Political issues Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Political issues - Research Paper Example On the other hand, the UK has its monarch acting as the head of state; however, supreme authority is not vested unto the monarch because there is a separate head of the government elected by the people who exercise political powers. Just like in the US, these leaders espouse a set of laws found in the constitution (Storey, 87). This paper discusses the different between government systems of the US and the UK, as well as other countries referring to three articles. 1. Szilagyi, Ilona Maria. "Presidential versus parliamentary systems." AARMS Vol. 8, No. 2 (2009): 307–314. Notably, the founding fathers who wrote the US constitution had the British political system to draw on; however, they avoided any form of concentrated power that resembled the monarchy because it is one of the chief things that they rebelled against. Nonetheless, there are a few similarities between the two political systems. Both the British and the US forms of government have a head of state, upper and lowe r house, and a court system. The two have constitutions that depict the rules for government as well as the rights their people have. Both political systems are democratic in nature; there are firm checks and balances in place to inhibit the power of any one branch. Both governments can be put in place and can be removed from power depending on the will of the people. The president in the US political system is the legitimate head of state elected as part of the Electoral College (Watts, 312). United Kingdom have the King or Queen as the legitimate head of state while the prime minister handles political matters and is the legitimate head of government. Officially, UK’s head of state signs off any act of parliament and delivers the Speech from the throne written by the prime minister. In most modern governments, the monarch plays the part of a ceremonial figurehead thus it is atypical for members of the royal family to directly get in the way of the country’s political process. The upper house in the US is the Senate while the UK has the House of Lords. Each state under the US system of governance, despite the size, has two senate members. Before, the governor of the state used to appoint senators but these days they get to be elected by the people to serve 6-year terms. The House of Lords is quite different. They are not elected by the people. In addition, the House of Lords appoint 792 members basing on inheritance, or their title in the Church of England (Harris, 231). They are never elected and cannot be removed from office by popular vote. Nonetheless, they serve the same purpose as the US senate (Szilagyi, 310). They debate, discuss and vote on legislation passed by the lower house in the legislative branch. The British House of Commons and the US House of Representative draw on a lot of similarities. Each house comprises representative elected by the people. Control of the lower house is given to the party that carries the most number of s eats. Under the UK system of governance, the party with majority members produces the prime minister who is then the party leader becomes the Speaker of the House. Elections are also different in the two forms of government. The prime minister under the parliamentary system can go to the crown and ask to dissolve the parliament at any given point. Thereafter, an election would follow. An election would also be eminent if the Prime Minster lost the confidence of the house. 2. Mcquire,