COMPARITIVE POLITICS
SEMINAR II A DESCRIPTION OF TWO WESTERN EUROPEAN POLITICAL SYSTEMS
FRANCE AND GREAT BRITAIN
INTRODUCTION
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.
Despite these opposing histories, there are many similarities between
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The House of Commons, on the other hand, is a democratically elected chamber. The House of Lords and the House of Commons meet in separate chambers in the Palace of Westminster (the Houses of Parliament), in central London.
The British Parliament is often called the "Mother of Parliaments," as the legislative bodies of many nationsmost notably, those of the members of the Commonwealthare modelled on it. However, it is a misquotation of John Bright, who had actually remarked on 18 January 1865 that "England is the Mother of Parliaments", in the context of supporting demands for expanded voting rights in a country which had pioneered Parliamentary government.
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.
House of Commons
The UK is divided into parliamentary constituencies of broadly equal population (decided by the Boundaries Commission), each of which elects a Member of Parliament to the House of Commons. The leader of the party with the largest number of MPs is invited by the monarch to form a government, and becomes the Prime Minister. The leader of the second largest party becomes the Leader of the Opposition.
There is usually a majority in Parliament, thanks to the First Past the Post electoral system so coalitions are rare. The monarch normally asks a person commissioned to form a government
In theory the House of Commons is the dominant chamber as it is elected while the House of Lords plays more of a revising role, issues to be considered include the powers of each chambers, the fact the House of Lords is more independently minded and the impact of the whips. It will ultimately be argued that the House of Commons remains far more effective due to having greater powers in checking the government power.
was founded and why the separation from Great Britain happened. This was written to give
Fundamentally the UK government does not have elective dictatorship. The government is still elected even though they have a large majority of seats in the House of Commons. However if a government does have a very large majority they are able to make big changes very quickly but all times they are
The central government is normally located in the capital city; which in our case it’s London. The central government runs the whole country by taking up the most important responsibilities that any other government levels in the UK has. These responsibilities are making new laws, signing agreements with the other nations and also defending the nation. The central government has these responsibilities as it’s the main government within the UK and it contains the 3 political institutions which make up parliament which are: the House of Commons, and the House of Lords and the monarch. These institutions work together. The house of commons creates new laws which they feel will work well for the British community. The house of lords has a
The public, unlike the MPs, do not elect the Lords. The process of appointment of these members is that they are appointed by the Queen herself; however this is done
The House of Burgesses was the first representative legislative body in the colonies, which not only influenced other colonies to create their own government but also contributed to the development of a representative government in colonial America.
A political two party system is one where two parties have complete dominance over voting, in terms of seats and the general vote. The multi- party system however describes a system where more than two parties have the ability to win role as government. In this essay I will give a balanced argument on whether Britain is a two party, or multi- party system.
Every country differs in their preference of political system to govern their countries. For democratic countries, two possible choices of governing are the presidential system and the parliamentary system. Since both the presidential and the parliamentary systems have their own strengths and weaknesses, many scholars have examined these two forms of government, and debate on which political system is more successful in governance. In this paper, I will first provide a detailed analysis of both the parliamentary and the presidential system. I will also evaluate each system’s strengths and weaknesses, addressing any differences as well as any commonalities. Finally, I will conclude by using historical examples to analyze and support the
How Britain was Affected by the French Wars When studying the effect of the French Wars on Britain one must not forget that 18th century warfare is not comparable in any degree to the 20th century world wars which as Tongue suggests "were fought with a ferocity and scale unknown in previous centuries". The French wars did not dominate British society during this period and therefore it is extremely hard to determine which changes in the economy, politics and society were induced by the war and which would have happened anyway. There were many changes in Britain's politics of the period and although they could have all happened if there had not been any French wars there are obvious links
Parliament comprises a directly elected 41-member House of Assembly and a 16-member appointed senate. Both houses have five-year terms. Elections to the House of Assembly are from single-member constituencies and are held by popular vote using the first-past-the-post system. There is universal suffrage at age
There are two main types of political systems, one being a presidential system and the other being a parliamentary system. Both of them have their own benefits as well as their own disadvantages. No political system can be perfect or can always have stability, but shown in history there are successful countries that use either one. Also there are countries that have failed with one of the two systems.
One of the many electoral systems is the First-Past-The-Post system (FPTP), the current system for electing MPs to the House of Commons. There are 659 separate constituencies across the UK each electing one single Member of Parliament. In order to vote you simply put an ‘X’ next to the name of the candidate you support. The candidate who gets the most votes wins, regardless of whether he or she has more than 50% support. Once members have been individually elected, the party with the most seats in Parliament, regardless of whether or not it has a majority, normally becomes the next government. FPTP tends to lead to a two-party system where two major political parties dominate politics
At the present time, in the United Kingdom political system, there are 650 Members of Parliament that sit on the green benches, they are “The Commons”. It is their duty to vote on laws and to debate current political dealings. (Q&A, 2010) “The Lords” sit on the red benches and number around 820, because they are elected for life.
The political system of England consists of parliamentary system & constitutional monarchy. There has been no government for England since early 1700. Currently it is governed by parliament of United Kingdom, though other countries still have decentralized government.