British Civilization by Oakland John;

Author:Oakland, John; [Oakland, John]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Group
Published: 2003-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

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DOI: 10.4324/9781315811949-13

Mac/Mc (Scotland and society) A prefix found before many Scottish names, such as MacDonald, McDowell or Mackintosh. It means “son of”.

Magazines (media) periodical publications (often weekly and usually illustrated) which contain articles or contributions either by different writers on various items or on aspects of a common theme.

Magistrate (law) A judicial official without professional legal qualifications, also known as a justice of the peace (jp), who is appointed by the lord chancellor. These ordinary (lay) members of the public sit in an unpaid and part-time capacity as judges in local magistrates' courts in england, wales and northern ireland to decide minor (summary) criminal and some civil cases without a jury.

Magistrates' Court (law) The lowest criminal court in england and wales in which the majority of all crimes (95 per cent), but chiefly minor or summary cases, are heard and decided by a bench of local magistrates (usually three) without a jury. It can also determine some civil cases, such as those dealing with marriage, divorce, licensing and motoring offences. There are Magistrates' courts in northern ireland and Sheriff/District Courts in scotland which perform the same duties.

Magna Carta (government) see runneymede

Maiden speech (government) The first or opening speech delivered by a member of parliament (mp) in the house of commons, or by a peer in the house of lords, after he or she has become a member of the relevant House, and which is usually on a topic of personal interest to that individual.

Maintenance (law) The amount of money ordered by a court of law to be paid by an ex-husband or wife to the other spouse and any children of the family after a divorce. Also occurs within marriage or on separation (where the parties live separately).

Maisonette (housing) A small part of a house let separately, which consists of a basic minimum of rooms and amenities.

Majoritarian (elections and politics) Electoral systems which require that the winning candidate receives an absolute majority (over 50 per cent) of the total votes cast in an election. Although each winning candidate can claim a mandate from his or her electors on the basis of an absolute majority, it does not prevent disproportionality. On the other hand, the British first-past-the-post system only requires that the winning candidate has a simple majority (which may be one vote) over his or her next competitor (rather than over all candidates counted together), and therefore involves large disproportionalities.

Majority (government and politics) In a British general election, an ordinary majority is the number of popular votes that one political party or candidate has over other parties or candidates (which can be a simple majority of one), both nationwide and in the constituency, and which is converted into parliamentary seats. An overall (or absolute) majority is the popular vote translated into the number of seats in the house of commons which the government has over all the other opposition parties counted together. The term is also employed in general meetings and other elections to signify the number of votes which one candidate (or a proposal) has over other competitors.

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