Similarities & Differences Between the U.K. & U.S. Political Systems
Introduction
The political system in the USA is claimed to be inspired by the British system. Albeit similar in some ways it differs in many important aspects.
The British operate with a democratic parliamentary government, headed by a prime minister and monarch. The U.S. is governed by a federal constitutional republic having three branches of government, i.e. the executive, legislative, and judicial all sharing powers.
Notwithstanding these differences, both have a lot in common, such dual house legislatures and prominent political parties.
The Government and Heads of State
The differences between the U.K. and U.S. systems reach the highest level.
Within the U.K. system
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Prior to 2009 the House of Lords also assumed the role as the final court of appeal.
The executive
The most obvious difference between both political systems is that the U.S. has a presidential system with the apex of power granted to a directly elected President for a fixed term of office whereas in the UK parliamentary system the Prime Minister holds office for only so long as they command a majority of votes within the House of Commons. The Legislature
In the US both houses of the Legislature i.e. the Senate and Congress are directly elected as opposed to the UK system of elected representatives to the Commons and mostly appointed Peers to the House of Lords
Within the US system, resultant from the separation of powers, all legislation must be introduced by a congressman within the House of Representatives. In contrast with the UK system nearly all legislation is introduced by Government with a minimum number of bills being introduced by Private Members via Private Members Bills.
The
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In the US the term Conservative is viewed as being extremely Right Wing especially on social economic issues whilst in UK politics Conservative can be viewed as mainstream right-wing, especially on economic issues.
The term Liberal in the US is often viewed as generally being Left Wing and in the UK as centrist
In the US it is perceived that all those running for office must emphasise their patriotism while in the UK it is assumed that anyone who wants to run for national office cares for their country.
In the US the national flag holds a special place in the political heart of the nation being revered with many seeking criminalisation of those that burn or defame it, while in the UK the UK national flag of the four constituent nations forming the UK is seldom prominent at political events and is not held with the same regard or reverence as to that of the US.
US politicians often wear pin badges of the national flag, especially since 9/11 while in the UK politicians would seldom if ever wear a pin badge portraying the national UK flag as a result of the wide church of nationalism within the four constituent nations of the UK. The US is one country containing lots of separate states the UK is four individual countries with varying ideals, aspirations and
The government of the United States of America is a federal constitutional republic. In layman 's terms, this means that the country 's national, central government and the smaller, unitary governments of the fifty states are co-equal in their power, and that the citizens of America have a say in public policies by electing representatives who voice their respective opinions. More importantly, both the central government and the state governments are subject to the supreme law of the Constitution. Under this document, the central government is set up into three branches (the legislative, executive, and judicial) that are meant to check each other and balance out power. Their cooperation insures that the national government 's control is appropriate, and does not infringe upon the rights of the average American citizen.
The American legal system consists of two separate levels of court, defined as federalism, which together administer and enforce the laws in the United States. Federalism distributes the government powers between both the federal governments and the state governments, which ensures that the power of the national government is decentralized.
parliamentary government under a constitutional monarchy, meaning that parliament has a supremacy over the monarchy but the Queen still has certain powers (Jones et al., 2004). Since the 1970’s the traditional constitution has been challenged and had two major changes, which I will talk about later. The US constitution, unlike the UK constitution, is codified. It has a clear written primary source and one could say that its secondary source is the interpretation by the Supreme Court, which can change the meaning of specific phrases written in the primary source (Singh, 2003). A central principle to the constitution is that government should be limited and the powers split up.
What is it like? Government today is a lot like England’s Parliament. A Parliament is the England’s legislature. There are two houses in government today called the House of Representatives and the Senate. The American “Parliament” is called Congress. Congress is the lawmaking body just like the Parliament is. Congress has the authority to create a law from a bill. Members can discuss problems and/or solutions that may help society. If they form a bill to attempt to find a solution, they can present it to all of the Congress members in efforts to make it a law. If they don’t approve, the law can die. Once a bill dies, members can rewrite the bill until Congress approves. If and when Congress approves, it then has to complete the final steps to become an official law.These final steps may include, getting ratified and getting
Under the British constitution, parliament is sovereign. This means, amongst other things, that Parliament has a monopoly on making and amending laws. The British constitution, and the three functions of government which operate it often falls short of creating a definitive separation. Separation of powers refers to the idea that the major institutions of government should function independent of each other, in a utopian world there should aim to be a balance between the Crown and Parliament. In practice however, separation between the executive and legislature is near enough non-existent, an example being that government is made up almost entirely of MPs. Contrast this with the USA where no member of Obama’s government is equally a member of congress. However, the USA does have a codified constitution, a constitution written to delegate a clear separation of power. As we are well aware the UK doesn’t have such a constitution, the rules that
The differences between the constituent members of the UK are interesting, England, despite being the most developed, populous and richest member, is the only one without its own devolved government.
In UK there are two main levels in the system of the government; these are the Central
In the U.S. Democratic Republic, it has all three branches of government which are the legislature, executive, and the judicial branch. Their legislative branch has a Senate of 100 members and they're elected by the people for a six-year-term. The Senates make laws and they advise president on foreign policy. The executive branch has a president that is elected by the people for four years. The president is the chief executive of the government and the commander-in-chief of the army. The Supreme Court has
The United States’ government is constructed in Federalism. Federalism is a method of government that allows two or more individuals to have control over the same region. Each citizen in the United States is subject to the laws of their city, county, state and federal government.(Dictionary) The United States’ federalist government’s power is divided between the federal government and the state and local governments. The United State’s Constitution is the structure for our federalist government. In the Constitution, the federal government is identified as the highest governmental power and recognizes that the American people are subject to several different powers. The separation of these powers are called, checks and balances, which separate the three branches;legislative, executive, and judicial branches.to prevent actions by other branches.
The United States Federal System and the current Federal System for the European Union have many similarities and differences. The traditional division of the functions of a federal government are the legislative, executive and the judicial branch. The United States is made up all three branches separately to “check” potential abuses and balance each of the branches. The European Union also has three main political institutions that constitute the executive and legislative branches, as well as the independent judiciary with the power to exercise judicial review (European Parliament).
Most European countries have a parliamentary political system. Britain has a parliamentary system. Britain’s system starts at the voters who vote for Parliament. Parliament then elects and can oust the executive branch, which is headed by a prime
The American Political System The American political system is a federal system, which consists of
Parliamentary and Presidential democracies are forms of government that similar in some respects and differ in others. The Parliamentary system like the Presidential is divided into three separate arms of Government, the Legislature, Executive and the Judiciary. Both democracies have a bicameral legislature, often referred to as the House of Representative and the Senate. The House of Representative is elected and the Senate is appointed by the Head of State on the advice of the Prime Minister in a Parliamentary type while both houses are elected by the people in the Presidential system.
In the parliamentary system the executive and legislative are fused into one union that sets up and controls all of the government. They are the ones that decide on what policies and laws need to be implemented. In a parliamentary government both the legislative body and the executive body must be in accord on all policies. As long as they are not in agreement the policy cannot be accepted.
Parliament - Parliament is pretty much the identical to the legislative branch here in the US. The prime minister is accountable in his actions to the parliament. The parliament consists of the house of lords, house of commons and monarch.