Having a quick go..
<snip>
That turned out a bit longer than I thought... and I still probably left stuff out. :lol:
If I may, I'd like to clarify some things here. I don't know where you're from, Infinite Chaos, but I'm American and I've been studying UK government. I think you're misrepresenting the Senate a bit.
1) The U.S. has a written Constitution, while the U.K. has an unwritten constitution.
The U.S. has codified it's supreme law in the Constitution, which was written in 1787, and has been amended twenty-seven times. The Constitution declares the basics of how U.S. government will work and no law from the federal government, state governments, or local governments may contradict the Constitution. Who determines what contradicts the Constitution? The Supreme Court does. Appointments to the Supreme Court, which are called Justices, with Chief Justice being the "first among equals," can rule acts and orders from the President and Congress as unconstitutional. This means that the U.S. holds
judicial review as the highest power in the land. However, this is not that big of a deal since the Supreme Court doesn't have any other power, such as writing law or commanding government. The sole purview of the Supreme Court is to strike down unconstitutional laws written by Congress and unconstitutional acts performed by the administration of the President.
The U.K. however, has an "unwritten" constitution. That is, their basic law isn't codified in one document; instead, it is comprised from several statutes, treaties and traditions of British law. The bedrock of the U.K. constitution is the idea of
Parliamentary sovereignty. Parliamentary sovereignty means that Parliament is the highest source of law, and should they wish to change their constitution, they can do so merely through an Act of Parliament. This makes it more difficult or even impossible for the judiciary to strike down laws, especially Acts of Parliament, in the U.K. than it is in the U.S.
2) The U.S. has Separation of Powers and Checks and Balances, while the U.K. has most powers contained within Parliament.
In the United States, government is separated into 3 distinct branches:
The Legislature = the Congress = House of Representatives + Senate = writes laws
The Executive = the President = enforces laws
The Judiciary = the Supreme Court = interpret laws
So Congress writes law, the President and his administration enforces law, and the Supreme Court interprets law and can declare them unconstitutional. Of note is that a member of one branch cannot be a member of another branch. This is to maintain separation of powers as well as to prevent a few people from having too much power.
Take, for example, Hillary Clinton, who was a Senator from New York when she was nominated and confirmed to serve as Secretary of State, an executive position under the President's Cabinet; in order to accept, she had to resign as Senator.
In the U.K., they have 3 branches, but most powers are eventually fall upon Parliament.
The Legislature = the Parliament = the House of Commons + the House of Lords = writes laws
The Executive = the Government = the Cabinet = enforces laws
The Judiciary = the Supreme Court of the U.K. (formally Lords of Appeal in Ordinary of the House of Lords) = interprets law
Parliament writes laws, known as Acts of Parliament. Parliament is made up of the House of Commons and the House of Lords. The Lords have few powers with regards to passing an Act; most of their power lays in delaying a bill from the Commons. So most power is delegated to the House of Commons.
The House of Commons has single-member districts. Whichever candidate wins the plurality of votes in those districts represents that constituency in the Commons. After many Acts of Parliament over the decades, the Commons is the most powerful house of Parliament, having seriously stripped the power of the House of Lords in the past decades.
Technically, executive power remains in the hands of the Monarch; however, she exercises executive authority only on the advice of her Cabinet, who effectively administrates and executes the policies of the U.K. government.
The Cabinet is comprised of Members of Parliament that have the confidence of Parliament to exercise executive authority on behalf of the Monarch. Should the Cabinet no longer have the confidence of Parliament, Parliament can call a vote of no confidence for the Monarch to dissolve Parliament. Once this is done, a general election is made to form a new Parliament, which will have to form a new Cabinet. Alternatively, general elections for Parliament, and therefore the Cabinet, are automatically held 5 years after the last election, although a term of Parliament can be extended by an Act of Parliament.
Previously, supreme judicial functions were performed by a number of members from the House of Lords, which was called the Lords of Appeal in Ordinary, or the Law Lords. Recently, however, Parliament created the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom to take over those judicial functions that were held by the House of Lords.
So as you can see, while the U.S. has separated the functions of government into different branches, the U.K. has centered government power into Parliament. The executive and (until recently) the judicial functions of government has come from the legislature.
3) The U.S. Cabinet is different from the U.K. Cabinet.
The U.S. Cabinet and the U.K. Cabinet both serve the same functions: to head the executive agencies and departments of the government. How they are chosen, however, are different.
The U.S. Cabinet is chosen to advise the President on executing the policies of the U.S. government. They also head the executive departments of the U.S. government. The President nominates a candidate who must then be confirmed by the Senate. A member of the U.S. Cabinet serves at the President's pleasure, and may be dismissed by the President at any time. A member of the U.S. Cabinet may not belong to any other branch of government, such as Congress or the Supreme Court.
The U.K. Cabinet are appointed from the House of Commons or the House of Lords by the Monarch on the advise of the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister can, at any time, ask the Monarch to dismiss a Minister of the Cabinet from their office.
4) The U.S. has a line of succession, while the U.K. does not.
The United States has a clear line of succession in order to maintain continuity of government. In case the President dies or is incapacitated, another officer of government is able to take his place. The order of presidential succession is:
1. the Vice President
2. the Speaker of the House
3. the President
pro tempore of the Senate (the most senior Senator of the majority party of the Senate
[Cabinet officers in the order their appointment was created]
4. Secretary of State
5. Secretary of the Treasury
6. Secretary of Defense
7. Attorney General
etc.
This line of succession ensures that there is always a President in power at all time. Some constitutional scholars are against the Speaker of the House and the President pro tempore being a part of the presidential succession; they argue that because those positions are legislative rather than executive them being in the line for presidential succession violates the system of separation of powers advocated by the Founding Fathers.
In the U.K., the Prime Minister is seen as a "first among equals" - that is, while the PM heads the government he is as much a member of Parliament as every other MP is, and should the Prime Minister die unexpectedly then all that has to be done is for the Monarch can ask Parliament to offer a new Prime Minister for her to accept or to dissolve Parliament and hold a new general election to replace him.
So while the President is the singular head of the executive, the Prime Minister isn't as irreplaceable. Then again, this is only because the Prime Minister wields executive authority on behalf of the Monarch, who is the technical holder of executive power.
5) The U.S. has regular and separate elections, while the U.K. has votes of no confidence.
The U.S. has regular elections for it's officials, which is stated in the U.S. Constitution.
The President has an election every 4 years, but no one can serve as President for more than 10 years, and the Cabinet serves at the President's pleasure.
The House of Representatives has an election every 2 years, with no term limits. The Senate has an election every 6 years, with roughly 1/3 of the Senate having an election every 2 years. So ever 2 years we elect a new Congress.
The Supreme Court is not an elected position - instead, it is a lifetime appointment. Supreme Court Justices are nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate.
The U.K., on the other hand, has rather irregular elections.
In the U.K., Parliament is dissolved automatically after 5 years since the last general election, as mandated by an Act of Parliament, or if the Prime Minister no longer holds the confidence of Parliament. The Prime Minister can also ask the Monarch to to dissolve Parliament in case he resigns or wants to hold general elections before the 5 years are up. PMs can do this strategically to maintain power in Parliament by holding general elections at time when his party is the most favorable.
This shows a difference in how the U.S. and the U.K. operate - the U.S. is much more stable but must suffer unpopular governments, while the U.K. can adapt to emergency and necessities of the government but also risk one PM or party retaining power.
6) The U.S. President is voted by the electoral college, while the U.K. Prime Minister is chosen from Parliament.
The U.S. President is elected into office via the Electoral College. According to the Constitution, each state is allocated a number of electoral votes equal to that state's Representatives and Senators. Whichever Presidential ticket (composing of the Presidential candidate and the Vice Presidential candidate he chose to run with) receives 50% + 1 of the electoral votes then becomes President and Vice President.
State law determines how the electoral votes of that state are allocated. Most states give their full amount of electoral votes to whichever candidate receives the plurality (not majority) of the popular vote within that state. Maine and Nebraska has as state law that whichever Presidential tickets receives a plurality of votes in a congressional district gets that district's electoral vote for it's Representative, while the winner of the state-wide election gets the two electoral votes from their Senators.
The U.K. Prime Minister is the leader of the majority party in the House of Commons. Therefore, the PM is not directly elected by the people. Instead, the PM is usually the leader of the political party with the majority of seats in Parliament. This means that the leader of a party is an MP. If a political party feels that their leader is not able to get them a majority, then they can choose a different party leader to help them gain a majority in Parliament.
