The United Kingdom, Europe's oldest democracy, is going through a serious process of institutional transition. Devolution towards the new regional parliaments in Scotland and Wales is one significant aspect of the changes. The turn of a centuries-old tradition of centralism shows, however, the determination of Tony Blair's governing Labour Party to reform the very heart of British politics. Many other projects are yet underway, such as a reform of the House of Lords and of the electoral system. Many of the new concepts, such as people's sovereignty, federalism and proportional rule, have swapped over to Britain from the Continent, especially through the influence exercised by the EU-integration. Many of the reforms planned by Labour are therefore moving the British democracy closer to its counterparts on the Continent. Thus, the world's first and unique model of parliamentary democracy could soon lose many of its former peculiarities. All together these changes are going to transform almost any aspect of the British political tradition as we knew it, with the risk to jeopardize even the unique stability, pragmatism and efficiency that has always distinguished the Westminster model.
The British Constitutional tradition is grounded on two principles: the Rule of Law and Parliamentary Rule. The Rule of Law is mainly based on the English Common-Law-tradition (a different system closer to Roman-Law traditions was instead maintained in Scotland after 1707). Parliamentary rule was installed after the Glorious Revolution against the catholic House of Stuart in 1688, when the new protestant King William III of Orange and his wife Queen Mary were forced to sign the Bill of Rights (1689), which ended absolutism in Britain and laid the bases for Constitutional Monarchy with a division of powers between Legislative and Executive. Soon after, with the succession of the House of Hanover to the throne (1714), the British two-party-system ("Whigs" and "Tories") began to shape, thus starting the tradition of majority government in the Cabinet. First Prime Minister became Sir Robert Walpole (Whigs) in 1721.
