Compare the passage of legislation in 2 political systems you have studied. (12) 

The political systems that I studied were the UK and the USA. 

The 2 political systems differ widely in their passing of legislation. Both political systems are bicameral meaning they have 2 chambers. In the UK system, they have the House of Commons and the House of Lords. The House of Lords is a group of unelected officials by appointment or inheritance. The House of Commons is the more dominant house full of elected officials who hold office for 5 years. Legislation can originate in either the House of Lords or the House of Commons, however, to pass, it has to go through both. For a law to pass, it needs to receive royal descent from Queen Elizabeth II. This differs to the USA due to both the Senate and the House of Representatives being elected groups of officials with the House of Representatives being 2-year terms and Senate being 6-year terms. The USA’s constitution prohibits “titles of nobility” which is a contrast to the vast number of titles available within the UK. In the USA legislation can originate in either the House of Representatives or the Senate. Unlike in the Uk, in the USA legislation is researched and spoken about in smaller committees before being taken to either Senate or the House of Representatives. For a law to pass, the final stage is getting the President to approve or pass it. This creates issues if the Senate and House of Representatives are the opposite party to the president. If the president doesn’t agree with a law they want to pass, he can refuse to sign it. Donald Trump vetoed signing 10 laws in his term. 

The 2 political systems differ in the way they are held accountable. Within the UK, it is easy to scrutinize the actions of the government due to 3 key features;  Prime Ministers Question Time, The Opposition Party, and Committees. During question time, Borris Johnson is regularly seen debating within the house of Commons, this allows opposition parties, or even members of his own party, the opportunity to ask questions and scrutinize the government. The Opposition party is there to form a shadow cabinet to closely monitor the policies and actions of the government. This can be seen currently through the Labour party, lead by Sir Keir Starmer who closely watches every decision that Borris and his tory government make. Committees are groups formed by members of any party that scrutinise policies and decisions in great detail. These features allow the UK government to be easy scruitined as they all appear in the media allowing pressure to be given from both members and the public. This is a massive difference between the 2 systems as the US Consitution does not grant congress oversight responsibility. Congress has managed to get implied powers as since they form law, they need to know what is going on. Congress have the power to subpoena documents and testimony, hold people to contempt and make it illegal to lie to them. It has been argued that congressional oversight is only really effective when the president’s party is not in congress which can be a downside if a president isnt living up to the job. It is hard for anyone to hold the resident to oversight as he himself rarely, if ever, presents evidence to congress or the House of Representitives. 

Committees play a key role in congress. There are 3 main types; standing, select/special, joint. Standing committees are permanent panels that have legislative jurisdiction that consider bills and decide whether or not bills are considered by their respective chambers. An example of a standing committee is the “Education and Labour” committee. Select/special committees handle oversight or housekeeping responsibilities. Things they do include; confirming appointments such as federal judges, investigate officials or national issues and print government documents. An example of a select/special committee is the “ethics” select committee. Joint committees are permanent and include members from both the Senate and the House of Representatives. They generally conduct studies or perform housekeeping tasks such as the background work in the legislative process. Joint committees are very powerful as they decide what subjects can become law in the United States. In the UK, there are 4 types of committees; Select, Joint, General and Grand. Select committees work in both houses and check and report on areas ranging from the work of the government departments to economic affairs. Joint committees have members from both Houses and work as one committee. They may conduct examinations of a particular area or a specific matter. An example is the “Human Rights” committee that meets on a regular basis. A general committee is appointed from the house of commons to consider proposed legislation in extreme detail. This system allows for faster processing of Bills and is unique to the House of Commons as the House of Lords meets as a whole house. An example of this is Public Bill Committees - committees formed for each new bill to go through the House of Commons. Grand committees are used differently in each house. In the House of Lords, the Grand Committee is a secondary debating chamber where any of the Lords can speak. In the house of commons, Grand Committees are appointed to debate issues affecting one country or region within the UK.