In 1973 I was a first-time, off-year freshman at California State University at Northridge, one of only two off-year freshman (meaning I’d gotten out of high school a semester early) enrolled in Dr. Dennis Beller’s Political Science 100 course. This is the kind of course that’s requisite for any political science major where one learns the differences between “power” and “authority” and the structures of social and political order, i.e., the structure of power, the structure of authority, the structure of society, and the structure of ideology. It is the same or similar to a beginning class in anthropology, where one learns the differences between simple societies like the Kalahari Bushmen, where all four structures would be the same and complex societies like Britain, where for example all authority lies in the Queen but all the actual power of government resides in parliament.
When Dr. Beller was explaining the British scenario, given that it was late in the year and the polls suggested the possibility of a hung-election in Britain, with the Liberal Party holding the balance of power between the Conservatives and Labour, I asked whether during such a situation the Queen would actually exercise actual power rather than only her nominal authority which lacked power. Dr. Beller deftly swept aside the question as being too theoretical, since there was such a remote possibility of the Liberals holding the balance of power that it wasn’t worth discussing.
Dr. Beller was wrong on that one. My prediction came true: Labour came in first with a plurality of seats, the Conservatives second, and Liberals holding the balance of power. With the Conservatives being the outgoing government, the outgoing prime minister insisted that the Queen should give him first crack at forming a governing coalition. Labour had more seats than anybody else and demanded that they be given the first shot as the largest party. The Queen chose Labour.
So, my question was well put: did the Queen assume a degree of power that she normally doesn’t have? Will Queen Elizabeth wind up with power again when as is this time very likely, that on Thursday the British electorate will produce a hung parliament with the Liberal Democrats getting more votes than one or both of the major parties but fewer seats than either?
Regardless of how one answers or debates the theoretical questions that only political scientists seem to care about, as an American I’m glad that my country solved the problem of monarchical power by revolting against it in 1776.
