Compare And Contrast The Parliamentary System And The United States Democratic System

The United States elects a president that is both head of state and head of government. In other democracies, the leader of the government is not both head of state and head of government. In the American form of democracy, there are only two major political parties, in other governments there may be multiple parties represented (IIP Digital, 2008). Our president, and other government officials are elected for a specific period of time, whereas other governments may call an election at any time (IIP Digital, 2008).

The United Kingdom has different levels of government system; the function of this multi-level government system can be observed in brief from the figure given below:

The US differs from the British Parliament in its methods of representation; as US Congress uses districts and state representatives in the House of Representatives opposing the Parliamentary system of a representative House of Lords, using ‘honorary life peerages’ to represent the distinguished upper class and House of Commons to represent the everyday man of each required geographic division. Additionally, the two systems of government differed in their separation of powers; with the majority party of the House of Commons endorsing a specified member to be the Prime Minister, and utilizing common members as cabinet-level position holders, and thereby contradicting Article I, Section 6 of the Constitution, which prohibits all members of Congress from holding any other power in office. The length of terms also work to diversify the systems. The British House of Commons must occur every 5 years, but does not follow a fixed schedule, and the votes for Prime Minister elections depend greatly on the backing of parliamentary party, and votes of confidence and, more importantly, ‘no confidence’. Members of the US House of Representatives stand for election every 2 years, and Senate every 6. The elections for the Senate are staggered into thirds, so a third of the Senate is re-elected or re-placed every 2 years. Finally the idea of Federalism separates US Congress from British Parliament. For

The Australian government system has been originally created in 1901 through the Constitution. With the fundamentals carved in the Constitution, the Australian System is often referred to as a ‘Washminster System’ as it is a hybrid of the Washington (US) and Westminster (UK) system of government. With the fusion of North America and the United Kingdom’s government systems, the phenomenon of the bicameral system was implemented in the Australian system. Bicameralism’s origins are from England and it was later established in the United States. Hence, the onset of the Australian system’s structures was anglocentric by reflecting the foundations and concepts of England. However, the concept of bicameralism is known to have existed since medieval times and has since been in the chronical of the Western political progress for centuries. Bicameralism is an important system in the Australian government. It refers to a government which consists of two chambers, or houses. Alike North America, the houses are known as the House of Representatives (the lower house) and the Senate (the upper house). On the other hand, in the United Kingdom, the chambers are known as the ‘House of Commons’ (the lower house) and the ‘House of Lords’ (the upper house). In 1789, North America altered their constitution in order to ratify how the American citizens were represented. Through bicameralism, the House of Representative would represent the people equally by population, whereas the Senate would

Throughout this essay, a comparison of both Australia’s constitutional democracy and the federal republic system in the United States will take place. Australia and the United States are both a part of the federal system. Within the federal system, the national and state governments divide the power in order to govern (Parliamentary Education Office, 2016). Both Australia and the United States have two chambers, the House of Representatives and the Senate. Parliament Education office, (2016) states that there are numerous similarities between these two countries, for example, both these nations decide on the making of legal guidelines for their government. However, Australia and the United States have different forms of government and this affects how the political system is managed. Australia is a constitutional monarchy, in which the queen is the head of the state (ABC, 2004), and the United States is the federal republic where the President is the head of state (Parliamentary Education Office, 2016). A constitution is a formal structure for the state and specifies the power and institutions of the central government and its relationship with different levels. Additionally, it expresses the rights of citizens and creates limits on the government (Hague & Harrop, 2013). In a republic government, the people and their elected representative have the power and there may be an elected or nominated president (Stevenson, 2010). A constitutional democracy and the federal republic

These 435 seats are divided among the states every ten years. Representatives serve for two years at a time, and every second November there is a new election where they are chosen by the people in a direct election. (1) The House is required to choose a Speaker for itself who is in charge over the proceedings of the House and is the highest position in the House leadership. Other leadership positions are the Majority and Minority Leaders, and the Majority and Minority Whips. The Minority Leader would generally be the Speaker if his party were the majority.(1) The whips act as a median between the leadership and the other House members. The Senate is the Upper House and its members are called Senators. The qualifications for Senators are similar to those of house representatives, he or she must be 30 years old or older, must have been a U.S. citizen for nine years, and must live in the state they plan to represent.There is again no restriction of sex, race, class, social standing, or any other classification, for both a Senator or House representative . Each state has two Senators, no matter what the size of the state happens to be. A Senators term lasts six years and like the other house members every second November there is a new election. The Vice President of the United States is the President of the Senate but he is a non-voting member unless a vote of the Senate ends in a tie which causes him to cast the deciding vote. If the Vice President is not available

Great Britain's political elite structure represents those fortunate enough to reap the benefits of being born into royalty or wealth. Derived from mostly royal influence, Britain's governmental structure symbolizes the lineage of the political elite. From an American perspective when viewing British government, I see many similarities and differences. Specifically, Britain's government and political structure is comprised of three components: a unitary state, constitution monarchy, and a parliamentary system. Those three components are akin to the United State's three branches of government. But, the influence of Britain's political elite affect all three components as well. Furthermore, Britain's high commendation of the royal family and the like provide enough influence on public opinion in order to determine what is best for the nation. In my opinion, Britain's political structure as well as their elite possesses vast amounts of qualities conducive to a successful economic, governmental, and social structure. Moreover, there are many qualities the British

In 1824, John Quincy Adams became the 6th president of the United States. The candidates of the 1824 election were John Quincy Adams, Henry Clay, Andrew Jackson, and William Crawford. All four of them were part of the same political party, Democratic-Republican. The two main candidates were Andrew Jackson and John Quincy Adams. John C. Calhoun was elected vice president with a majority of the votes.

Direct democracy is a type of government system that allows the citizens to vote on laws and select officials directly. Direct democracy is similar to representative democracy, in which representative democracy allows the people to elect those representatives who govern and pass laws; also known as a republic. The differences between direct democracy and a republic are, in direct democracy citizens vote and to pass laws, where in a representative democracy the officials that the citizens elected make those decisions on their behalf. In a constitutional democracy the government enforces limits on those who govern the laws, and it allows the voice of the people to be heard through free, fair, and frequent elections. A constitutional democracy

the chief executive and the head of state. The President is elected independently of the

I chose these two systems, which interest me for different reasons. The British system is one that has evolved over many centuries, with both small and large adjustments along the way to keep in on course. In contrast to this, the French model has changed dramatically on several occasions, and can rarely have been described as stable. However, in 1958 Charles de Gaulle made some brave changes to the constitution, which after being approved by the French public, set the scene for the classic semi-presidential system that we see today.

The two political party system started when George Washington was the only president without a party. It wasn’t until the election of 1796 that two political parties were used to help the people choose which side they would take and determine who they would vote for. Back in those times, two parties were called the Federalist and the Democratic-Republican. The Federalist were considered themselves to be “friends of order”. And the Democratic-Republican were referred to as Republicans. Vice President John Adams was the presidential candidate for the Federalist and Thomas Jefferson was the presidential candidate for the Democratic - Republican Party. Everyone saw the Democratic - Republican Party to be a more diverse group than the Federalist,

The monarch is a figure head and does no decision making. The voters of a parliamentary system elect parliament who then elect the prime minister and the cabinet. The prime minister is normally the leader of the most popular party in parliament. The PM even being the head of government is not as powerful as the head of government in a presidential system. The parliament of the system withholds the most power. They make or break any law. Compared to the separation of powers as in a presidential system there is only a separation of functions. Each part of government has its own function to perform, but there is no system of checks and balances. An example of the overlapping of powers is the need of a vote of confidence. A vote of confidence is proposed by a party and needs backing from the other part of government. With no system of sorts there is more likely of upheaval and change of rule. There is not as much stability in a parliamentary system as there is in a presidential. Lastly there is no judicial rule as there is in a presidential system. A parliamentary system has had success in the past but still is seen as not as successful as a presidential system.

Throughout history, there have been many systems of government that have been created, and have revolutionised todays modern forms of government. Democracy, Monarchy, Dictatorship, Theocracy, and Anarchy all use various, unique techniques on how to run a civilization. Each of them require different leadership traits in order for it to work properly.

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.