Political Systems Flashcards
Passage of Legislation in Political Systems (20 Mark)
Main Points
- Origins of a bill
- Committee stage
- Bill passing into Law
Origins of a bill
PEELREEL
P- Not similar, Uk Origin
E- Governing party usually introduces bills such as MP or PM
E- Sir Christopher Chope Con MP introduced the BBC Licence Fee Civil Penalty Bill at its first reading
R- US origin is not similar
E- Not always the governing party introducing a bill as the houses of Congress have different elections so can be controlled by different parties to the president
E- House of Representatives is Republican with 222 seats and Senate is Republican with 49 seats
Committee stage
PEELREEL
P- Not similar, UK committees
E- Analyse and recommend amendments and procedures after the first reading and debate
E- The Social housing (regulation) act 2023 went into committee stage on the 29th of November 2022
R- Not Similar, US committees
E- US committees are used straight after the first reading with no debate and and kill a bill without it being debated on unlike UK
E- Each year 10,000-14,000 bills are submitted but only 2.4% actually make it into legislation
Passing of bill to law
PEELREEL
P- Not Similar, UK passing a bill
E- Uk Bills need royal assent from the monarch to pass into legislation but it is more a formality and rarely gets declined
E- Royal assent has not been refused in the UK parliament since 1707
R- Not Similar, US passing a bill
E- US bills need the president’s signature or to be sat on his desk for 10 days to pass into legislation but the president can veto a bill and send it back to congress to be reviewed
E- DT used his veto 10x including a law aiming to restrict presidential war making authority.
Scrutinising (20 Mark)
Main Points
- Committees
- 2nd Chamber
- PMQT
Committees
PEELREEL
P- Committees are similar, UK
E- Allows experts in the field to scrutinise and analyse the legislation or government and call witnesses and recommend changes to better the item of scrutiny
E- In 2011 the select committee on home affairs launched an investigation into causes and govs responses on riots in London and other cities
R- Committees are similar, US
E- It also allows experts to analyse the governments bills and responses and can call witnesses
E- Former MP George Galloway was called before a senate committee over allegations of trading oil with Saddam Hussein
2nd Chambers
PEELREEL
P- Not similar, Uk
E- The second chamber is HoL to the HoC which provides a second level of scrutiny to keep the government in check and analyse any legislation
E- The HoL asked the HoC to reconsider its position on the Hunting Act 2004 which banned fox hunting with packs of hounds
R- Not Similar, US
E- Us has Senate to HoR but unlike UK senate is elected and cannot be ignored by HoR
E- 2015 republican controlled senate refused Obamas choice of Merrick Farland as a SCJ as it would have tipped the scales towards more liberal judges
PMQTs
PEELREEL
P- Not Similar, Uk
E- PMQT is when MP’s can publicly and on the media ask the PM questions giving them direct access to scrutinise
E- In 2018 Ian Blackford questioned whether Theresa May would be ‘holding out the red carpet’ for Donald Trumps visit when he had been detaining children in what appeared to be cages
R- Not Similar, US
E- The US media have no equivalent to PMQT and the media Chanel’s are heavily politically biased so there is no direct way for media to scrutinise
E- Fox News, a heavily republican news outlet, fiercely criticised Obama over healthcare plans and immigration reforms
Role of Committees
Main Points
- Role of Inquiries
- Role of Scrutinising Government
- Role of scrutinising legislation
Role of Inquiries
PEELREEL
P- Role of Inquiries
E- Uk via select committees, gather evidence, take witnesses and present findings to commons
E- UK business select committee held an inquiry into the near collapse of the RBS and HBOS, which gov bailed out and why event occurred
R- Similar, USA Congressional select committees
E- Committee made of 16, calling witnesses and investigating gov in sub groups
E- US chat show host Stephen Colbert of the Colbert report gave advice to a congressional committee on immigration after talking about it
Role of Scrutinising Government
PEELREEL
P- Role of scrutinising gov
E- UK via Joint committees, both lords and MP’s divided into 4 gov areas to scrutinise
E- UK joint select committee on human rights questioned the Secretary of State for defence on inquiry into gov’s plan of drones used for target killing
R- Similar, USA senate committees
E- Supreme Court appointed senates looking into gov actions via calling witnesses etc
E- UK MP George Galloway called to senate homeland security and government affairs committee in 2015 on knowledge of illegal Iraqi oil sales
Role of Scrutinising legislation
PEELREEL
P- Role of Scrutinising Legislation
E- Uk, general committees, analyse every bill line by line and advises changes based on findings to HoC
E- UK domestic abuse bill committee recently scrutinising this bill in committee in June 2020 with bill aiming to establish a domestic abuse commissioner
R- USA congressional standing committees
E- In depth scrutiny of bill before going to congress and can kill a bill if appropriate
E- USA foreign relations committee currently scrutinising the “Ensuring Chinese Debt Transparency Act” to make transparent when loaning money
Executive Branch Comparison
Main Points
- Representatives abroad
- Power to Introduce legislation
- Power of Appointment
Representatives abroad
PEELREEL
P- UK representative abroad
E- Meet leaders, negotiate policy agreements, lose agreements if media puts in negative light
E- David C embarrassingly field questions at G7 summit, Germany, whether he asked ministers to resign after no support on EU stance
R- Similar, USA representation abroad
E- Meets world leaders making policy agreements with USA having greater power, with exception of when being critical of others
E- Trump met with North Korea leader Kim 2019 becoming first President to step in the country
Power to Introduce legislation
PEELREEL
P- UK Introduce legislation
E- set agenda and steer conversation towards policies they want passed, harder to pass when faced with disagreements from party
E- Boris’s focus on negotiating Britain’s exit from EU as PM dictated the direction of negotiation at UK level
R- Different, USA introduce legislation
E- President can only address legislative at the state of the union address to state plans, otherwise is not part of congress
E- Trumps last SotU, Nancy Pelosi ripped up his speech suggesting they did not take plans seriously
