英美政治制度比较

The comparison between American and

British political systems

First of all, we come to find out what is meant by political system. Political system belong to the superstructure areas, mainly includes the form of government, national structure, rule method and some basic content.

For Britain and United States, they are all capitalist countries; however, the two countries have different form of government, so let’s compare the British and the United States political system.

Similarities

First, from the relation between regime and the constitution, Britain and United State’s system of government belong to the dominant form of capitalist countries. The regime of the two countries are bourgeois regime, the fundamental goal is to maintaining the capitalist system, serving the interests of the bourgeois.

Second, both Britain and the United States political system have the same theoretical basis: \human rights\theory and \of the three powers” principle.

Third, the specific content of the political system include parliamentary system, the electoral system, judicial system, the government system, civil service system and political party system, etc.

Fourth, all labeled as “people’s democracy” to the main representative form of democracy.

Fifth, Power system is checks and balances and separation of powers \

All in all, as a capitalist country political system of two typical

representatives, both Britain and the United States maintenance of assets in class interests, safeguard the capitalist system, a private bourgeois dictatorship, etc have the same nature. However, in specific aspects of the political system, they have own characteristics.

Differences

First, Britain is arguably the oldest representative democracy in the world, with roots that can be traced over a thousand years. The oldest institution of government is the Monarchy (rule by the king). This date back to the Saxons who ruled from the 5th century AD until the Norman Conquest in 1066. The present Queen, ElizabethⅡ, is directly descended from King Egbert, who united England under his rule in 829. The power of the monarchy was largely derived from the ancient doctrine of the “divine right of kings”. For a thousand years Britain has had a hereditary king or Queen as the head of state. The rule of the monarchy today is primarily to symbolize the tradition and unity of the Britain state. The Queen, however, because she is non-political, belongs to everybody.

Under the terms of the Constitution her other roles are as follows: she is legally head of the executive, an integral part of the legislature, head of the judiciary, commander in chief of the armed forces and “supreme governor” of the Church of England. Always a popular figure in the UK, not to mention other countries, the Queen has almost always had an excellent approval rating in opinion polls, currently over 80%; and often significantly higher than that of her elected Prime Ministers. Most Britons feel the Queen’s most important job is to represent Britain at home and abroad; her second most important job is to set standards of good citizenship and family life. While the United States is democratic republic. The head of the executive is the president, who, together with the vice president, is elected to a four-year term. Under a Constitution Amendment passed in 1951, a president can be elected to only two terms. The power of the presidency are formidable, but not without limitations. The president, as the chief formulator of public policy, often proposes legislation to Congress. The president can also vote any bill passed by Congress. The vote can be overridden by a two-thirds vote in both the Senate and House of Representative. As heads of his political party, with ready access to the news media, the president can easily influence public opinion regarding issues and legislation that he deems vital. The president has the authority to appoint federal judges as vacancies occur, including members of the Supreme Court. All such court appointments are subject

to confirmation by the Senate. Within the executive branch, the president has broad powers to issue regulations and directives regarding the work of the federal government’s many departments and agencies. He also is commander-in –chief of the armed forces. The president appoints the heads and senior officials of the executive branch agencies. Under the Constitution, the president is primarily responsible for foreign relations with other nations.

Second, the differences between the legislative systems and Parliaments. British purely for the feudal as the theme of the bourgeois-democratic revolution and legislation; while the U.S. legislation system is based on the feudal as the theme of the bourgeois-democratic revolution to strive for independence for the target with the American war of independence of the product. In addition the two countries accept different constitutional ideas. Britain is the thought of John Locke, while the United States influenced by Montesquieu more. Locke advocated the separation of legislative and executive powers under the legislative supremacy; while Montesquieu advocated legislative, executive, judicial powers side by side, namely “checks and balances”. Britain is the origin country of the western parliamentary demoncratic system is also the first one of the countries found the modern capitalism legislative framework. The British Parliament has a number of different functions. First and foremost, it passes laws. Another important function