The two political systems I studied were the UK and the USA. In the UK, the Conservatives currently hold a majority of 365 MPs and are lead by Prime Minister Boris Johnson. The conservatives lie centre-right on the political spectrum. In the US, the current President, Jo Biden, is a Democrat and they hold the House of Representatives. The Republicans hold the Senate. The 2 political systems differ immensely in the way they are held accountable. In this essay, I will discover that the UK has a better system of scrutiny allowing their government and leaders to be easily held accountable. 

The two systems are both scrutinised in view of the general public. The UK system is through the national tv show “Prime Ministers Question Time” produced every Thursday, alongside televised debates. During Question Time, any member of parliament has the opportunity to ask questions and scrutinise the government. Our current Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, is regularly seen debating within the House of Commons. This is the UK’s way of showing the public an insight into the government so that it’s not just other parties holding the government accountable, but the press and public also. This could be argued against, however, as it can be said that this is nothing more than political theatre and putting on a show to the public. Within debates, the party leaders argue their case in front of viewers usually in the lead up to elections. This can be seen in the lead up to the Holyrood Elections where our leader Nicola Sturgeon debates opposition leaders. This allows the general public to submit questions to be responded to meaning that the public has a way of scrutinising the leaders if they answer questions properly. Within the USA, there is no equivalent of question time however Congress use the publicity of high profile hearings as a way for the public and media to scrutinise the government. In the UK, there is a channel “Court TV” that shows trials over in the USA showing that they lie to publicise their legal and political systems. This is a great way to show transparency to the people within the government and legal systems. The media are used regularly within the US political system as public officials are freer in voicing their opinions on public issues and debates. We can see this through AOC - congresswoman for the Bronx and Queens - social media accounts, she regularly updates her followers on her opinions on current debates. This is a great way of allowing the public to see what is happening within their political system so that they can scrutinise and question it. 

The two systems are also scrutinised through committees. 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. The 3 main types within the USA are; standing, select/special and joint which all play a key role within congress. 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. 

Within the UK, 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. Labour members have roles aligning to the majority government so each person has a partner or group to closely monitor and scrutinise each decision. Committees are groups formed by members of any party that scrutinize policies and decisions in great detail. These features allow the UK government to be easily scrutinized as they all appear in the media allowing pressure to be given from both members and the public. Within the USA, there isn’t a direct comparison as the US constitution does not grant congress oversight responsibility, meaning they have no power over scrutiny. Congress has managed to get implied powers as since they form law, they need to know what is going on. Congress has 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 isn’t 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 Representatives. 

From this, we can conclude that both political systems can be fairly scrutinised. In the USA, we saw that through the media and from politicians themselves they can expose and share opinions easily. This is different to the UK where there are designated media platforms for the government to be scrutinised. Overall, it is easier for the UK government to be scrutinised due to the use of television and the use of a shadow cabinate.