense
There is a learned debate about whether Britain actually has a constitution. It clearly
lacks one in a widely used sense of the term
Use
1. general truths
Law governs man, reason the law.
2. regular or habitual actions
We have a party meeting every Wednesday.
3. states
Alice works for a public company.
4. series of events
So I open the door, and I look into the office, and I see the secretary
5. planned future actions
His train arrives at 12.00.
6. in temporal and conditional clauses
Ill phone you when I get to the ministry.
If we dont come up with a brilliant stategy, well have a negative vote.
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7. instead of the present continuous (with the verbs that cannot be used in the progressive
form)
Do you hear me?
Provide other illustrative contexts for each use of the tense.

A.3.2. The Present Continuous Tense
Use
1. actions happening now
We are revising the Present Continuous.
2. actions happening for a limited period at or near the present
Robert is spending a lot of time in the library these days, as he is writing a book
on constitutional reform.
3. progressive change
The democratic process is growing stronger and stronger.
4. frequently repeated actions which annoy the speaker
They are complaining about the party leader all the time.
5. future actions
What are you doing tomorrow ?

Present Simple or Continuous ? Use the appropriate verbal form:
The principle of parliamentary sovereignty 1 .................... (be) perhaps the outstanding
feature of the British constitution, a feature which 2 .................... (render) the political
system unconstitutional in the eyes of some observers. Sovereignty, or the power to
make law, 3 .................... (be) exercised by the Queen, Lords, and Commons assembled.
An Act of Parliament 4 .................... (be) not constrained by any higher laws and no other
authority may rule on its constitutionality. This 5 .................... (mean) that, apart from the
case of European Law, the courts cannot set aside, but only interpret, statute law. Other
countries with written constitutions usually 6 .................... (have) a Supreme Court or
equivalent body which 7 .................... (be) authorized to decide whether the actions of a
government or legislature 8 .................... (be) in line with the Constitution.

A.3.3. Fill each of the numbered blanks in the passage with one suitable word:
The relation of university to constitution 1 .................... simple: it is the breeding ground
of tomorrows statesmen. 2 .................... if not all of our great orators have been born of
the debating halls of university, public school or Inns of Court. But not all students are 3
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.................... in public careers. Many spend their years at 4 .................... devoting
themselves to increasingly minute areas of specialization .
Most important of 5 .................... will be the ideas they have formed at university,
because 6 .................... will give birth to the public opinion of the future. The ideas
which 7 .................... our thinking today were first being discussed in our universities
twenty-five years 8 .................... . To know the future, discover the current ideas of
students. In a generation 9 .................... will govern society.
The constitution, embracing law, monarchy, government, church and university, 10
.................... a subtle and flexible thing. Its real essence 11 .................... in the heart of
man, in those intangible, magnificent qualities such 12 .................... truth, freedom and
justice, which are divine in origin.

A.3.4. Read the next paragraph, underline the wrong words and write in the correct
form. The first one has been done for you as an example:
The custom British view of their own constitution is 1. customary
essentially minimalist in character. It is a set from institutions, 2. ..................
procedures, rules and conventions. This has encouraged 3. ..................
an open-end and pragmatically view of constitutional 4. ..................
change, which has occasionally prompt even British 5. ..................
commentators to concede the difficulty of reconcile the 6. ..................
constitution with the normal logic of constitutionalism. 7. ..................
It is often alleged, that because of the absence of legal 8. ..................
criteria that distinguish constitutional law from other laws, 9. ..................
the definition becomes so broadly that it defined nothing 10. ..................
at all. But such problems rarely disturb the body politic. 11. ..................
Indeed, it has become almost part of the British constitutional 12. ..................
tradition that having acknowledging the constitutions 13. ..................
unorthodox independence from fundamental frameworks of 14. ..................
organization and rights, it is customary to dismiss the deficiency 15. ..................
as be in any way significant. 16. ..................

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Section B Heir Style

There is a good case for changing the rules on royal succession

The British constitution, the Queen once shrewdly observed, has always been puzzling
and always will be. Aspects of it, however, are not merely perplexing but also irrational.
The rules that surround the succession to the throne are among the most anachronistic and
indefensible. Lord Dubs presented proposals yesterday which would provide for new and
far more relevant arrangements. There will be a second reading debate on his Succession
to the Crown Bill next month. It deserves a sympathetic hearing.
There are three major aspects to the legislation. The first would end the pattern of
male primogeniture that allows younger brothers to succeed before older sisters. The
second would delete the part of the Act of Settlement 1701 that prohibits the heir to the
throne marrying a Roman Catholic. The last would abolish the Royal Marriages Act of
1772, a law that requires senior royals to obtain the permission of the monarch to marry
whom they wish or instead wait a year to do so, subject to the intervention of Parliament.
There is not much to be said for any of these provisions. Male supremacy might have
made some sense when the monarch was expected to lead troops into combat. There is no
logic to this now (nor, for that matter, in discriminating against women in the succession
of hereditary peers). If the past 52 years have not demonstrated that a woman is capable
of acting as an accomplished head of state, then nothing will. This should be regarded as
an overdue* and uncontroversial measure.
The Act of Settlement is potentially difficult territory. In banning* Roman Catholics
and those married to them from the throne, this law ultimately allowed George I to
become king before 57 figures with a better blood claim to that title. While the monarch
remains the Supreme Governor of the Church of England, it could be awkward if the
person concerned were not Anglican.
The Dubs scheme, though, does not challenge* this part of legislation. It simply deals
with the absurdity that Prince William could marry a follower of any other religion bar*
Catholicism, even a devout Satanist, without having to abandon his claim to the throne.
In fact, strictly speaking, if a perspective consort converted to Protestantism on her
wedding day and switched back a day later, the law would be satisfied. This is patently* a
ridiculous situation.
The Royal Marriages Act of 1772 is not much better. It was passed at the demotic
insistence of George III who was outraged when two of his brothers wed* women he
deemed* unsuitable (that one of these proved to be a very happy marriage did not
appease* him). It is an entirely archaic requirement.
The Dubs Bill is not likely to reach the statute book in this session of Parliament. It
should, nonetheless, inspire an MP to introduce a Private Members Bill after the next
general election and ministers should then back it. Besides being a worthwhile* reform in
itself, it would be intriguing to see how any parliamentarian could publicly defend the
present method of succession. The British constitution might always be puzzling. It
should not take pride in being ostentatiously bonkers*.
The Times, December 10, 2004

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B.1. Reading Comprehension
Are the following statements true or false?
1. Aspects of the British Constitution are irrational.
2. Lord Dubs presented proposals for improvement.
3. There are five major aspects of the Crown Bill to the legislation.
4. The Act of Settlement 1701 prohibits the heir to the throne marrying an
Anglican.
5. George I became king before 57 figures with a better blood claim to the title.
6. The monarch is the Supreme Governer of the Church of Great Britain.
7. The Royal Marriages Act of 1772 was passed at the insistence of George III.
8. The law requires senior royals to obtain the permission of the monarch to marry
whom they wish.
9. The Dubs Bill will reach the statute book in this session of Parliament.
10. The present method of succession should be maintained.

B.2. Talking Point
Enlarge upon:
If you have a Royal Family you have to make the best of whatever personalities the
genetic lottery comes up with.
Ben Pimlott, Independent, September 13, 1997
A king is an insult to every other man in the land.
Andrew Carnegie
The monarch is a person and a symbol. He makes power and state both intelligible and
mysterious.
Sir Ian Gilmour
The Sovereign has, under a constitutional monarchy such as ours, three rights the right
to be consulted, the right to encourage, the right to warn.
Walter Bagehot, The English Constitution
B 3. Language Focus
B.3.1. Choose the right explanation for each of the following words ( with asterisks in the
text):
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1. overdue A not completed B late C straightforward
2. to ban A to forbid B to maintain C to give
3. to challenge A to enforce B to dispute C to support
4. bar A with B except C on
5. patently A greatly B obviously C by far
6. to wed A to court B to marry C to choose
7. to deem A to see B to prove C to consider
8. to appease A to satisfy B to interest C to regard
9. worthwhile A important B good C revolutionary
10. bonkers A unique B unreasonable C simple

B.3.2. Give the full versions of the following abbreviations:
1. AD
2. FO
3. GBH
4. JP
5. MEP
6. QC
7. v.
8. i.e.
9. L/C
10. PD

B.3.3. Fill in the blanks in the following text with an appropriate term from the list
bellow:
lieutenant-governor usually administration faith institution
represented God advice realms head
The Monarchy is the oldest 1 .................... of government. The Queens title in the UK is
Elisabeth the Second, by the Grace of 2 .................... of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Northern Ireland and of Her other 3 .................... and Territories Queen, Head
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of the Commonwealth, Defender of the 4 .................... . In the Channel Islands and the
Isle of Man she is represented by a 5 .................... .
In addition to being queen of the United Kingdom, the Queen is also 6 .................... of
state of 15 other realms and Head of the Commonwealth. In each country where she is
Head of State, she is 7 .................... by a Governor-General, appointed by her on the 8
.................... of the ministers of the country concerned and independent of the UK
government.
In the Overseas Territories the Queen is 9 .................... represented by governors who are
responsible to the UK Government for the 10 .................... of the countries in which they
serve.

Section C Translation

C.1. Translate into Romanian:
The politics of the British constitution is a conspicuously unorthodox phrase in the
British political system. Political activity in the United Kingdom is normally conceived
as being unerringly accommodated within the structures and processes of a settled
constitutional order. Just as British political life is widely seen as a phenomenon
occurring in, or through, a distinctive pattern of constitutional forms, so the constitution
itself is interpreted primarily as a medium of political exchange, even to the extent of
equating political capability with constitutional legitimacy. Constitutionalism in the
British system, therefore, is often reduced to the notion of a constitution of British
politics i.e. a summation of political experience expressed through forms, processes,
traditions and developments, and substantiated by longevity, continuity, assimilation and
adaptation. It is because of this instinctive conviction in the spontaneous existence of a
determinable constitution, and in the trustworthiness of a political class in maintaining
the constitutions operational integrity, that politics has traditionally not been translated
into constitutional dispute. Just as the term unconstitutionality has little meaning in
British politics, so the idea of a genuine politics of the British constitution has remained a
thoroughly unconventional precept in a system of governance characterized by
convention.
Far from a politics of the constitution, the British system has traditionally been
characterized as one in which the constitution is simply assumed to exist as a self-evident
entity. In fact, it is the very absence of a developed form of constitutional dispute and
speculation that is seen as symptomatic of a living constitution. The British constitution,
therefore, is a presumptive construction. Its notoriety as an unwritten, unassembled and
imprecise collage of discrete parts is turned into a virtue of collective experience and
consensual expression. Only a mature and effectively functioning political community
could operate and maintain such an ethereal set of rules. The constitution evokes a basic
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political settlement rather than embodies one in any documented frame of reference. In
this way, a circular type of constitutional culture is fostered in Britain. Just as the
constitution is assumed to exist from the presupposition of a basic political settlement and
the presence of a political community, so the latter are taken as read from a constitution
that could only remain operational with the benign support and mutual trust of just such a
settled community.
The Politics of the British Constitution, Michael Foley

C.2. Translate into English:
Statul romn
Articolul 1
(1) Romnia este stat naional, suveran i independent, unitar i indivizibil.
(2) Forma de guvernmnt a statului romn este republica.
(3) Romnia este stat de drept, democratic i social, n care demnitatea omului,
drepturile i libertile cetenilor, libera dezvoltare a personalitii umane, dreptatea i
pluralismul politic reprezint valori supreme, n spiritul tradiiilor democratice ale
poporului romn i idealurilor Revoluiei din decembrie 1989, i sunt garantate.
(4) Statul se organizeaz potrivit principiului separaiei i echilibrului puterilor
legislativ, executiv i judectoreasc n cadrul democraiei constituionale.
(5) n Romnia, respectarea Constituiei, a supremaiei sale i a legilor este
obligatorie.
Suveranitatea
Articolul 2
(1) Suveranitatea naional aparine poporului romn, care o exercit prin organele
sale reprezentative, constituite prin alegeri libere, periodice i corecte, precum i prin
referendum.
(2) Nici un grup i nici o persoan nu pot exercita suveranitatea n nume propriu.
Constituia Romniei 2003

Section D Writing

Comment on:
Some men look at constitutions with sanctimonius reverence and deem them like the ark
of the covenant, too sacred to be touched. They ascribe to the men of the preceding age a
wisdom more than human, and suppose what they did to be beyond amendment Laws
and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind As new
discoveries are made, new truths disclosed, and manners and opinions change
institutions must advance also, and keep pace with the times.
Thomas Jefferson in a letter to Samuel Kercheval

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UNIT 2 CENTRAL GOVERNMENT

Section A The Role of the Cabinet

Although British government is often termed Cabinet government, the Cabinet is
actually a committee of the government. The close association of the Cabinet and
government reflects the fact that the sovereignty of the Crown in Parliament has been
vested in the Cabinet. Reference to the British executive may include the government
departments or ministries, the senior ranks of the Civil Service, the Prime Minister and
Cabinet, the Prime Ministers private office, or ministers. Collectively these are
sometimes called the core executive.

The fact that the Cabinet is a collective body and most of its members are ministers with
departmental responsibilities gives it a dual focus. The Cabinet and its members fuse
political and executive functions. Its combination of political and executive work may be
considered under four headings.

1. It is the body in which many of the most important political decisions are taken or to
which they are reported. This is true of a decision to go to war, approve a policy line on
education or something else, and settle the total figure for public spending. Some
decisions such as whether the President of the USA should address a joint gathering of
the two Houses of Parliament may seem trivial, but they will be considered at Cabinet
level because of their potential political sensitivity. According to Lord Wackeham, who
served in Cabinet under Mrs Thatcher and John Major, Cabinet is a reporting and
reviewing body rather than a decision-taker. (1994).

2. It plans the business of Parliament, approving the details and timing of legislation
which is to be laid before Parliament. Such planning is subject to the opposition`s rights
to Supply Days and to propose motions of censure, and to the rights of private members.
Most Cabinet ministers sit in the Commons and ministers determine much of the work of
Parliament by preparing major bills, establishing its agenda, and organizing opinion and
votes to get the legislation passed.

3. It may be the arbiter of policy differences between departments, for example, for
disagreements which cannot be resolved in bilateral negotiations or in Cabinet
committee. Ministers would also expect to be a party to sensitive decisions which affect
the responsibility of the government as a whole.

4. It is the body which provides a general oversight and coordination of the governments
policies.

It is often argued that this last role is not well performed, largely because the pressures of
departmental work prevent Cabinet ministers from considering policies of other
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departments and overall strategy. Some of the institutional changes in recent years have
been an acknowledgement of this weakness and an attempt to rectify it.

Most Cabinet ministers head major departments whose interests they represent in
Cabinet. They wear a departmental as well as a Cabinet hat. Some ministers, like the
Prime Minister, or such non-departmental ministers as Leader of the House or Lord
President of the Council have the opportunity to take a view which transcends
departments. Their own responsibilities or their membership of many inter-departmental
committees bring them into contact with other departments. But a contrary pressure
works on many other ministers. The reputation of the typical minister with his civil
servants, constituency of pressure groups, specialist media reporters, and subject
committee of back-bench MPs depends on his doing a good job for his particular
department, which often turns on increasing its budget.

The Cabinets political authority derives from having the support of a majority of
members of the House of Commons. It is not independent of the Commons but represents
a fusion of the executive and legislature, a contrast to the United States, where the
separation of powers precludes Cabinet officers from being members of Congress. The
rise of one party majority government has weakened the ability of the Commons as a
body to check the Cabinet. Membership of the same political party also helps to unify
Cabinet members; their short-term survival is bound up with that of the party. As elected
politicians they are well qualified to make political assessments of the impact of policies
on the House of Commons, party, and electorate. In the post-war period only a handful of
Cabinet ministers have not had prior experience in the House of Commons, and they have
not been very successful. In contrast, the President of the United States may appoint to
the Cabinet people from other parties or from none. He may even draw on people who
have never stood for election or who are hardly known to him. At the end of the day an
American Cabinet is responsible to the President, not to Congress.

In normal circumstances the Cabinet has been meeting for about two hours each
Thursday when Parliament is sitting, although it can be summoned at any time with
pressing issues. Under Blair it meets for about an hour.

The proceedings of Cabinet are business-like and even formal. The agenda and papers are
circulated in advance and minutes are kept. Remarks are addressed to the Prime Minister
and ministers have until recently been referred to by their titles. Blair introduced the use
of Christian names. The seating of ministers is arranged hierarchically, with the Cabinet
secretary on the Prime Ministers immediate right and holders of the senior posts seated
on the Prime Ministers left or across the table. Ministers have frequently paid tribute to
the serious atmosphere of Cabinet deliberations. There are informal rules governing the
intervention of speakers, with precedence granted to a senior minister or ministers with
departmental interests in the item under discussion. Votes are rare. They advertise
Cabinet divisions, fail to register the political weight and strength of feeling of individual
ministers, and limit the Prime Ministers ability to formulate the sense of the meeting.
Voting, particularly if it is along factional lines, may also weaken the Cabinets collective
sense.
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The Cabinets proceedings are supposed to be secret; all members take a Privy
Councillors oath of secrecy and sign the Official Secrets Act. The agenda and the
subsequent minutes, though circulated, also remain secret. When there is a change of
government, only a record of the decisions remains on the departmental files, and other
material, including discussion papers, is withdrawn.

A Cabinet is also a political body, and therefore beset by divisions and rivalries. Some
divisions are fairly predictable, in terms of spending ministers versus the Treasury, or
spending ministers against each other in the battle for fixed resources, or political
differences between left and right in a Labour Cabinet.

Ministers also differ in their influence. A Prime Minister will give special consideration
to some ministers views because of their personal standing with the party or the public
or because of their office. Some ministers may contribute decisively on matters outside
their departmental business, and on matters of general strategy. A Chancellor of the
Exchequer, in particular, is well placed to intervene on most items. Most ministers,
however, usually keep to their departmental business.
Adapted from British Politics, Dennis Kavanaugh

Answer the following questions :
1. What does the core executive refer to?
2. Which are the functions of the Cabinet?
3. What gives the Cabinet political authority?
4. How is the British system different from the American one?
5. What must the Prime Minister take into consideration when choosing the Cabinet?
6. How many members does a Cabinet usually have?
7. When does the Cabinet meet?
8. What is the nature of the Cabinets proceedings?
9. How is voting perceived?
10. In what way does the position of Chancellor of the Exchequer differ from the other
ones?

A.2. Talking Point
Enlarge upon :
Open government is a contradiction in terms, you can be open or you can have
government. Jonathan Lynn, Anthony Jay Yes Prime Minister
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A.3. Language Focus
A.3.1. The Participle
The Cabinet has been meeting for about two hours each Thursday when Parliament is
sitting although it can be summoned at any time
1. in verb forms
- present and past participles are used to make progressive, perfect and passive verb
forms :
She is reading the ministers comments.
He has announced the arrival of the Prime Minister.
You will be told if the board takes a decision.
2. as adjectives
- present participles describe an action still happening
They came with burning flags before the Senates building.
- past participles describe the result of an action that has happened
One of the offices windows was broken.
3. in participle clauses
- they are often used to describe two actions that happen
a. at the same time
She sat by the fire reading a book.
b. one after the other
Opening his suitcase, he took out his notebook.
- if one action has finished before the other begins, the perfect participle is used
Having finished the draft, the committee left the room.
c. one because of another
Not knowing what else to do, she waited patiently.

Underline all the participles in the following text and identify their use :
No one should be surprised at the appalling consequence of the Governments short-
sighted and ill-considered decision to drop languages as a compulsory subject at GSCE.
In the past year, three quarters of comprehensives have scrapped languages as an exam
requirement, with a 72 per cent drop in the number studying French and a 70 per cent fall
for German. In the poorest areas, the fall has been even more precipitous: 82 per cent of
comprehensives in working-class areas reported that languages have been made optional
after the age of 14. This is unwelcome news, and comes at the very time when Britains
economy, politics, culture, and way of life are more closely linked to mainland Europe
and the global economy than at any other period in history.
It is particularly odd that a Prime Minister with a personal aptitude for foreign languages
should be content to hear the sound of silence. There should be direct intervention by
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Downing-Street to look again at this policy. For in whatever language you might speak,
this is a bad decision.

A.3.2. The word assessment in the text is made up of the verb to assess and the ending
-ment. Nouns formed in this way refer to the process of making or doing something, or to
the result of this process.
Use the definitions to find words constructed in a similar way :
1. successful completion a_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
2. act of accepting the truth a_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
3. task or duty given to sb a_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
4. success in reaching a_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
5. pledge, undertaking c_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
6. new stage or event d_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
7. thing depended on or needed r_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
8. arrangement, promise or contract made with sb a_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
9. statement that makes sth known a_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
10. discussion based on reasoning a_ _ _ _ _ _ _

A.3.3. Match the words below to their definitions using the following grid :
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

1. body a. government department
2. policy b. plan of action
3. committee c. group of people working or acting as a unit
4. ministry d. group of people appointed to deal with sth
5. gathering e. meeting
6. minister f. person at the head of a government department
7. bill g. formal proposal to be voted at a meeting
8. motion h. draft of a proposed law
9. agenda i. right to come before sb/sth
10. precedence j. matter of business to be discussed at a meeting
18
A.3.4. Fill in the blanks in the following text with an appropriate term from the list :
confidence opinion ministers feature term
its linked support on for
The 1 .................... responsible government has different usages; for example, the
government is responsive to public 2 .................... , is prudent to the exercise of 3
.................... duties, or is answerable to Parliament. This latter is the most important
practical constitutional 4 .................... . The idea of responsible government is 5
.................... to two important constitutional conventions: (1) the individual responsibility
of 6 .................... to Parliament for the conduct of their departments, and (2) the
collective responsibility of the Cabinet 7 .................... the conduct of the policies. If the
Cabinet loses the 8 .................... of the Commons, expressed in a vote 9 .................... an
important measure or a motion of 10 .................... , it is expected either to resign or to
dissolve the Parliament.

Section B Hunted Down

A lamentable failure of leadership from the Prime Minister

Oscar Wilde memorably dismissed fox hunting as the unspeakable in full pursuit of the
uneatable. The parliamentary campaign to ban what a minority are entitled to regard as
part of their way of life, has, though, been a case of the implacable in full pursuit of the
illogical. Hundreds of hours of parliamentary time have been wasted, many more
hundreds of hours of courtroom time lie ahead and perhaps thousands of hours of police
time might be consumed if and when this measure is implemented*. It has been a
ludicrous spectacle politically and utterly divisive socially. Nothing positive will come of
it. This has been an episode of parliamentary madness.
It also reflects especially badly on the Prime Minister. On Tuesday night he finally
chose to cast a vote in the House of Commons on this question. He opted to back the
compromise option, namely allowing hunting to continue but under a strict system of
licence and regulation. He did so on the basis that it was in the best interests of the
country. He could not, however, inspire many government colleagues to join him. A
reasonable proposal went down by a 117-vote margin.
Tony Blair can only blame himself for this outcome*. If the middle way, which he
has come round to supporting publicly, is in the best interests of the country now, it
surely must have been so for the past seven years. Yet Mr Blair has consistently failed to
declare his hand, signalling a distaste for the hunting ban through nods and winks,
newspaper leaks and by proxy, courtesy of supporters sent out to be shot politically on
19
behalf of their master. He has continually deluded* himself that something, almost
anything might eventually turn up to relieve* him of this issue. Now he has been hunted
down by Labour MPs as a consequence of his own indecision.
Mr Blair might hope that his belated* vote will be taken as a conciliatory gesture. It
will not. If anything, the Prime Minister has left himself in the worst of all worlds.
Labour MPs and party activists will be irritated that his previous claims to favour an
outright* ban were insincere, while those who aspire to continue their pastime* have no
reason to thank a man who could have blocked this illiberal measure at an earlier stage in
the proceedings, but conspicuously* declined to do so.
The broader impression left is that of a paradoxical prime minister. Mr Blair has
shown admirable courage in foreign affairs not just in Iraq, but on Kosovo and Sierra
Leone as well. Yet he has been incapable of mobilizing the moderate and rational wing of
his party through leadership on the infinitely less awkward matter of the precise methods
by which the fox population is kept within sensible* numbers. Tough restrictions on
foxhunting are appropriate. A total ban is excessive.
This should not, nevertheless, be an excuse for those who have lost in the House of
Commons to engage in antiparliamentary militancy. There will be an opportunity for
them to challenge both the legality of the Parliament Act 1949 and to explore whether the
Human Rights Act offers them succour*. They should do so patiently and in a measured
tone and not suggest that they believe the law of the land if that is what the ban
becomes incorporated within is a thing that they are entitled to approach la carte.
Responsibility must be the order of the hour. It is an immense pity that Mr Blair himself
did not act responsibly when it really would have counted.
The Times, November 18, 2004

B.1 Reading Comprehension
Complete the following statements:
1. Oscar Wilde described fox hunting as .............................. .
2. The parliamentary campaign to ban fox hunting required .............................. .
3. This episode reflects especially badly on .............................. .
4. The Prime Minister opted to .............................. .
5. Tony Blair was not able .............................. .
6. .............................. went down by a 117-vote margin.
7. The middle way is in the best interest of .............................. .
8. .............................. has consistently failed to declare his hand.
9. Tough restrictions on fox hunting .............................. .
10. Responsibility must be .............................. .

20
B. 2. Talking Point
Enlarge upon:
The democratic principle of public governance sets out tremendous expectations of, and
responsibilities for, those who held high elected office. Theirs is a responsibility to
provide both leadership and vision, a role for which, in some cases, they may be said to
be unprepared.
Eileen Milner, Managing Information in the Public Sector

B.3. Language Focus
B.3.1. Choose the right explanation for each of the following words (with asterisks in the
text):
1. to implement A to carry out B to pass C to discuss
2. outcome A situation B result C decision
3. to delude A to encourage B to deceive C to hope
4. to relieve A to connect B to take away C to liberate
5. belated A very late B determined C hurried
6. outright A complete B partial C monitored
7. pastime A trivial occupation B pleasant activity C meaningless pursuit
8. conspicuously A noticeably B frankly C readily
9. sensible A short B reasonable C soft
10. succour A acknowledgement B solution C support

B.3.2. Phrasal verbs TURN
Something might eventually turn up to relieve him of this issue.
Fill in the blanks with the appropriate missing item. Choose from:
against down round back on in away over out to
1. The project must go ahead. There can be no turning .................... .
2. The representative turned .................... the party leader when he saw the formers
hesitating attitude.
3. Hundreds of people had to be turned .................... from the square as the march
threatened to become a violent one.
21
4. He tried to join the army but was turned .................... flat because of poor health.
5. How could he turn .................... and vote against the proposal when all his colleagues
voted for it?
6. The job was damaging his health so he had to turn it .................... .
7. The discussion turned .................... the need for better public health care.
8. The faculty has turned .................... some first-rate scholars.
9. Customs officials turned the man .................... to the police.
10. The party members turned .................... and had the whole project proposal finished
in one afternoon.

B.3.3. Fill each of the numbered blanks in the passage with one suitable word:
The responsibility of choosing the Prime Minister and other government ministers 1
.................... to the monarch. However, in 2 .................... , the Queen must choose the
leader of the party which has the majority in the 3 .................... of Commons. It is the
electorate 4 .................... decide which the largest party will be, and the members of the
party who select their leader, and so the Queens 5 .................... of choice is extremely
limited. Once a Prime Minister has been 6 .................... it is he or she who chooses the
members of the 7 ...................., and these men and women are then presented to the
Queen as her ministers.
8 .................... is certain is that the monarch cannot ask a politician without parliamentary
support to become Prime Minister, as such a person is not able to form a government, and
it is not possible to be a Prime Minister 9 .................... an administration. In theory, the
Queen could 10 .................... a member of the House of Lords to form a Government
made up of the Lords, but in practice, it is no 11 .................... considered acceptable for a
Prime Minister to sit in the Lords, and any such action would lead to an enormous outcry
and would probably 12 .................... the position of the monarch irreparably.

22

The British system of government is the product of centuries of development that has
followed no precise pattern or rigid lines, but rather a course of trial and error. This has at
times led to passionate disagreements and bitter feuds, and on some occasions to open
conflict. As Britain has no written constitution and relies on a mixture of statute law,
common law and conventions (that is, practices and precepts that although not part of a
legal code are nevertheless generally accepted), the system of government has remained
flexible. Sometimes the system has appeared to be too flexible and different
interpretations of the role of certain institutions have been possible at different periods of
time. Thus one will find no exact definition of the duties and powers of the British Head
of State, beyond the fact that Britain is a monarchy. In theory the monarchs powers
appear to be as absolute as they were during the Middle Ages, but in practice this power
is restricted in a number of ways.
The system of government that exists in Britain today can perhaps be best described as
a mixed governmental system, with the monarch seeming to be, and Parliament in fact
being, the senior partner. The monarchy is hereditary, and so when a king or queen dies
he or she is automatically succeeded by the next in line. Membership of the House of
Lords is largely hereditary, too, although there are also various categories of life peers.
The lower house, the House of Commons, is however elected by the British people, and
thus represents, or is claimed to represent, their wishes. Over the centuries the Crown and
the Lords, that is the hereditary elements of the system, have gradually lost power to the
Commons, the representatives of the people.
Modern Britain, John Irwin

Rolul i funciile Guvernului
Art. 1. (1) Guvernul este autoritatea public a puterii executive, care funcioneaz n
baza votului de ncredere acordat de Parlament i care asigur realizarea politicii interne
i externe a rii i exercit conducerea general a administraiei publice.
(2) Guvernul are rolul de a asigura funcionarea echilibrat i dezvoltarea sistemului
naional economic i social, precum i racordarea acestuia la sistemul economic mondial
n condiiile promovrii intereselor naionale.
(3) Guvernul se organizeaz i funcioneaz n conformitate cu prevederile
constituionale, avnd la baz Programul de guvernare acceptat de Parlament.
(4) Numirea Guvernului se face de Preedintele Romniei pe baza votului de ncredere
acordat Guvernului de Parlament.
(5) Pentru realizarea Programului de guvernare Guvernul exercit urmtoarele funcii:
a) funcia de strategie, prin care se asigur elaborarea strategiei de punere n aplicare a
Programului de guvernare;
b) funcia de reglementare, prin care se asigur elaborarea cadrului normativ i
instituional necesar n vederea realizrii obiectivelor strategice;
23
c) funcia de administrare a proprietii statului, prin care se asigur administrarea
proprietii publice i private a statului, precum i gestionarea serviciilor pentru care
statul este responsabil;
d) funcia de reprezentare, prin care se asigur, n numele statului romn,
reprezentarea pe plan intern i extern;
e) funcia de autoritate de stat, prin care se asigur urmrirea i controlul aplicrii
respectrii reglementrilor n domeniul aprrii, ordinii publice i siguranei naionale,
precum i n domeniile economic i social i al funcionrii instituiilor i organismelor
care i desfoar activitatea n subordinea sau sub autoritatea Guvernului.
Legea nr. 90/2001 privind organizarea i funcionarea Guvernului Romniei i a
ministerelor

Section D Writing

Comment on:
To grasp and hold a vision, that is the very essence of successful leadership not only on
the movie set where I learned it, but everywhere.
Ronald Reagan
The art of leadership is saying no, not yes. It is very easy to say yes.
Tony Blair in Mail on Sunday, October 2, 1999

24
UNIT 3 LOCAL GOVERNMENT

Section A What Local Government Is

The governance of modern society is an enormous task. In Great Britain half of the
nations annual income flows through the hands of the government, and some 20 per cent
of the labour force are employed in the state sector. Government is, therefore, a big and
complex business.

For this reason most countries find it necessary to decentralize their administration, in
other words to arrange for services to be provided and decisions to be made away from
the centre or capital and in the field or locally. Such decentralization can take a number
of forms. The simplest is known as deconcentration, whereby the officers of the central
government (the civil servants) are dispersed into local and regional offices such as the
local tax or benefits office. Another simple form is functional decentralization, in which
a particular service or function is hived off from the central government to a semi-
independent-organization commonly referred to as quango (quasi-autonomous non
governmental organization). Among their estimated 5,000, examples include the Post
Office, The Arts Council, the British Council, the Gaming Board, the Housing
Corporation, The Rural Development Commission, NHS Trusts, the Higher Education
Funding Council and Police Authorities. Regional devolution (or regionalism) is more
complex and involves the limited transfer by the central government of political and
administrative authority to a regional body, such as the Scottish Parliament or the Welsh
Assembly and their executives. Local government is an examle of such devolution, but
on a more local basis. Local government is self-government involving the administration
of public affairs in each locality by a body of elected representatives of the local
community known as the local authority (or council). Although subject to the central
government in many ways, local authorities possess a considerable amount of
responsibility and discretionary power.

Local government, then, is one of a number of forms of decentralization. This helps to
explain why it can be so confusing: it resembles so many other administrative structures
to be found in the modern state ministries, departments, authorities, boards,
corporations, agencies, bureaux, councils and so on. Consequently it is not surprising that
many people mistakenly believe, for example, that local authorities run the hospitals
(which are actually the responsibility of appointed Health Authorities or self-governing
trusts) or think that social workers are paid by the Minister responsible for social services
(in fact they are employed by the local authorities, who pay their salaries out of the rates
and council tax). The situation has become much more diffuse in recent years.
Consequently, the concept of local governance has emerged to reflect the fact that local
areas are governed by a range of bodies, not just the local authority or the council.

There are, however, a number of characteristics which mark out local government as a
distinctive form of public administration. Thus local government is elected. Although
25
some areas (parishes and communities) are small enough to need only a simple meeting
of the local people, most local authorities consist of representatives chosen by the
members of the community at properly constituted elections. These elected members
form the local council, which then recruits the full-time paid staff of the authority,
including engineers, accountants, teachers, clerks and bin-men. These employees
resemble the States civil servants and are organized at the town hall or county hall into
departments such as the Education Department, the Housing Department or the Social
Services Department.

It follows that local government is multi-purpose: every local authority has many jobs to
do and a variety of services to provide. An individual local authority may be responsible
for the provision of schools, homes for the elderly and training centres for the disabled;
fire services; road building and maintenance, and traffic management; and the control of
the environment through the regulation of building and land development. By contrast,
the quangos and public corporations tend to be concerned with just one particular
service or field of activity, such as health (the Health Authorities, the Food Standards
Agency), culture (the Arts Council, the BBC) or racial discrimination (the Commission
for Racial Equality).

The third feature of local government is the local scale of its operations: each authority
has responsibility in its area only. Some of these areas (the parishes and communities) are
very local in scale. But most of the more important authorities operate over the area of a
county or over a small or large district (within or between counties).

Fourthly, local government has a quite clearly defined structure. This consists of either
two tiers (made up of 34 large county councils plus 238 smaller district councils), or 169
single-tier councils. These all constitute the principal local authorities. In addition,
many parts of the country have parishes or communities making up a modest third tier.

The next feature of local government is that it is subordinated to the national authority,
which is Parliament. Local authorities come into existence as a result of legislation
passed by Parliament, and all such authorities are subject to the law. If a local authority
steps outside the law (for example by failing to do something which the law requires it to
do, such as not providing schools) it will be liable to the rigours and sanctions of the law
in the same way as private people are. Parliament alone has sovereignty: local authorities
exercise power to the extent that Acts of Parliament allow (though Britains membership
of the Europen Union now places some limits on the power of the UK Parliament).

Although local authorities carry out those responsibilities handed on to them by
Parliament, it is misleading to see them simply as agents acting for the central
government in the administration of certain services. While subject to certain controls
operated by the central government, the local authorities work in partnership with it, and
they possess a freedom and initiative which justifies their being described as bodies
exercising self-government.

26
Enabling them to do this, and the last important feature of local government, is the local
tax system, comprising a local council tax on residents and a rate (or property tax) on
businesses. Locally determined taxes (in the form of rates) have been collected by local
authorities for centuries. Although local taxation has not been the chief source of local
government incomes in recent years, it is still important and provides local authorities
with some degree of independence and flexibilitty.
Local Government in Britain, Tony Byrne

A.1. Reading Comprehension:
1. Why is decentralization necessary?
2. What is a quango?
3. What does regional devolution involve?
4. Does local government have complete discretionary power?
5. What does the concept of local governance reflect?
6. Who forms the local council?
7. What is the purpose of local government?
8. What is the structure of local government?
9. What is the relationship between local government and Parliament?
10. What does the local tax system comprise?

A.2. Talking Point
Enlarge upon:
Nowhere has democracy ever worked well without a great measure of local self-
government ... Where the scope of the political measures becomes so large that the
necessary knowledge is almost exclusively possessed by the bureaucracy, the creative
impulses of the private person must flag.
Tony Byrne, Local Government in Britain

A.3. Language Focus
A.3.1. CAN; COULD
Decentralization can take a number of forms.
Use
1. to express ability
27
I can read Italian, but I cant speak it.
They could have helped the people in the region but they didnt.
- be able to can often be used with similar meanings
2. to express possibility and probability
I dont think that the tax problem can be solved.
It cant be true that the government will come forward with new laws on
property.
3. interpersonal uses
permission
Can I ask you something?
offers
Can I help you with those files?
requests
Could you lend me your notes until tomorrow?
mild commands
When youve finished printing those documents, you can write these letters.
suggestions
If you havent got anything to do you could sort out these papers.
criticism
You could ask before you borrow my phone.
4. to form the progressive
- it is used with verbs that are not normally used in the continuous
e.g. perception verbs: see, hear, taste ...
Can you hear somebody coming up the stairs?

Complete the following sentences using can, could or be able to:
1. The public domain .............................. .
2. If the minister came a little earlier, .............................. .
3. .............................. if we had a complaint about a civil servant.
4. Administrative authorities ........................................ .
5. .............................. when you arrived at the office.
6. Only the MP responsible for this area .............................. .
7. Local govenment .............................. .
8. Elections .............................. .
9. .............................. only after your licence has been issued.
10. .............................. if the secretary had been present.

28
Local government is 1 .................... as an efficient method of administering certain
sevices. This efficiency is explained on one or more of the following 2 .................... : (a)
local authorities consist of 3 .................... who are drawn from the local populace and
who therefore have 4 .................... knowledge or sensitivity and a commitment and
responsiveness 5 .................... the local area and its people; 6 .................... specifically
local focus makes for effective mediation on the different and conflicting interests
(planning, traffic, school closure etc.) 7 .................... the community; (b) local authorities
are multi-purpose bodies and 8 .................... therefore secure a greater degree of
coordination and policy integration: for 9 .................... , since the same council may be
responsible for planning, roads and housing, the liaison 10 .................... these different
services and deparments is easier and closer; (c) public administration generally benefits
11 .................... the existence of local authorities because they off-load responsibilities
from 12 .................... government departments and the civil 13 .................... , who would
14 .................... be overburdened with work.

A.3.3. Complete the following table with the corresponding verb(s), noun(s) or
adjective(s) where appropriate:
Noun Verb Adjective
governance
executive
employ
devolution
administrative
resemble
provision
functional
elect
authority

29
A.3.4. Choose the word A, B or C which best completes each sentence:
1. Quangos are independent agencies .................... to perform some service or to
administer a public sector activity.
A set up B devised C made
2. Many combine several roles and are .................... difficult to classify.
A since B therefore C so
3. Most of the boards or managing committees are .................... either by the Prime
Minister or a Minister.
A given B decided C appointed
4. They are given a general responsibility .................... in either a charter or a statute.
A written B defined C rendered
5. The staff of these bodies are not .................... servants as such, but they are public
sector employees.
A. civil B public C official
6. Nevertheless, the ultimate political responsibility .................... with the government
Minister.
A stays B rests C comes
7. Quangos are given considerable freedom so as to keep politics .................... their day-
to-day operations.
A out of B from C off
8. Elected self government has been .................... by non elected specialised bodies.
A reformed B changed C superseded
9. Local government implies the predominance of governmental activity .................... by
elected local councils.
A undertaken B decided C chosen
10. Local governance means greater plurality of provision and control, .................... local
authorities, government departments, private and voluntary bodies, joint ventures
and quangos.
A. from B via C with

30
Section B Career Opportunities

B.1.1. Read the following advertisements and choose the position that appeals to you
most giving arguments for your choice:

Head of International Education (Government Partnerships)
43,480 - 56,286
Ref: CL325

31

32
B.1.2. Read the following nine rules written by a managing director and put down your
own rules for a successful working environment:
Lessons I Have Learnt
Nabila Sadiq, managing director of Joslin Rowe Temporaries and former Asian
Businesswoman of the Year
1. Dress for success. If you want to be taken seriously, you need to look smart and dress
appropriately at all times.
2. Body language. A firm handshake and eye contact reflects confidence and ensures that
your audience will take you seriously. It is important that people are aware of their body
language and dont fidget.
3. Make time for people. It is very easy to become caught up in your own workload.
Ensure that your staff know that you are available to provide help, advice and coaching
when it is needed.
4. Be a strong leader. Always provide your staff with a clear direction. If you fail to give
your staff the guidance that they require, they will not be able to complement your
performance, and in the long term they will hold you back.
5. Allow individuals to make mistakes. Mistakes give people the opportunity to improve
and develop from their experiences.
6. Dont allow personal relationships to affect your judgement. Treat everybody equally;
dont allow personal friendships to cloud your judgement.
7. Listen to other peoples opinions. There are different ways of looking at any given
situation and people deserve to have their opinions heard.
8. Work hard. Success is never easily achieved, I have yet to come across anyone who
has become successful without putting in hard work and long hours when necessary.
9. Smile. A sense of humour always helps.

B.2. Talking Point
Enlarge upon:
In order to value people, companies must move beyond the notion of human resources
and toward the notion of human capital. The very term resource (from the Latin
33
resurgere, to rise again) implies an available supply that can be drawn upon when
needed. ... But are people a resource in this sense? Or are they more like a form of capital
something that gains or loses value depending upon how much we invest in it?
Eileen Milner, Managing Information in the Public Sector

B.3. Language Focus
Complete each of the following sentences with one suitable phrase, making all the
necessary changes . Choose from the following:
to work ones way all in a days work the work of a few moments
to set to work to work to rule to make light work to work ones notes up into
to be in/out of work to have ones work cut out good works
1. If you want to finish until 3 pm you have .................... .
2. She has been involved in all kind of charity organisations for he last 5 years. Doing
.................... seems to be a priority in her life.
3. Talking to clients is.................... for a lawyer.
4. They .................... of filling all those papers. They needed only a few hours.
5. He was looking forward to ................... again. .................... for a year really got him
down.
6. It was ................... to hide the damage.
7. Youll .................... getting there by nine oclock.
8. I .................... a dissertation.
9. As the manager refused to listen to their complaints, the employees threatened
.................... .
10. The board .................... still ..................... through the application forms.


The rise of local government is closely tied to the process of industrialisation which
gathered momentum in Britain from the middle of the eighteenth century. The movement
of population from rural to urban areas was accompanied by severe problems of
overcrowding, law and order, and ill-health. The immediate response to this was the
34
creation of a series of ad hoc, single purpose bodies which included poor law boards,
turnpike trusts and boards of improvement commissioners. The powers of the
improvement commissioners varied but often included responsibility for paving,
cleansing, the lighting of streets and the provision of watchmen. These ad hoc responses
were viewed by many as inadequate in administrative terms. Moreover, the ad hoc bodies
operated alongside a system of local government institutions effectively controlled by
Tory squires and traditional landowning interests. The prosperous entrepreneurs that
increasingly dominated the expanding towns and cities resented their lack of control over
the full range of civic affairs. In response to these pressures there were created elected
municipal councils.
The creation of these municipal boroughs or corporations in many towns and cities is
widely viewed as the beginning of the British modern system of local goverment.The
municipal boroughs shared key characteristics of modern local authorities in that they
were responsible for a range of functions and directly elected. The functions of these
municipal boroughs were, of course, very different to those of modern local authorities
and the franchise was limited to male rate-payers of more than three years residence.
Crucially, however, the principle of local self-government had been established.
The middle years of the nineteenth century witnessed a continued concern with the
consequences of industrialisation and urbanisation. Various legislative measures gave
additional or new responsibiliy for public health, highways, housing, poor relief and
education to the institutions of local government. The municipal boroughs took some of
the powers, as did the long established and unelected county and parish agencies in rural
areas. There was also a substantial proliferation of ad hoc bodies. The result was a very
complex local government system with a range of agencies, all, perhaps, able to raise a
rate and with overlapping boundaries.
The Politics of Local Government, Gerry Stoker

Art. 2. (1) Administraia public n unitile administrativ-teritoriale se organizeaz
i funcioneaz n temeiul principiilor autonomiei locale, descentralizrii serviciilor
publice, eligibilitii autoritilor administraiei publice locale, legalitii i al consultrii
cetenilor n soluionarea problemelor locale de interes deosebit.
(2) Aplicarea principiilor prevzute la alin. (1) nu poate aduce atingere caracterului de
stat naional, unitar i indivizibil al Romniei.
Art. 3. (1) Prin autonomie local se nelege dreptul i capacitatea efectiv a
autoritilor administraiei publice locale de a soluiona i de a gestiona, n numele i n
interesul colectivitilor locale pe care le reprezint, treburile publice, n condiiile legii.
(2) Acest drept se exercit de consiliile locale i primari, precum i de consiliile
judeene, autoriti ale administraiei publice locale alese prin vot universal, egal, direct,
secret i liber exprimat.
(3) Dispoziiile alin. (2) nu aduc atingere posibilitii de a recurge la consultarea
locuitorilor prin referendum sau prin orice alt form de participare direct a cetenilor
la treburile publice, n condiiile legii.
(4) Prin colectivitate local se nelege totalitatea locuitorilor din unitatea
administrativ-teritorial.
35
Art. 4. (1) Autonomia local este numai administrativ i financiar, fiind exercitat
pe baza i n limitele prevzute de lege.
(2) Autonomia local privete organizarea, funcionarea, competenele i atribuiile,
precum i gestionarea resurselor care, potrivit legii, aparin comunei, oraului sau
judeului, dup caz.
Art. 5. (1) Competenele i atribuiile autoritilor administraiei publice locale se
stabilesc numai prin lege. Aceste competene sunt depline i exclusive, cu excepia
cazurilor prevzute de lege.
(2) Autonomia local confer autoritilor administraiei publice locale dreptul ca, n
limitele legii, s aib iniiative n toate domeniile, cu excepia celor care sunt date n mod
expres n competena altor autoriti publice.
Art. 6. (1) Raporturile dintre autoritile administraiei publice locale din comune i
orae i autoritile administraiei publice de la nivel judeean se bazeaz pe principiile
autonomiei, legalitii, responsabilitii, cooperrii i solidaritii n rezolvarea
problemelor ntregului jude.
(2) n relaiile dintre autoritile administraiei publice locale i consiliul judeean, pe
de o parte, precum i ntre consiliul local i primar, pe de alt parte, nu exist raporturi de
subordonare.
Art. 7. (1) Exercitarea competenelor i atribuiilor stabilite prin lege revine
autoritilor administraiei publice locale care se gsesc cel mai aproape de cetean.
(2) Stabilirea de competene i atribuii pentru alte autoriti dect cele prevzute la
alin. (1) trebuie s in seama de amploarea i de natura rspunderii ce le revine, precum
i de cerinele de eficien i eficacitate.
(3) Autoritile administraiei publice centrale nu pot stabili sau impune nici un fel de
de responsabiliti autoritilor administraiei publice locale n procesul de descentralizare
a unor servicii publice, fr asigurarea mijloacelor financiare corespunztoare pentru
realizarea respectivelor responsabiliti.
Legea nr. 215/2001 privind administraia public local

Section D Writing:

D.1. Choose two examples of quangos in your locality. Explain their functions, who
appoints their members and discover as much as you can about the backgrounds of the
people appointed.
D.2. Comment on:
It is necessary to be somewhat underemployed if you want to do something significant.
James D. Watson in H. Judson, The Eighth Day of Creation
Your work parallels your life, but in the sense of a glass full of water where people look
at it and say: Oh, the water is the same shape as the glass!
Francis Ford Coppola: interview in the Guardian October 15, 1988
36
UNIT 4 THE BALANCE OF POWER

Section A Central Local Relations

Relations between central and local government came under growing strain in the 1980s
and as a result left local government a much enfeebled body. For long there has been a
debate about whether the central-local relationship is or should be one of partnership, or
if local government should be an agent of the centre. It has been a question of finding the
right balance between local autonomy which, if pushed to the limit, may result in marked
disparities between authorities in the provision of services, and central guidance and
control which, if pushed to the limit, might make local government merely the executive
arm of central government. Few people in local government are satisfied, however, that
the relationship between central and local government at present strikes a proper balance.

Different models have been employed to describe the central-local relationship. In
support of the agency model, it can be noted that central government has the power to
create or abolish the units and powers of local government. In this model, the national
framework of a policy is established and largely financed centrally and local authorities
carry it out, with little scope for discretion or variation. The partnership model claims
that the authorities do have some scope for local choice. Local government has its own
political legitimacy, finance (from the council tax) resources, and even legal powers, and
the balance of power between the centre and locality fluctuates, according to the context.
There is too much variation in local services to sustain the agency model, even though
local authorities are clearly subordinate in the partnership. Yet one needs to remember
that, for all the well-publicized conflicts, the normal pattern is one of cooperation,
consultation, and even bargaining.

The relationship between the two levels of government is based on a mix of controls,
dependence and cooperation. Local authorities have few legislative powers themselves;
all local powers are conferred by Parliament and may be amended or withdrawn by it. If a
local authority exceeds its powers then its actions will lack legal validity, and it may be
held ultra vires by the courts. Powers are conferred in private or general Acts relating to a
particular function, like education. Some responsabilities are mandatory, such as the
compulsory sale of council houses to tenants, and some are permissive, such as whether
or not local authorities reorganize secondary schools on comprehensive lines.

There are also controls which stem from central governments involvement in many
services. The provision of primary and secondary education is the responsability of local
auhorities. However, the scope of the curriculum and training and the supply of teachers
lie largely in the hands of the Department of Education, and the school-leaving age is
decided by Parliament. Under the Education Reform Act (1988) the government assumed
greater power over the curriculum and introduced nationwide assessment of pupils.
Another source of central influence is the power to approve the appointment and
dismissal of certain chief officers. The approval of the Home Secretary, for example, is
37
required for the appointment of a local Chief Constable, and the approval of the
appropriate minister is necessary for appointments of chief education officers or directors
of social services. Inspectors in education, police, fire and social services are all
employed by central government to report on the standards and efficiency of the services.
A local authoritys building plans for schools and the making of by-laws, require the
approval of the appropriate department. Central government circulars also contain advice
and guidance to local auhorities. In finance the government has the power to reduce a
local auhoritys central grant if the latter is deemed to have overspent, and it approves
local auhority applications to raise a loan for new capital expenditure.

Finally, there are the legal controls which the government, organizations, or even
individuals may invoke if an authority has broken the law. Local auhorities may provide
only those services which they are empowered to by statute. The Audit Commission
appoints auditors to inspect the local authority accounts each year to establish that all
expenditure has been duly authorized. Individual councillors may be held responsible and
surcharged for any authorized expenditure and even disqualified from membership of a
local auhority.

One has to beware of portraying local government in general, or even a particular local
auhority, as monolithic and unified. The continuing importance of committees,
departments, parties, and factions make an authority appear pluralistic to people who
work in it. Local auhorities also vary in their orientations to Whitehall; differences in
size, resources, powers, problems, and needs affect their relationships with government
departments. There is no single spokesman for the local auhorities; the task is shared by
the various local auhority associations (such as the Association of County Councils and
the Association of Metropolitan Authorities) which may be further divided on party or
political grounds. Although there is a Minister for Local Government in the Department
of the Environment, Transport, and the Regions Whitehall is still effectively
departmentalized. Government departments negotiate with functional bodies or with the
professional associations of chief officers the Department of Education, for example,
negotiates with the Association of Education Committees. In their dealings with local
authorities about particular services, Whitehall departments varied between a laissez-faire
approach at one extreme to interventionist strategies at the other.
From British Politics, Dennis Kavanagh

A.1. Reading Comprehension:
Complete the following statements:
1. In the agency model, the national framework of a policy is established and largely
financed .............................. and local authorities carry it out.
2. The partnership model claims that the authorities do have some scope for
.............................. choice.
3. The relationship between the two levels of government is based on a mix of
............................... .
38
4. All local powers are conferred by .............................. .
5. The provision of primary and secondary education is the responsibility of ...................
........... authorities.
6. The appointment of a local Chief Constable requires the approval of the ....................
.......... .
7. Inspectors in education, police, fire and social services are employed by ....................
.......... .
8. Central government circulars contain .............................. to local authorities.
9. Local authorities may provide only those services which they are empowered to by
.............................. .
10. The Audit Commission appoints auditors to inspect the .............................. each year.

A.2. Talking Point
Enlarge upon:
To govern is to choose.
Duc de Lvis, Maximes et Rflexions
Men in great place are thrice servants: servants of the sovereign or state; servants of
fame and servants of business.
Francis Bacon, Of Great Place

A.3. Language Focus
A.3.1. The Simple Past Tense
Relations between central and local government came under growing strain in the 1980s
and as a result left the local government a much feebler body.

Use
1. states or actions completed in the past
John was the first manager of the company.
The Germans held elections a week ago.
2. in a sequence of past events
William opened the door, went to the desk and started searching ...
3. habitual or regular actions
He always spent his afternoons in the library.

39
Have you had a pleasant/unpleasant experience in an administrative setting? Describe
the happening using the various instances of the Simple Past Tense.

A.3.2. The Past Continuous Tense
Use
1. activities happening at a particular time in the past
I was watching a programme on Discovery at 9 am yesterday.
2. actions that are interrupted
He was learning for his exam, when the phone rang.
3. special uses: always, continually
I didnt like him he was always showing off.
4. past continuous vs past simple: temporary vs. permanent
incomplete vs. complete
It happened while I was living in Germany last year.
I lived in London for ten years when I was a child.

Past Simple or Continuous? Choose the appropriate verbal form:
The traditional units of English local Government 1 .................... (be) the parish, the
borough and the county. As is the case with so many other British institutions, they
originally 2 .................... (fulfil) functions far different from those that they 3
.................... later .................... (call upon) to undertake. The parish 4 .................... (be) in
its early days an ecclesiastical unit, the centre of which 5 .................... (be) the parish
church. During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries it 6 .................... (acquire) civil
functions, such as the maintenance of highways and care of the poor. Borough status 7
.................... (grant) by the Crown. Apart from the prestige of receiving a charter, the
honour 8 .................... (be) a coveted one because it 9 .................... (give) towns a certain
amount of independence. Boroughs 10 .................... (have) their own courts, and they
could also hold markets and send representatives to Parliament. The county 11
.................... (be) originally the terrritory granted to an earl by the king in return for
feudal service.

The leader of the council is usually 1 .................... the leader of the majority party and,
more recently, 2.................... the policy committee. The leaders emergence 3
..................... largely a post-war development. Previously, political leadership was usually
40
dispersed 4 ..................... the chairmen of the different committees; acting 5 ................... ,
they might provide collective leadership. The ending of the aldermanic system and the
more frequent turnover of councillors have probably reduced the 6 ..................... for the
emergence of such experienced influentials. There 7 .................... some prominent, even
autocratic, local leaders. But as a 8 .................... they do not gain the national media
attention of the mayors of big American cities. 9 .................... with the American or
French mayor or German Brgermeister, British 10 .................... government lacks
visible local political leaders.

A.3.4. Word Focus LAW
The making of by-laws require the approval of the appropriate department.
There are legal controls which may be invoked if an authority has broken the law.
Complete each of the following statements with a suitable phrase, making all the
necessary changes. Choose from the following:
to be a law unto itself to lay down the law to go to law to cheat the law
to have the law on someone law and order the (long) arm of the law
to take the law into ones own hands to keep the law unwritten laws
1. He fled to Switzerland trying to escape .............................. .
2. My car is .............................. . I cant rely on it.
3. After having tried in vain to reach a friendly settlement, William decided
.............................. against his business partner.
4. If you do that again, Ill .............................. .
5. Maintaining .............................. is the states primary function.
6. He is always .............................. about marketing but he really doesnt know much
about it.
7. When he saw the policemans attitude, he decided .............................. and started his
own private investigation.
8. .............................. play an important part in the English legal system.
9. Everyone must .............................. .
10. If one .............................., one must pay the consequences.

41
A.3.5. Latin expressions
If a local authority exceeds its powers then its actions will lack legal validity, and it may
be held ultra vires by the courts.
Match the following items in column A with their English explanations in column B:
A B
1. compos mentis a. of the same kind
2. inter vivos b. things which are said in passing
3. ipso facto c. in a class of its own
4. per capita d. between living peple
5. inter alia e. by this fact, in itself
6. sui generis f. by speaking
7. obiter dicta g. among other things
8. viva voce h. in good faith
9. bona fide i. sane
10. eiusdem generis j. for each person

Section B Labours Decline and Fall
The latest Blunkett revelations are a symptom of a Government rotting from within

There are five great offices of state which, between them, dominate Westminster and
Whitehall. They are Downing Street, the Treasury, the Foreign and Commonwealth
Office, the Home Office and Defence.
At present, five months before a general election, the structure is a shambles. This
makes it difficult to be governed; it will also make it difficult for the Labour Party to win
the general election, however far ahead it may be in the opinion polls. Yet no one can see
how the structure can be mended.
The trouble starts at the top. The relationship between the Prime Minister and the
Chancellor of the Exchequer can best be described as one of political enmity though
Tony Blair and Gordon Brown co-operate out of mutual interest. In effect, there are two
governments; one, which controls foreign affairs, defence and patronage, is run from
Downing Street; the other, which controls public expenditure and social policy, is run
from the Treasury.
This division of powers is similar to that between the monarch and the Prime Minister
in the 18th century. George II and Robert Walpole, or George III and Lord North, shared
authority in a similar way. One difference is that no 18th-century monarch would have
put up with the gloomy insubordination that Tony Blair has had to tolerate for the past
seven years. Another difference is that no 18th century prime minister wanted to make
42
himself king. On the whole, the division of powers worked better in the 18th century than
it does in the 21st.
It used to be said that control of expenditure and revenue made the House of
Commons the sovereign element in the British constitution. That control has now passed
to the Treasury: it belongs to the Commons only in a notional sense; it belongs to the
Prime Minister only if he is able, if necessary, to dismiss his Chancellor. At present, and
until the election, it belongs effectively to Gordon Brown; he is the sovereign power.
The conflict between these two governments is a serious handicap to the
administration. Ministers cannot adopt policies that Mr Brown will not pay for. Every
important policy has to be financed and therefore becomes a negotiation between the two
governments. Mr Brown sincerely thinks that he ought to be prime minister and is
inclined to behave as though he were. The closer one gets to the heart of the Government
machine, the louder is the grinding of these gears.
Since the election of 2001 this ultimately intolerable strain has been mediated by the
other three major ministers: Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, David Blunkett, the Home
Secretary, and Geoff Hoon, the Secretary for Defence. Now two of these three are in
disarray.
Mr Straw is the exception. A sound lawyer-politician, a master of his many briefs,
who knows when to keep his head down, he is the only one of the big five who still
enjoys a normal level of confidence and respect.
Mr Hoon survives in office, but his prevaricating evidence to the Hutton inquiry did
him much harm. He sounded untrustworthy and over-promoted; presumably he was
retained because Mr Blair thought it would do the Government more damage to dismiss
him than to keep him. He adds no weight to the Cabinet.
This was the Governments situation before the Blunkett story broke. Im not sure that
David Blunkett is a particulary good Home Secretary; he seems to have a positive mania
for legislation, as shown by the absurd over-indulgence in Home Office Bills in the
Queens Speech. Much of the time he is governed by soundbites. But he is, or was a
superb ministerial politician.
He has a combination of intelligence and forcefulness which gives him the weight that
many of his colleagues lack. In his personal troubles quality has been only too apparent.
Yet obsessiveness can be a political virtue. He charges like a bull in the ring, or a
Dreadnought at sea. For seven years he may have been the only minister who was not the
tiniest bit afraid of Gordon Brown.
Im not sure that he can survive; his second affair seems particularly disturbing. There
tends to be an abuse of power when the boss has an affair with an attractive junior, and
breaks up her current relationship. The whole Blunkett story is becoming excessive; each
twist raises new questions.
If Mr Blunkett does survive, his reputation will not be restored to what it was. He has
not behaved in the impeccable way that Mr Blair promised for his administration. He has
not shown judgement; he has involved civil servants in his private life. At best he would
be a damaged minister, a weight on Mr Blairs authority rather than a support. He is
certainly not a future prime minister, yet a minister who does not have a marshals baton
in his knapsack lacks one of the tools of power.
The Labour Party itself still has a lot of support. Recent opinion polls show Labour
ahead by between two and eight points, enough for another large majority. Yet a general
43
election Labour will have to convert opinion poll preferences into votes, and that Labour
has been failing to do. In the past six months there have been parliamentary by-elections,
local government by-elections and local government and European elections, four
different tests of actual voting. In none of them has Labour reached the equivalent of 30
per cent, the level probably required for another majority.
Mr Blair cannot offer his present top team to the country, as they are. The questions
come thick and fast, like the arrows at Hastings or Agincourt. When will Mr Blair retire?
Will he reappoint Gordon Brown as Chancellor? Will Mr Brown go to the back benches?
Who will replace Geoff Hoon? Will David Blunkett have left office already? When will
he go?
This Labour Government is now like a rotten tree. It is loosely bolted together by the
iron ring of Straw, Hoon and Blunkett. Now the iron ring itself is breaking up.
William Rees-Mogg, The Times, December 6, 2004

1. The offices of state which, between them dominate, Westminster and Whitehall are:
Downing Street, the Treasury, the Foreign Office and Defence.
2. The relationship between the Prime Minister and the Chancellor of the Exchequer can
be described as one of political friendship.
3. There are two governments: one run from Downing Street, the other from the
Treasury.
4. The House of Commons used to be the sovereign element in the British constitution.
5. The division of powers is similar to that between the monarch and the Prime Minister
in the eighteenth century.
6. Every impotant policy has to be financed.
7. Jack Straw does no longer enjoy a normal level of confidence and respect.
8. The Labour party still has a lot of support.
9. It reached the equivalent of 30 per cent in all previous elections.
10. Tony Blair can offer his present top team to the country.

B.2. Talking Point
Enlarge upon:
The closer one gets to the heart of the government machine, the louder is the grinding of
these gears.
44
B.3. Language Focus
B.3.1. Prefixes OVER
He sounded untrustworthy and over-promoted.
.... as was shown by the absurd over-indulgence in Home Office Bills.
The prefix over combines with adjectives, verbs, nouns or numbers to form new
adjectives, verbs and nouns; words formed in this way:
1. indicate that a quality exists or an action is done to too great an extent
e.g. over-react; overdose; over-anxious
2. refer to people who are older than the number mentioned
e.g. over-fives; over-twenties
3. express the idea that one person or group of people has power or authority over
another
e.g. overthrow; overpower

Complete the folowing statements with a suitable word from the list:
protective sixties react powered due
anxious throw rule populated came
1. Do not over .................... if the manager makes some critical remarks.
2. The representative was over .................... to keep the appointment.
3. His over .................... attitude started slowly to annoy her.
4. Over .................... areas require efficient administration.
5. The over .................... want to do something that the community values.
6. He founded a secret organization whose sole aim was to over .................... the
government.
7. Thieves dressed as policemen over .................... guards at a museum.
8. The European Court of Justice has the power to over .................... statutes.
9. He over .................... a strong temptation to run away.
10. These bills should have been paid before now. They are long over .................... .

B.3.2. Focus on POWER
Translate the following items into Romanian and use them in contexts of your own:
1. to take office
2. to go to the vote
3. to bring into force
45
4. to make political capital out of
5. to bow to pressure
6. to be at loggerheads
7. to come under fire
8. to resign the whip
9. to carry a lot of clout
10. to level a charge at somebody

B.3.3. Phrasal verbs BREAK
The boss has an affair with an attractive junior and breaks up her current relationship.
Now the iron ring itself is breaking up.
Fill in the blanks with the appropriate missing item. Choose from:
down (2) away through(2) in out off into up
1. Several Labour MPs broke .................... to join the Conservatives.
2. Negotiations between the two sides have broken ..................... .
3. Burglars had broken .................... while we were away on holiday.
4. Expenditure on the project breaks .................... as follows: wages 10m, plant 4m,
raw material 5m.
5. As the Presidents car arrived, the crowd broke .................... loud applause.
6. He broke .................... in the middle of the sentence.
7. War broke .................... in 1939.
8. Scientists say they are beginning to break .................... in the fight against cancer.
9. Demonstrators broke .................... the police cordon.
10. The Government has broken .................... the large private estates.


There has been an increasing interest shown in the problems of conceptualising and
comprehending central-local relations and more generally inter-governmental relations.
The key point to emerge is that one needs to move beyond a narrow focus on relations
46
between central and local government towards an understanding of the national local
government system.
Councils are located and locate themselves in what may be termed the national local
government system. This may be taken to describe the complex web of inter- and supra-
authority relations which can exert a strong influence on the policies pursued in particular
localities.
The attraction of this definition is that while central-local relations rightly remain a
prime topic for analysis the wider organisational networks and influences of inter-
governmental relations are brought into focus. The term central-local government
relationship can be misleading if it encourages a narrow focus on the interaction between
central departments and local authorities. In practice a range of other organisations cut
across the relationship, including the local authority associations, professional
organisations, party institutions, quasi-government organisations and trade unions. This
constellation of actors and organisations determines the parameters within which local
authorities operate. Thus while the influence of central government on local authorities is
substantial and cannot be neglected attention should also be directed to ideas and
influences coming from other organisations within the national local government system.
The national local government system influences and is influenced by local
authorities. It is an important source of ideas and values. It provides an environment in
which local authorities situate themselves and their problems and an arena for them to
look for new initiatives or policy solutions which may be appropriate to their needs.
The Politics of Local Government, Gerry Stoker

Atribuiile Guvernului
Art. 11. n realizarea funciilor sale Guvernul ndeplinete urmtoarele atribuii
principale:
a) exercit conducerea general a administraiei publice;
b) iniiaz proiecte de lege i le supune spre adoptare Parlamentului;
c) emite hotrri pentru organizarea executrii legilor, ordonane n temeiul unei legi
speciale de abilitare i ordonane de urgen potrivit Constituiei;
d) asigur executarea de ctre autoritile administraiei publice a legilor i a celorlalte
dispoziii normative date n aplicarea acestora;
e) elaboreaz proiectele de lege a bugetului de stat i a bugetului asigurrilor sociale
de stat i le supune spre adoptare Parlamentului;
f) aprob strategiile i programele de dezvoltare economic a rii, pe ramuri i
domenii de activitate;
g) asigur realizarea politicii n domeniul social potrivit Programului de guvernare;
h) asigur aprarea ordinii de drept, a linitii publice i a siguranei ceteanului,
precum i a drepturilor i libertilor cetenilor, n condiiile prevzute de lege;
i) aduce la ndeplinire msurile adoptate, potrivit legii, pentru aprarea rii, scop n
care organizeaz i nzestreaz forele armate;
j) asigur realizarea politicii externe a rii i, n acest cadru, integrarea Romniei n
structurile europene i internaionale;
47
k) negociaz tratatele, acordurile i conveniile internaionale care angajeaz statul
romn; negociaz i ncheie, n condiiile legii, convenii i alte nelegeri internaionale
la nivel guvernamental;
l) conduce i controleaz activitatea ministerelor i a celorlalte organe centrale de
specialitate din subordinea sa;
m) asigur administrarea proprietii publice i private a statului;
n) acord i retrage cetenia romn, n condiiile legii; aprob renunarea la
cetenia romn, n aceleai condiii;
o) nfiineaz, cu avizul Curii de Conturi, organe de specialitate n subordinea sa;
p) coopereaz cu organismele sociale interesate n ndeplinirea atribuiilor sale;
r) ndeplinete orice alte atribuii prevzute de lege sau care decurg din rolul i
funciile Guvernului.
Art. 12. (1) Pentru rezolvarea unor probleme din competena sa Guvernul poate
constitui organisme cu caracter consultativ.
(2) n scopul elaborrii, integrrii, corelrii i monitorizrii de politici Guvernul poate
constitui consilii, comisii i comitete interministeriale.
(3) Modul de organizare i funcionare a structurilor prevzute la alin. (1) i (2) i a
serviciilor acestora se stabilete prin hotrre a Guvernului, n limita bugetului aprobat.
Legea 90/2001 privind organizarea i funcionarea Guvernului Romniei i a
ministerelor

Section D Writing

Comment on:
The greater the power, the more dangerous the abuse.
Edmund Burke
Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an
intolerable one.
Thomas Paine, Common Sense
The happiness of society is the end of government.
John Adams, Thoughts on Government

Each country has the government it deserves.
Joseph de Maistre

48
UNIT 5 RULE MAKING PROCEDURES

Section A Subordinate Legislation

To the observer of the British approach to the making of statutory rules by ministers or
administrative bodies under delegated powers from Parliament, two main features stand
out. One is that while statutory rules are made by various subordinate bodies, final
responsibility rests with Parliament. Exceptions to the principle can be found, but in
general Parliament has the power to scrutinize and veto delegated legislation. The other
main feature is that no general and systematic procedure exists for the making of
subordinate legislation. The constitutional focus is on Parliament, on its powers to
delegate rule-making authority and to control it after the rules have been made, not on the
rule making process.

In delegating legislative powers to administrative bodies, Parliament has complete
authority and may impose whatever procedures it wishes. Once subordinate legislation
has been made, Parliament has wide powers to examine it, to require that changes be
made, or through its powers of veto to declare it null. Its role in exercising the power of
veto has been much discussed. The normal practice is that delegated legislation should be
laid before both Houses of Parliament for a certain number of days before coming into
effect in order to give members the opportunity to scrutinize its terms and possibly move
for reference back or even a veto. The laying requirements were introduced in the
nineteenth century and, with the increase in delegated legislation, have been developed
and extended through a series of statutory and internal parliamentary measures, the object
in each case being to increase Parliaments control. Without here looking into history and
detail of those measures, it is enough to note the main features of curent procedures. First,
most rules are required to be laid before the Houses of Parliament so that Members may
raise issues about them. Secondly, the Joint Scrutiny Committee considers all delegated
legislation to see whether or not it has been laid before Parliament. Matters within the
exclusive jurisdiction of the House of Commons, usually matters of a financial kind, are
examined by a select committee. Scrutiny by these committees is largely confined to
matters of form and technique. Thirdly, a standing committee, known as the Merits
Committee, was recently introduced to review and report on the merits of statutory rules.
Fourthly, in general, either House of Parliament may annul delegated legislation which
had been laid before it.

These procedures taken together appear to invest Parliament with an impressive system
of scrutiny and control of delegated legislation. The reality, however, is less impressive,
with the full use of Parliaments powers being hindered by a number of factors: rules are
not generally published in advance of being laid; little, if any, consultation occurs
between the administrators and departments making the rules and Parliament; and,
finally, the sheer volume of rules being produced makes effective scrutiny of both form
and merits difficult. It is hard enough for the committees to master the material; it is even
49
harder to get matters before the House for debate. The committees have no power of
annulment of their own and can only recommend and propose to the House; indeed,
neither the committees charged with technical matters nor the Merits Committee appear
to have realized their potential as effective forms of scrutiny.

Moving now to the process for making rules, the first thing one notes is the absence of a
general and systematic legal framework. Rules are made by ministers and their
departments and by a number of other administrative and statutory bodies. The power to
make formal statutory rules depends entirely on the parent statute, which also in the main
dictates the procedures to be followed. The general provisions for publication apply to
most rules, while the laying requirement is also of fairly general application. Beyond that,
matters of procedure in making rules are left to the parent statute.

Some statutes conferring legislative power impose no procedures to govern its exercise,
and leave the matter to the discretion of the administration. However, modern statutes
usually specify the procedures to be followed, and while the procedural variation is
extensive, certain distinctive patterns can be detected. One is that where a group is
directly affected, provision is often made for objections to be lodged against draft rules.
Once objections are made, different courses might be followed: the minister might be
required to take the objections into account, or the objections might be the trigger for a
public inquiry, or some other form of hearing where interested parties may put their
views. An alternative pattern appears where the minister is required to consult certain
interests before drafting the legislation, although he will normally have discretion as to
whom he consults. This often means consulting the representatives of special groups or
organisations or advisory bodies, such as the Law Society, the United Synagogue, or the
British Medical Association, although there may also be scope for individuals to make
their views known. Consultation is often informal, although different elements of
formality may be introduced, one of the more common of which is some form of hearing.
Less common patterns of procedure occur where the legislative rules are initially drafted
by a special advisory or representative body, with power in the minister to amend;
alternatively, the minister may draft regulations and then submit them to a special body
for its comments and recommendations. Such special bodies in turn have various ways of
consulting interests and ascertaining public opinion. Within each of these patterns,
considerable scope for procedural variation and differences of emphasis is still possible.

Where the parent statute fails to specify the procedures to be followed in rule-making, the
subordinate authority must proceed as it thinks best. It might adopt procedures which
include the publication of working papers, the opportunity for notice and comment,
consultations, and the taking of expert advice. There is no set pattern, however, with
different rule-making bodies proceeding largely according to their own lights. Some
procedures are reasonably formal, while others are entirely informal, reflecting the rule
makers attitudes and preferences rather than systematic principles. Here the informal
networks play a major role in the creation of legislative rules. Some argue that these
networks work well, although how that is known in the absence of hard evidence is
another matter. The claim is often made that informality, pragmatism, and the ability to
tap currents of opinion are characteristic of British public life and its special genius. It is
50
often added, moreover, that overall the system works well, although this is clearly a
matter on which more empirical evidence is needed. In any event, the perception that the
British system of informality works well appears to have been sufficiently strong to
warrant its transplantation to other parts of the world.
Due Process and Fair Procedures, D. J. Galligan

1. Parliament has the power to scrutinise and veto delegated legislation.
2. There is a general and systematic procedure for the making of subordinate legislation.
3. Delegated legislation should be laid before the House of Lords for a certain number
of days.
4. Matters within the exclusive jurisdiction of the House of Commons are examined by
a select committee.
5. The Merits Committee was introduced to review and report on the merits of statutory
rules.
6. The committees have power of annulment of their own.
7. Rules are made by ministers and their deparments and by a number of other
administrative and statutory bodies.
8. The general provisions for publication apply to most rules.
9. Where a group is directly affected, provision is often made for objections to be
lodged against draft rules.
10. If the parent statute fails to specify the procedures to be followed in rule making, the
subordinate authority must proceed as it thinks best.

A.2. Talking Point
Enlarge upon one of the following:
1. One law for the rich, and another for the poor.
2. The law grows of sin and punishes it.
3. Law makers should not be law breakers.
4. Laws catch flies but let hornets go free.
5. The more laws, the more offenders.

51
A.3. Language Focus
A.3.1. The Gerund
An alternative pattern appears where the minister is required to consult certain interests
before drafting the legislation.
Use
1. after prepositions: before, after, without, by, about, at, to, of, etc.
Clarify all your problems before going on with the project.
2. after certain verbs: admit, avoid, deny, dislike, enjoy, feel like, finish, etc.
I enjoy writing in the evening.
3. as the subject or object of a sentence
Drafting legislation implies a lot of responsibility.
4. after certain idiomatic expressions
Its no use complaining about the measures. The manager wont listen to you any
way.
That is an excellent paper. Its worth reading it.
Other expressions: There is no point in ...
Its no good ...
5. after certain verbs which are followed by to
Im looking forward to visiting the house where the president lived.
She cant get used to going to court in a gown.
Other such verbs: object to, get round to, prefer (doing one thing to doing another)
Provide other illustrative contexts for the gerund.

A.3.2. Match the words bellow to their explanations using the following grid:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

1. to veto A to re-examine or reconsider
2. to come into effect B to reach the stage of being in use
3. to review C to present to the proper authorities for attention
4. to annul D to reject or forbid a legislative proposal or action
5. to draft E to declare no longer valid
6. to lodge F to make minor improvements in
7. to amend G to give sth so that it may be considered, decided on
8. to submit H to justify
9. to proceed I to make a preliminary version of
10. to warrant J to go to a further or the next stage
52
A.3.3. What is the meaning of to raise issues in the text? Find the right explanation for
each of the following idioms:
1. (the matter, point, etc) at issue A to treat as if it needed serious discussion
2. to force the issue B being discussed or debated
3. to make an issue (out) of sth C to direct ones attention to a problem
4. to adress an issue D to proceed to disagree or argue with sb
5. to take issue with sb E to act so as to make an immediate
(about/on/over sth) decision necessary
Complete the following sentences with the appropriate idiom:
1. Whats .................... here is the whole future of justice.
2. Its only a small disagreement lets not .................... .
3. The manager will probably .................... with his employees. Raising their salaries is
not one of his priorities.
4. The trade unions have complained about the new labour legislation. .................... is just
a matter of time.
5. The members of the board must .................... of the fall in prices without delay.

A.3.4. Fill in the blanks in the following text with an appropriate term from the list
below:
interest hearing satisfied judicial-type interested effective
treatment licence holding body sound thought
Fair 1 .................... could be achieved from a number of different procedures or
combinations of procedures. Suppose the object is to decide whether a 2 ....................
should be granted, where the decision is to be made according to whether certain
conditions have been 3 .................... and whether it is in the public 4 .................... . One
procedural approach would be investigation by the licensing 5 .................... itself,
gathering whatever information it 6 .................... relevant, emphasizing informality and 7
.................... discussions with the applicant. An alternative procedural approach would be
a 8 .................... procedure with all the trappings of a court, including a formal 9
...................., the calling of evidence and witnesses, and the legal representation of the
applicant and other 10 .................... parties . The two procedural approaches are very
53
different, but each might be 11 ..................... in providing information and material on the
basis of which a 12 .................... decision could be made.

Section B Ministers Back Legal Safeguards

Ministers agreed yesterday to tighten electoral law to provide greater safeguards against
fraud and intimidation.
But the Government accepted only about 70 per cent of the Electoral Commission
recommendations for new laws and failed to put a timetable on implementation. No
legislation will be introduced before the county council elections next May, when all-
postal ballots may go ahead in some aeas.
The Commission had asked the Government to introduce individual rather than
household registration which prevents one resident voting on behalf of everyone else.
It had also asked for new legislation to make it clear that intimidation in areas other
than just polling booths was a criminal offence which the Government has rejected. In
their response to the Electoral Commission ministers accepted some proposals for tighter
safeguards in principle.
The Department for Constitutional Affairs said yesterday that it was sympathetic to
the principles of individual registration but was concerned about maintaining a simple
system. Nicole Smith, the commissions director of policy and strategy, said the
Government was concerned that individual registration would involve more form-filling.
Mr Smith said a system could be adapted to online or telephone registration with
safeguards to avoid increased bureaucracy. The DCA said that ministers did not agree
either with changing laws regarding intimidation. The Government does not consider
that the existing law on undue influence is deficient, it responded. The Government
does, however, accept that obtaining sufficient evidence to gain convictions is a
problem, it concedes. Ministers have accepted the commissions proposal that fraudulent
application for a postal vote should be an offence with a maximum penalty of a custodial
sentence. They also agree that new laws should be introduced so existing provisions
relating to personation are extended to give police the power of arrest based on
reasonable suspicion of personation anywhere, not just at the polling station.
The DCA agrees that a marked register of postal votes cast should be compiled to
assist detection and prevention of fraud. It also agrees that barcodes should replace serial
numbers on ballot papers and watermarks should replace stamping instruments. This
would ensure that the ballot paper has an official mark while reducing the scope for
human error to invalidate the vote cast.
Ministers backed a nationwide electronic register compiled locally to enable people to
vote at any polling station and said that the last date for registering to vote should be
moved nearer to the election.
Sam Younger, the Electoral Commission chairman, said he was pleased that the
Government had accepted many recommendations.
Jill Sherman, The Times, December 10, 2004

54
Choose the appropriate word(s) for each of the following sentence:
1. Ministers agreed to tighten criminal/electoral/family law.
2. The Government accepted only about 50/70/80 per cent of the Electoral Commission
recommendations for new laws.
3. The Department for Constitutional Affairs was concerned about maintaining a simple/
new/complicated system.
4. Individual registration would involve more personal/form-filling/complex techniques.
5. The Government does not consider that the existing law on undue influence/gain/
pressure is deficient.
6. Fraudulent application for a postal vote should be an offence with a(n) adaptable/
maximum/severe penalty of a custodial sentence.
7. A marked file/register/document of postal votes cast should be compiled to assist
detection and prevention of fraud.
8. Barcodes should replace serial numbers on ballot papers/registers/dossiers.
9. Ministers backed a nationwide electronic register compiled locally to enable people to
vote at any polling station/their polling station/home.
10. The Government has accepted/improved/disregarded many recommendations.

B.2. Talking Point
Enlarge upon:
A minister who moves about in society is in a position to read the signs of times even in
a festive gathering, but one who remains shut up in his office learns nothing.
Duc de Choiseul: Jack F. Bernard, Talleyrand

B.3. Language Focus
B.3.1. Give the Romanian equivalents for each of the following idioms and use them in
contexts of your own:
1. to be in the lead
2. to call an election
3. to go to the country
55
4. to field a candidate
5. to hit the campaign trail
6. to be a vote winner
7. to go to the polls
8. to cast a vote
9. to concede defeat
10. to be sworn in

British 1...................., and citizens of other Commonwealth countries and the Irish
Republic resident in the UK, may 2 .................... in parliamentary elections provided that
they are:
3 .................... 18 or over;
included in the register of electors for the constituency; and
not subject to any legal 4 .................... to vote.
People not entitled to vote include members of the 5 .................... of Lords, foreign
nationals 6 .................... in the UK , some patients detained under mental health
legislation, sentenced prisoners and 7 .................... convicted within the previous five 8
.................... of corrupt or illegal election practices. Members of the armed 9
...................., Crown servants and 10 .................... of the British Council employed
overseas may be registered at an address in the constituency where they would live if not
serving abroad . 11 ...................... citizens living abroad may apply to register as electors
for a period of 12 .................... to 15 years after they have left the UK.

B.3.3. Write a short elections report using the following words:
recommendations; fraud; ballots; polling booths; safeguard; form-filling; postal vote;
polling station; cast; registration


56
The Queens Speech, which is delivered at the beginning of each session, promises
various bills, legislation, measures, discussion, and proposals. Some proposals
eventually introduced by ministers may not have been mentioned in the speech, because
they were not anticipated when it was written, were not considered important at the time,
or are perennial items. To become law a government bill must navigate what has been
called the Whitehall obstacle race. Where a department has recognised an issue as
suitable for legislation and decides to make out a case for a bill, it will then circulate a
draft proposal to other departments which are likely to be affected, and to the Treasury. If
the Cabinet agrees, the proposal goes to its Future Legislation Committee, then to
Parliamentary Counsel, who will draft a bill. Finally, the proposal will be included in the
Queens Speech, along with statements of the governments other plans for the
forthcoming session. Once the Cabinet has granted the time, the bill is then forwarded to
its Legislation Committee, which is responsible for piloting the bill through Parliament.
The Cabinets decision (or its committees ) is therefore important at three stages: on the
substance of legislation in the policy committees, the wording and form in the Legislation
Committee, and the parliamentary timing in the Furure Legislation Committee.
Within the Commons, the first reading of the bill is formal, being a statement of the
bills purpose. On the second reading the bills contents are subject to a fuller debate. If
its general principles have been approved it goes to a standing committee for detailed
consideration. The composition of the standing committee must, according to Standing
Order No. 65 have regard to ... the composition of the House, that is, reflect the party
balance of the Commons. The bill, with any amendments, then goes back to the whole
House for a report stage and may be subject to further amendments. On the third reading
there is a final debate and then a vote on the bill. Except in the case of money bills, the
bill goes through a similar process in the House of Lords, but the Lords have no standing
committees: all bills are considered in a committee of the Whole House. If the
amendments are made by the Lords and insisted on, against the wishes of the Commons,
then the bill falls. It may be reintroduced in the same form by the Commons and, if
passed again, will become a law, notwithstanding the objection of the Lords. Finally, the
bill goes to the monarch to receive the Royal Assent and becomes law.
From British Politics, Dennis Kavanagh

C.1.Translate into English:
Dispoziii privind participarea la procesul de elaborare a actelor normative
Art. 6. (1) n cadrul procedurilor de elaborare a proiectelor de acte normative
autoritatea administraiei publice are obligaia s publice un anun referitor la aceast
aciune n site-ul propriu, s-l afieze la sediul propriu, ntr-un spaiu accesibil publicului,
i s-l transmit ctre mass-media central sau local, dup caz. Autoritatea administraiei
publice va transmite proiectele de acte normative tuturor persoanelor care au depus o
cerere pentru primirea acestor informaii.
(2) Anunul referitor la elaborarea unui proiect de act normativ va fi adus la cunotin
publicului, n condiiile alin. (1), cu cel puin 30 de zile nainte de supunerea spre analiz,
57
avizare i adoptare de ctre autoritile publice. Anunul va cuprinde o not de
fundamentare, o expunere de motive sau, dup caz, un referat de aprobare privind
necesitatea adoptrii actului normativ propus, textul complet al proiectului actului
respectiv, precum i termenul limit, locul i modalitatea n care cei interesai pot trimite
n scris propuneri, sugestii, opinii cu valoare de recomandare privind proiectul de act
normativ.
(3) Anunul referitor la elaborarea unui proiect de act normativ cu relevan asupra
mediului de afaceri se transmite de ctre iniiator asociaiilor de afaceri i altor asociaii
legal constituite, pe domenii specifice de activitate, n termenul prevzut la alin. (2).
(4) La publicarea anunului autoritatea administraiei publice va stabili o perioad de
cel puin 10 zile pentru a primi n scris propuneri, sugestii sau opinii cu privire la
proiectul de act normativ supus dezbaterii publice.
(5) Conductorul autoritii publice va desemna o persoan din cadrul instituiei,
responsabil pentru relaia cu societatea civil, care s primeasc propunerile, sugestiile
i opiniile persoanelor interesate cu privire la proiectul de act normativ propus.
(6) Proiectul de act normativ se transmite spre analiz i avizare autoritilor publice
interesate numai dup definitivare, pe baza observaiilor i propunerilor formulate potrivit
alin. (4).
(7) Autoritatea public n cauz este obligat s decid organizarea unei ntlniri n
care s se dezbat public proiectul de act normativ, dac acest lucru a fost cerut n scris
de ctre o asociaie legal constituit sau de ctre o alt autoritate public.
(8) n toate cazurile n care se organizeaz dezbateri publice, acestea trebuie s se
desfoare n cel mult 10 zile de la publicarea datei i locului unde urmeaz s fie
organizate. Autoritatea public n cauz trebuie s analizeze toate recomandrile
referitoare la proiectul de act normativ n discuie.
(9) n cazul reglementrii unei situaii care, din cauza circumstanelor sale
excepionale, impune adoptarea de soluii imediate, n vederea evitrii unei grave atingeri
aduse interesului public, proiectele de acte normative se supun adoptrii n procedura de
urgen prevzut de reglementrile n vigoare.
Legea nr.52/2003 privind transparena decizional n administraia public

Section D Writing

D.1. Comment on :
The good of the people is the chief law.
Cicero, De legibus
Ignorance of the law excuses no man; not that all men know the law, but because it is an
excuse every man will plead, and no man can tell how to confute him.
John Selden, Law

D.2. Write a law entitled The Fundamental Law for a Meaningful Existence.
58
UNIT 6 CIVIL SERVANTS

Section A Permanence, Neutrality, Anonimity

Governments might change their political complexion after a general election, while
government ministers regularly come, go and are reshuffled according to the wishes of
the prime minister. But the civil servants staffing those ministries continue as though
nothing has happened, ensuring a stability and continuity of administration that is in
sharp contrast with the fairly short life-span of ministerial appointments and which is
very different from the American system of spoils or patronage under which senior
officials change every time the elected administration changes.

Ministers in a British government, when they are appointed, know little or nothing about
the department they have to run, being more or less ignorant about the work and concerns
of that department. Senior civil servants on the other hand have had years of experience
as professional administrators, building up a wealth of expertise across a range of
departments, ensuring a smooth continuity in the administration of any departments
work. This does tend to lead to an unadventurous attitude on the part of officials, since
the looked-for continuity is best achieved through a middle-of-the-road approach to
policy that avoids unsettling changes of direction by not deviating too much from the
status quo and the policies of the previous administration. This is turn has sometimes
created problems and tensions between senior civil servants who have become rather set
in their ways and those governments that have been elected on a radical manifesto:

Ranged against the politicians claim to be breaking with the past is the belief in the Civil
Service that it represents and personifies the seamless integrity of past, present and future
government rolled indistinguishably into one. Whitehall is the custodian of the very
continuity that the new keepers of Westminster think they have been elected to rupture.

The desire of civil servants for a smooth continuity in any transfer of power means that
the not inconsiderable energies and talents of senior policy-making civil servants will be
devoted to playing down over-radical demands for change by means of promoting
consensual solutions.

The concept of permanence has also given rise to a convention which states that senior
civil servants have security of tenure and can only be dismissed from their posts at the
specific request of a minister, with the additional approval of both the prime minister and
the Head of the Civil Service. In fact the appearance of job security for senior civil
servants is as illusory as any political convention. Under common law a civil servant is a
servant of the Crown and therefore theoretically part of the royal household. As such, a
government minister, acting in the name of the Crown, has the right to dismiss a civil
servant at pleasure, without notice and without giving a reason for that dismissal. Even
modern civil servants who have proper contracts of employment have no more claim to
59
security of tenure than any other employee whose employment is only safeguarded by
that minimum of legislation which promises redress if unfair dismissal can be proved.

The continuity of a permanent Civil Service, whereby the same civil servants serve
successive governments of different political complexions, presupposes that civil servants
should not compromise that ability to serve any master by holding strong political
opinions themselves. After all, civil servants do not make policy, they merely carry out
decisions made by the politicians, meaning that they themselves should be politically
neutral and non-partisan. As one former minister has described their duty to serve the
government of the day, regardless of the party that is in power, If convinced of the need
for action on practical grounds, it [the Civil Service] will assist Labour governments to
advance socialism ... and will equally impartially assist Conservative governments to
demolish what the socialists have created. Often the same officials will do both. (Gerald
Kaufmann, How to Be a Minister, London, 1997)

All applicants to join the Civil Service are investigated and carefully screened before
appointment and, although this process exists primarily to weed out any candidates with
fascist or communist tendencies, the system does tend to throw up those applicants with
strongly partisan loyalties. Civil Servants are not expected to play any role in party
politics at national level, nor to perform any actions which could be interpreted as serving
the partisan interests of either government or opposition, nor should they speak in public
or publish writings about politically controversial issues. Under the House of Commons
Disqualification Act of 1975 which defines those holders of public office who are not
allowed to take seats in the House of Commons, civil servants are ruled to be not eligible
to stand for election, either to the parliament at Westminster or to the European
Parliament. As for political activity in a civil servants spare time, the position varies
according to their place in the service hierarchy. Civil servants in industrial or non-office
grades are said to belong to the politically free category and for these there are no
restrictions, except for the normal requirement that a civil servant should not indulge in
political activity while on duty. Nor should a politically-active civil servant`s connection
with the service be made widely known.

Beyond this unrestricted category there is an intermediate group who can indulge in
political activity, but only with the approval of their head of department. However, senior
civil servants who are directly involved in the policy-making process should play no part
in national politics whatsoever: to the extent of not even being expected to express a
political opinion in public. As the Civil Service Management Code states:
Civil servants not in the politically free category must not allow the expression of their
personal political views to constitute so strong and so comprehensive a commitment to
one political party as to inhibit or appear to inhibit loyal and effective service to Ministers
of another party. They must take particular care to express comment with moderation,
particularly about matters for which their own Ministers are responsible, to avoid
comment altogether about matters of controversy affecting the responsability of their own
Ministers, and to avoid personal attacks.
However, even the most senior civil servants are permitted to take part in local
government politics, with the approval of their heads of department.
60
Traditionally, civil servants were never named nor was their identity made known to the
public. This was the rule for two main reasons:
1 If civil servants with a say in policy formulation or the drafting of legislation are not
named they cannot be got at by interesed parties, either by means of bribery or threats.
Anonymous and unidentified civil servants find it easier to maintain their necessary
neutrality.
2 Civil servants need not fear taking decisive action or giving frank advice to their
ministers since, if civil servants are not named, they cannott be blamed if their actions or
advice prove to be wrong.

It would be wrong to suppose that the anonymity of civil servants has ever been either
absolute or universal. Many lowly officials in the Civil Service, such as counter clerks in
social security benefit offices, have daily face-to-face contact with members of the
public, and for some time have worn identifying name-badges while doing so.
Nevertheless, there was and is a persistent belief on the part of those civil servants
involved in the policy-making process, that the interests of the state and the better
functioning of the Civil Service would be best served if their identity could remain
hidden from the general public.

These three characteristics of permanence, neutrality and anonymity are inextricably
linked to and form the essential foundation for the doctrine of ministerial
responsibility, which states that a minister is personally responsible for the workings of
his or her department and therefore for all the actions of civil servants under his or her
control.

It has always been a major convention of the unwritten British Constitution that a
government minister is responsible for the conduct of his or her department and indeed
for the actions or inactions of the civil servants in that department. The minister is
accountable for this responsibility to the people through parliament and in the past it was
always understood that parliament could require the resignation of a minister for failure
to meet that responsability, even if the fault was of civil servants rather than that of the
minister personally.
Adapted from The Civil Service in Britain Today, Collin Pilkington

A.1 Reading Comprehension
1. What is a civil servant?
2. In what way is the British system different from the American one?
3. How would you comment on Whitehall is the custodian of the very continuity that
the new keepers of Westminster think they have been elected to rupture?
4. How can a senior civil servant be dismissed?
5. Are the civil servants allowed to make policy?
61
6. What is the attitude towards applicants with strongly partisan loyalties?
7. Can civil servants stand for election?
8. To what extent can civil servants express their political views?
9. What are the reasons for not disclosing their identity to the public?
10. What does the doctrine of ministerial responsibility state?

A.2. Talking Point
Enlarge upon:
Authority shows the man.
For forms of government let fools contest, whatever is best administered is best.
Alexander Pope, An Essay on Man

A.3. Language Focus
A.3.1. The Present Perfect Tenses
Senior Civil servants have had years of experience as professional administrators.
Use
- the present perfect tenses relate past actions and activities to the present; they are used
to express:
1. unfinished past
He has been a civil servant for 12 years.
Scientists have been looking for a solution since the problem was discovered.
2. a past experience
Have you ever been to Switzerland?
- the continuous is unusual in this use
3. the present result of a past event
A: Why have you got paint on your fingers?
B: Ive been painting the office.
4. present perfect simple or continuous?
- the present perfect simple focuses on the action as a whole, whereas the present perfect
continuous expresses duration and activity over a period of time
I have read your book. (focus on completion)
I have been reading your book. (focus on continuous activity)

Put the verbs in brackets in the appropriate present perfect tense (simple/continuous):
The Civil Service 1 .................... always .................... (be) notorious for being rather less
than open with the general public the people whom it is supposed to serve and 2
.................... instead .................... (develop) a reputation for being a closed system,
62
hidden from the wide world which lies outside government circles. Between civil
servants and the public a barrier of sorts 3 .................... (erect) which is constructed from
a mixture of part secrecy and part manipulation of the truth.
In the past, this air of secrecy and arcane mystery which 4 .................... (pervade) the
Civil Service, along with the draconian discipline of the Official Secrets Act, 5
.................... (manage) to keep many salient facts about the countrys administration
away from the eyes and ears of the public at large.

Ministerial committees is the name 1 .................... to the network of committees each
with 100 per cent 2 .................... servant membership 3 .................... shadows the
organisational structure of cabinet committees, the latter of course having a mixed
membership of politicians and civil servants. These shadow committees exist to co-
ordinate policy 4 .................... departments and 5 .................... resolve inter-departmental
disputes before the ministers of those departments meet in Cabinet or in Cabinet
committees. 6 .................... should incidentally be remembered 7 .................... Civil
Service participation in Cabinet committees, or if civil servants take 8 .................... in any
policy-making committee of ministers, that civil servants fall 9 .................... two quite
separate categories at these meetings. Some will be there in their own 10 ....................
with information or advice to contribute, 11 .................... others are there in the capacity
of secretariat to keep minutes, draw 12 .................... the agenda etc.

A.3.3. Match the words below to their explanations using the following grid:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

1. department A the way an organisation operates
2. policy B legally binding agreement
3. manifesto C plan of action
4. convention D public declaration of principles and policy
5. tenure E holding of office
6. post F position of paid employment
63
7. contract G general agreement
8. commitment H set of beliefs
9. doctrine I pledge
10. workings J each of several decisions of a government,
business, shop, university etc.

A.3.4. Fill in the blanks in the following text with an appropriate term from the list
below:
move out still both recently links job is
either knowledge likely very has made
One of the ways in which 1 .................... are built between the Civil Service and the more
competitive world of the private sector is by a civil servants opting to 2 .................... of
the Civil Service into the world of industry and commerce; 3 ..................... through a
retired civil servant taking a 4 .................... in the private sector after retirement or by
secondment to industry while 5 .................... remaining on the establishment strength of
the Home Civil Service. It 6 .................... no secret that it is very useful for a companys
future planning if they have 7 .................... of the way the government has been thinking
8 .................... , together with some indication of the thrust 9 .................... to be taken by
the governments future policy direction, 10 .................... for trade and industry in
general and for that specific company in particular. This 11 .................... senior civil
servants 12 .................... useful targets for the headhunters of industry and commerce.

Section B Workers Must Retire Later and Save More

Scheme options by Anne Ashworth
Whitehall must now take a reality check in light of the threat to its comfortably
upholstered superannuation arrangements.
Most private-sector workers were forced to downgrade* their pension expectations
some years ago. For civil servants, this nasty shock has been delayed, as their schemes
appeared immune to the cutbacks that have weakened private-sector funds. Like everyone
else, civil servants must reconcile themselves to retiring later and saving more.
Tom McPhail, head of pensions research at Hargreaves Lansdown sums up the
situation: How do the civil servants get more benefits? The short answer is to stick more
money into a pension.
64
Currently members of the Civil Service pension schemes have the option to boost*
their pensions by buying added years, so increasing their years of service. It is not clear
whether this concession will remain.
Employees should, however, still be entitled* to make additional voluntary
contributions into a plan managed by an insurance company. There are other options for
extra saving. At present, those earning more than 30,000 a year are barred from putting
money in more than one type of pension scheme. But from April 2006, under the new
pension simplification regime, members of workplace retirement schemes will also be
able to contribute to a private pension, such as a stakeholder, regardless of their earnings.
A Sipp (self-invested personal pension plan), a more sophisticated species of pension, is
another option for the mandarin who would like to invest in commercial property. Isas
(individual savings accounts) represent another way for Whitehall workers to supplement
their pensions. In the last weeks Pre-Budget Report, Mr. Brown issued* a reprieve* for
these tax-efficient investment plans allowing individuals to invest up to 7,000 a year
until 2009.
The simplification rules will reform the current pension contribution limits. Any civil
servant desperatly concerned about his retirement income prospects* can invest his entire
earnings up to a limit of 215,000 in a pension. Higher limits apply in later years. This is
an extreme solution, however. Under the proposed changes to the civil servants pension
scheme, payouts will be based on average rather than final salary. Danny Vassiliades,
principal at Punter Southall, the actuarial consultants, explains that high-flyers* will be
most affected by this change as their earnings peak* towards the end of their brilliant
careers. He notes: For the plodders who receive basic increases every year of their
career, averaging does not make that much difference. Other workers, who will envy
even the reduced Whitehall arrangements can take heart: no mandarin will now ever
willingly draw up* plans for withdrawal of any of the remaining tax reliefs.
Phasing out of higher-rate tax relief on pension contributions? Oh no, minister.

1. Most public-sector workers were forced to downgrade their pension expectations
some years ago.
2. Civil servants get more benefits by sticking more money into a pension.
3. Members of the Civil Service pension schemes have the option to boost their
pensions by buying added years.
4. Those earning more than 25,000 a year are barred from putting money in more than
one type of pension.
5. From May 2006, members of workplace retirement schemes will be able to contribute
to a private pension.
65
6. Sipp is the abbreviation for self invested permanent pension plan.
7. The simplification rules will reform the current pension contribution limits.
8. Any civil servant can invest his entire earnings up to a limit of 215,000 in a pension.
9. Under the proposed changes, payout will be based on average rather than final salary.
10. High flyers will not be affected by the change.

B.2. Talking Point
Enlarge Upon:
Mc Job: A low pay, low-prestige, low dignity, low benefit, no-future job in the service
sector .
Douglas Coupland, Generation X
By working faithfully eight hours a day, you may eventually get to be a boss and work
twelve hours a day.
Robert Frost : attributed
Work banishes those three great evils: boredom, vice and poverty.
Voltaire, Candide

B.3. Language Focus
B.3.1. Choose the right explanation for each of the following words (with asterisks in the
text)
1. to downgrade A to reduce B to reconsider C to asses
2. to boost A to change B to increase C to choose
3. to be entitled A to have a right to B to be in a position to C to be forced to
4. to issue A to send out B to propose C to require
5. reprieve A postponement B question C impeachment
6. prospect A fortune B chance C limit
7. high flyer A highly placed person B pilot C ambitious person
8. to peak A reach the highest point B to dry out C to grow less
9. plodder A civil servant B hard working person C average worker
10. to draw up A to write out B to design C to come up with

66
B.3.2. The word employee in the article is made up of the verb to employ and the ending
ee. The suffix ee:
1. combines with transitive verbs which describe actions to form nouns; nouns formed in
this way refer to the person that the action is being done to
e.g. employee; trainee
2. combines with some verbs to form nouns which refer to someone who has performed a
particular action
e.g escapee; absentee

Use the definitions to find words constructed in a similar way
1. person to whom a letter is addressed a _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
2. person appointed to a job or a position a _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
3. person who is or has been deported d _ _ _ _ _ _ _
4. person who is detained d _ _ _ _ _ _ _
5. person who is interned i _ _ _ _ _ _ _
6. person who has a licence l _ _ _ _ _ _ _
7. person who is resplonsible for managing a trust t _ _ _ _ _ _
8. person who is absent a _ _ _ _ _ _ _
9. person who is devoted to something d _ _ _ _ _ _
10. person who has escaped e _ _ _ _ _ _

The Civil Service in Britain has its 1 .................... in the English curia regis, the kings 2
.................... or royal household, and the first government departments had their origins
in the various divisions of servants looking 3 .................... the needs of that household.
The department of Chancery, 4 .................... the Lord Chancellor, was the kings writing-
house where clerks wrote out the various writs, letters, deeds, charters and 5 ....................
documentation required to run the kings affairs. The Exchequer was the kings counting-
house, 6 .................... for the checkered cloth spread on the table on which the kings
money 7 .................... counted: the check squares 8 .................... an arithmetic
convenience for the clerks, like a two-dimensional abacus. Over 9 .................... these two
departments became increasingly involved in the judicial and financial administration of
the kingdom, moving as a result out of the domestic into the 10 .................... domain.
67
Other new domestic departments took their place in the household and these also, over
time, assumed a public role and in their turn 11 .................... to be replaced. The Middle
Ages saw a succession of administrative departments 12 .................... whose names
indicate their domestic origin and purpose the Chamber, the Wardrobe, the Signet and
so forth.


One of the main functions of the Civil Service is to implement government policy and
it is therefore easy to understand why it should be that civil servants always look at
government policy from the perspective of how easy or difficult it would be to put that
policy into practice. A conservative policy which seeks to maintain the status quo is
regarded as the ideal by civil servants because the conservative nature of the policy
ensures that it has been tried before, perhaps many times before, and is probably a variant
of the policy currently in force. Most importantly, previous experience of policies of this
kind and the repetition of such experiences has shown that a policy works. Radical
policies on the other hand are, per se, untried and untested and are therefore a leap in the
dark as far as a governments officials are concerned. To them an untried policy is a
policy that might just possibly work but which is rather more likely not to do so. It
therefore logically follows, not only that civil servants will always work extremely hard
to implement a policy in which they can believe, but that they will work every bit as hard
and every bit as long in order to thwart a policy in which they do not believe. As a former
minister has said:
The question that civil servants ask themselves when required to advise on
implementing polemical proposals is not, Do I agree with it? but, Can it be made to
work?. If they think it can, they will help you to make it work. If they think it cannot,
they will do their best to stop it. This is not a very heroic posture, and it can be very
irritating, even maddening. Politicians who want to excite the country with imaginative
proposals find them watered down in the interests of practicality. (Gerald Kaufmann,
How to Be a Minister, London, 1997)
The role taken by the Civil Service in policy formulation is therefore critical in that
civil servants will attempt to shape the nature and purpose of a policy decision from start
to finish, but, in order to undersrand the bureaucratic approach, it is necessary to know
that the Civil Service sees its own role entirely from the perspective of a policys
practical application, based on pragmatism rather than principle.
The Civil Service in Britain Today, Colin Pilkington

68
Art. 2. (1) Funcia public reprezint ansamblul atribuiilor i responsabilitilor,
stabilite n temeiul legii, n scopul realizrii prerogativelor de putere public de ctre
administraia public central i local.
(2) Funcionarul public este persoana numit, n condiiile prezentei legi, ntr-o funcie
public. Persoana creia i-a ncetat raportul de serviciu din motive neimputabile ei i
pstreaz calitatea de funcionar public, continund s fac parte din corpul de rezerv al
funcionarilor publici.
(3)Activitile desfurate de funcionarii publici, care implic exercitarea
prerogativelor de putere public, sunt urmtoarele:
a) punerea n executare a legilor i a celorlalte acte normative;
b) elaborarea proiectelor de acte normative i a altor reglementri specifice autoritii
sau instituiei publice, precum i asigurarea avizrii acestora;
c) elaborarea proiectelor politicilor i strategiilor, a programelor, a studiilor, analizelor
i statisticilor, precum i a documentaiei privind aplicarea i executarea legilor, necesare
pentru realizarea competenei autoritii sau instituiei publice;
d) consilierea , controlul i auditul public intern;
e) gestionarea resurselor umane i a resurselor financiare;
f) colectarea creanelor bugetare;
g) reprezentarea intereselor autoritii sau instituiei publice n raporturile acesteia cu
persoane fizice sau juridice de drept public sau privat, din ar i strintate, n limita
competenelor stabilite de conductorul autoritii sau instituiei publice, precum i
reprezentarea n justiie a autoritii sau instituiei publice n care i desfoar
activitatea;
h) realizarea de activiti n conformitate cu strategia de informatizare a administraiei
publice.
(4) Funciile publice sunt prevzute n anexa la prezenta lege.
(5) n sensul prezentei legi, totalitatea funcionarilor publici din autoritile i
instituiile publice din administraia public central i local constituie corpul
funcionarilor publici.
Art. 3. Principiile care stau la baza exercitrii funciei publice sunt:
a) legalitate, imparialitate i obiectivitate;
b) transparen;
c) eficien i eficacitate;
d) responsabilitate, n conformitate cu prevederile legale;
e) orientare ctre cetean;
f) stabilitate n exercitarea funciei publice;
g) subordonare ierarhic.
Legea nr. 188/1999 privind statutul funcionarilor publici

Section D Writing

Comment on:
He/She that puts on a public gown, must put off a private person.
69
UNIT 7 THE EUROPEAN DIMENSION

Section A How to be a Eurocrat

The Civil Service Management Code states quite clearly, under the heading Service with
the European Institutions:

Departments and agencies should encourage staff with potential to consider service with
the European institutions as part of their development training. Work in the institutions
should normally be regarded as experience which will be valuable to the department or
agency on the officers return.

Recruitment for service with the EU bureaucracy is therefore encouraged by the Civil
Service Establishment and entry to service in Europe is by way of the normal recruitment
channels of the Home Civil Service, even though successful candidates who are offered
permanent service with the EU are required to retire from the UK Civil Service
immediately upon appointment and it might be thought that the Home Civil Service
which had had the expense of training these civil servants might resent losing their
services once they were trained. However, there is a source of national pride for member
countries in getting as large a number of their citizens as possible into service with the
Communitys institutions, competition for permanent places with the European
institutions being very keen among would-be Eurocrates from all member nations.

However, permanent service is not necessarily the main aim of either the applicants in
question nor the Civil Service Establishment which has encouraged their application. It is
equally as likely that, rather than seeking a permanent position, British applicants are
looking for long- or short-term secondments to work in Europe, either for a specific
purpose or simply to gain experience with European institutions as a career-building
move, experience that can be useful both to the civil servants themselves and to the
departments or agencies which employ them and to which they return after their time in
Brussels or elsewhere in Europe.

There are basically three types of secondment available to British servants:

1. The Stagiaire schemes offered by the European Commissions Bureau des Stages in
Brussels provide two 5-month periods of in-service training, known in English as the
Stage, which involve work experience in the Commission together with lectures and
visits to other institutions. The two courses are open to university graduates and public
service employees below the age of thirty and run from 1 March and 1 October each year.
Stagiaires recieve a cost of living allowance from the Commission.

2. The Detached National Expert schemes represent a specific form of secondment to the
European Commission since here civil servants are recruited for their own particular
70
expertise which is placed at the disposal of the European institution for periods of one,
two or up to three years. The greatest number of such secondments lies in the field of
science and scientific research, recruitment being through the Directorate-General for
Science, Research and Development. The seconded specialists will continue to be paid by
their own departments but will also receive a living allowance from the European
Commission.

3. There are a number of schemes, such as the Agent Temporaire and Auxiliare schemes,
which offer temporary contracts for anything up to three years. These contracts are for
specific employment within EU institutions such as the European Parliament, the
European Court of Justice but most probably the Commission. The three factors that
distinguish these people from permanent employees of the EU are:
employment is for a fixed term, after which time the official returns to his or her
own original employment in their home country.
those seconded to Europe need not resign from their own department. Indeed their
own departments are required to grant unpaid leave for the term of the secondment and to
be prepared to re-employ them after their return from Europe.
staff on secondment will continue to be paid by their home department or agency,
who will also be responsible for superannuation payments. There is also a responsibility
for ensuring that their living conditions do not suffer and many of those on secondment
will be paid a cost of living allowance under the particular rules that the department or
agency has for those of its employees posted overseas.

A permanent transfer to work for the Commission is a career move open to any British
civil servant, who can apply for tranfer through the European Staffing Unit within the
Cabinet Office or indeed by direct application to the Directorate-General for Personnel
and Administration. However, since 1990 when the scheme was introduced, the normal
method by which UK nationals qualify for employment as senior civil servants at
category A of the EU bureucracy is through an application for and acceptance onto the
European Fast Stream Programme. The Fast Stream recruitment programmes is a system
of fast-track training and promotion of university graduates entering the Civil Service.
These programmes have a part to play across the entire Civil Service but the European
Fast Stream is of particular importance because it addresses two quite separate objectives
in one single measure: the programme is primarily intended to increase the number of UK
nationals working within the EU, but it simultaneously creates a substantial and
influential section of the Home Civil Service which has considerable experience in
dealing with European issues within a UK context.

Applicants for the Fast Stream Programme do not have to be civil servants at the time of
making their application, they need merely to be UK nationals, with a first or second
class honours degree and aged no more than 41 at the time of entering the programme.
The age limit is fixed at 41 because they aim to move on to work in Europe after a couple
of years training and there is an upper age limit of 45 for anyone applying to work for
the Commission or other EU institutions. There is no particular preference for one kind of
degree rather than another, the European Fast Stream is as generalist as any other, but a
degree in a suitable discipline such as law, economics, European or political studies or a
71
modern language is considered helpful, while reasonable fluency in a second EU
language is also desirable, although candidates who are accepted will attend regular
intensive language classes as part of their training programme. If accepted as a European
Fast Streamer the applicant becomes a full time UK civil servant, working in a UK
government department or agency but, the great difference is that their work has an
emphasis on European policy issues, so they learn how the EU machinery works and how
Brussels and Whitehall interact.

A.1 Reading Comprehension:
Choose the appropriate word(s) in italics for each of the following statements:
1. Recruitment for service with the EU bureaucracy is encouraged by the Civil Service
Organisation/Establishment/Corporation.
2. Entry to service/education/experience in Europe is by way of the normal recruitment
channels of the Home Civil Service.
3. British applicants are looking for long- or short-term secondments to work in France/
Germany/Europe.
4. There are three/four/six types of secondment available to British civil servants.
5. The Stagiaire schemes provide two 5-month periods of in/complex/adapted service.
6. The Detached National Expert schemes recruit civil servants/scientists/lawyers for
their own particular expertise.
7. The Agent Temporaire and Auxiliaire schemes offer temporary/permanent/specific
contracts.
8. Any civil servant can apply for transfer through the Eoropean Staffing Unit within the
Cabinet Office/Home Office/Foreign Office.
9. Applicants for the Fast Team Programme/System/Unit do not have to be civil servants
at the time of making their application.
10. If accepted as a European Fast Streamer, the applicant becomes a full time Union/
European/UK civil servant.

A.2. Talking Point
Enlarge upon:
All professions are conspiracies against the laity.
G. B. Shaw, The Doctors Dilemma
72
The test of a vocation is the love of the drudgery it involves.
Logan Pearsall Smith, Afterthoughts

A.3. Language Focus
A.3.1. The Past Perfect Tenses
It might be thought that the Home Civil Service which had had the expense of training
these civil servants might resent losing their services once they were trained.
The Simple Past Perfect
Use
1. the basic meanings of the simple past perfect are earlier past and completed in the
past
When he entered the meeting room, the most important points of the new strategy
had already been decided on.
2. unrealised hopes and wishes (after if, wish, would, rather)
If I had gone to a university, I would have studied international relations.
I wish you had told me the truth.
Id rather she had asked before borrowing the phone.
The Past Perfect Continuous
Use
1. to emphasize the recentness and the duration of a continuous activity which took place
before a particular time in the past
It was now six and he was tired because he had been working since dawn.
2. continuous and simple: differences
- progressive tenses are often used to talk about more temporary activities and situations;
when one talks about longer lasting or permanent situations, simple tenses are preferred
By 6 pm he had written the report. (the report had been finished)
By 6 pm he had been writing the report. (the report may or may not have
been finished)

Complete the following sentences using the past perfect tenses:
1. The moment I entered the office I realised .............................. .
2. I first spoke to the minister last Friday. I .............................. .
3. When I came into the lecture room, .............................. .
4. We all knew .............................. .
5. None of these teachers understood how he .............................. .
6. I was told the examinees .............................. .
7. She wished .............................. .
8. We could have helped her if .............................. .
73
9. By 9 pm .............................. .
10. Id rather .............................. .

A.3.2. Provide illustrative contexts for each of the following items:
summit; commissioner; directive; regulation; implementation; directorate; single market;
single currency; to veto; to grant

A.3.3. Complete the following table with the corresponding verb(s), noun(s), or
adjective(s) where appropriate:
Noun Verb Adjective
entry
developmental
state
applicant
responsible
retire
recruitment
generalist
involve
disposal

The member states of the EU take 1 .................... to hold the Presidency of the EU, the
term for which the 2 .................... is held being six months. During 3 .................... time,
ministers from the presiding member 4 .................... chair the various Council meetings.
Ministers 5 .................... these meetings rely very heavily 6 ..................... national
officials to provide them with support, there being something of a dual servicing of the
presidency so that, at Council 7 ...................., the minister in the chair sits with officials 8
.......... the Brussels secretariat on one side, and his or her own 9 ..................... officials on
the other. The smooth running of European Council meetings 10 ..................... a matter of
pride for national officials and the relevant Permanent Representatives.
74
Section B Brussels Seeks TV Makeover

Alfie Moon, the EastEnders market trader, could soon be informing his customers about
the benefits of EU food safety legislation and Brussels consumer protection directives.
It is all part of a European Commission plan to combat rising Euroscepticism. The
Commission, announcing a long-waited communications action plan yesterday, hopes
to work with programme makers across the Continent to promote positive messages.
Borrowing a UN tactic, it also intends to approach Europhile celebrities, such as the
comedian Eddie Izzard, to act as ambassadors to sell the benefits of Brussels law-
making. The Commission wants to make programmes, possibly quiz shows and
docudramas, that sell the EU vision.
The strategy was devised with the help of Peter Mendelson, The European Trade
Commissioner and former new Labour spin-doctor. It involves hiring an army of
communication specialists, running communications courses for its staff, training
journalists and inviting them on trips with comissioners, and setting up focus groups to
shape the way policies are promoted.
There will also be a special rebuttal unit, aimed at the British media, to try to kill off
misleading stories before people start believing them.
There are 50 action points, the most ambitious of which is the abolition of Eurospeak,
so that the public can understand what Eurocrats are saying.
Mr Mandelson said that, after the two referendum defeats: I sense that the
Commission today has a golden opportunity to assert this fresh political leadership.
Anthony Browne, The Times, July 21, 2005

1. The European Commission has devised a plan to combat rising Euroscepticism.
2. The Commission hopes to work with programme makers across the Continent.
3. Borrowing a US tactic, it intends to approach Europhile celebrities.
4. The plan includes making programmes that sell the EU vision.
5. The European Human Rights Commissioner was involved in devising the strategy.
6. The strategy focuses on communication.
7. There are groups set up to shape the way policies are promoted.
8. The British Media will be closely monitored.
9. The strategy has 40 action points.
10. The main objective is the abolition of Eurospeak.

75
B.2. Talking Point
Enlarge upon:
Today words have become battles. The right words, battles won; the wrong words,
battles lost.
Erich von Ludendorff
Television: the key to all minds and hearts because it permits people to be entertained by
their government without ever having to participate in it.
Richard Condon, Observer, June 10, 1990

B.3. Language Focus.
B.3.1. Phrasal verbs SET
The strategy involves hiring an army of communication specialists and setting up focus
groups to shape the way policies are promoted.
Fill in the blanks with the appropriate missing item. Choose from the list:
about aside back forth out against apart up off down
1. The government must set .................... finding solutions to the countrys economic
problems.
2. You must set the initial cost of a new car .................... the saving youll make on
repairs.
3. Her clear and elegant prose sets her .................... from most other journalists.
4. The judges decision was set .................... by the Appeal Court.
5. Financial problems have set .................... our building programme.
6. Why dont you set your ideas .................... on paper?
7. The Prime Minister set .................... the aims of his government in a television
broadcast.
8. Panic on the stock market set .................... a wave of selling.
9. He set .................... his objections to the scheme.
10. The government has set .................... a working party to look into the problem of drug
abuse.

B.3.2. Choose the word A, B or C which best completes each sentence:
76
1. The Secretariat is .................... with the translation of EU documents into the
languages of the community.
A taken up B filled C overwhelmed
2. The Council of Ministers is the guiding hand and legislative .................... of the
Community.
A part B body C direction
3. The bureaucracy of the EU is provided by secondment .................... the bureaucracies
of the member states.
A of B from C with
4. The .......... of EU membership on the UK has grown ever greater over the years.
A influence B impact C role
5. Legal .................... are issued by the Commission and have to be dealt with by the
Home Civil Service.
A bonds B devices C instruments
6. When a minister .................... a Council meeting, they will be accompanied by a team
of civil servants.
A takes part B participates C attends
7. The British representatives are .................... the most part regarded as being senior
diplomats.
A by B for C at
8. The permanent representative is a .................... diplomat from the Foreign and
Commonwealth Office.
A would be B career C promising
9. All commissioners have a small group of aides or advisers known as their cabinet to
.................... in their work.
A assist B focus C motivate
10. The commission administration is divided into policy responsibilities, .................... to
government ministries.
A alike B similar C like
B.3.3. Fill in the blanks in the following text with an appropriate term from the list:

77
representatives how policy ultimately ambassadors role
status working line own processes EU
As a group of permanent 1 .................... to the EU from each member state, and an
institution which plays an important and decisive 2 .................... in the functioning of the
EU, the Committee of Permanent Representatives, or Coreper as it is popularly known,
often exerts tremendous influence on EU 3 .................... . Comprising the EU states 4
.................... to Brussels and serviced by the small Council of Ministers secretariat
general, Coreper is the last 5 .................... of official-level decision-making before
proposals reach EU ministers. Although its members are 6 ..................... accountable to
their member states governments , with the 7 ..................... of diplomats or civil servants,
with clear guidelines from their national capitals on 8 .................... to approach any issue,
Coreper has wide-ranging abilities to negotiate deals within the 9 .................... legislative
process and therefore plays a much wider role in the policy-making and decision-taking
10 .................... than would be normal for officials if they were 11 .................... according
to the practices of their 12 .................... countries of origin.


First and foremost in the European involvement of British civil servants is their role
in implementing EU secondary legislation as it applies to the UK. Secondary legislation
means all those legal instruments devised and issued by the Commission of the EU to
administer the policies laid down by the Council of Ministers, legislation which is then
passed to national governments for acceptance and implementation. The types of legal
instrument issued to national governments for implementation include:
Regulations, which become immediately effective as law within the member states
without the need for any national legislation to endorse them nor indeed any need to
change the form of the regulation as it was determined in Brussels. However, although
regulations become law in the form that was agreed in Brussels the Civil Service of a
member state is free to suggest that additional legislation may be required for greater
effectiveness, and it is then the task of the domestic civil servants of the member state to
suggest and make the necessary modifications.
Directives, which are not as complete and detailed as regulations. In essence they
consist of policy objectives that are binding on member governments but which do not
have a specific form dictated by the Commission. The method by which the objectives
78
are to be achieved is left to the discretion of national governments and the formulation of
that method is left open to the bureaucracies of those national governments.
Decisions, which are not directed to all member states but are specifically directed at
one country, firm, organisation or individual. Because these decisions are very specific
they are often administrative rather than legislative acts and as a result have very little to
do with officials in the member states.

Art. 42. (1) Funcionarii publici au obligaia s i ndeplineasc cu profesionalism,
imparialitate i n conformitate cu legea ndatoririle de serviciu i s se abin de la orice
fapt care ar putea aduce prejudicii persoanelor fizice sau juridice ori prestigiului
corpului funcionarilor publici.
(2) Funcionarii publici de conducere sunt obligai s sprijine propunerile i iniiativele
motivate ale personalului din subordine, n vederea mbuntirii activitii autoritii sau
instituiei publice n care i desfoar activitatea, precum i a calitii serviciilor publice
oferite cetenilor.
(3) Funcionarii publici au ndatorirea de a respecta normele de conduit profesional
i civic prevzute de lege.
Art. 43. (1) Funcionarii publici au obligaia ca, n exercitarea atribuiilor ce le revin,
s se abin de la exprimarea sau manifestarea public a convingerilor i preferinelor lor
politice, s nu favorizeze vreun partid politic i s nu participe la activiti politice n
timpul programului de lucru.
(2) Funcionarilor publici le este interzis s fac parte din organele de conducere ale
partidelor politice.
Art. 44 (1) Funcionarii publici rspund, potrivit legii, de ndeplinirea atribuiilor ce
le revin din funcia public pe care o dein, precum i a atribuiilor ce le sunt delegate.
(2) Funcionarul public este obligat s se conformeze dispoziiilor primite de la
superiorii ierarhici.
(3) Funcionarul public are dreptul s refuze, n scris i motivat, ndeplinirea
dispoziiilor primite de la superiorul ierarhic, dac le consider ilegale. Dac cel care a
emis dispoziia o formuleaz n scris, funcionarul public este obligat s o execute, cu
excepia cazului n care aceasta este vdit ilegal. Funcionarul public are ndatorirea s
aduc la cunotin superiorului ierarhic al persoanei care a emis dispoziia, astfel de
situaii.
Legea nr. 188/1999 privind statutul funcionarilor publici

Section D Writing

Comment on:
For or against? The United States of Europe is a fine ideal.

79
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2005

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