Please enable JavaScript.
Coggle requires JavaScript to display documents.
Congress and Parliament - Coggle Diagram
Congress and Parliament
Structural Differences
Physical Placing: White House and Capitol are very imposing buildings, but Parliament dominates Westminster and 10 Downing Street is not very elegant
President and VP are elected independently of Congress, and Congresspeople are constitutionally prohibited from being members of the executive. Prime Minister is a member of the House of Commons, and is elected the same as all MPs.
President can not fall because of lack of support from legislature, but PM can, because the majority needs to be sustained.
Composition
Congress reflects the federal system in the US, e.g. the States in the Senate. In Parliament, MPs represent historic boundaries of towns / counties. House of Lords represents older times when nobility held most of the sway.
Legislation
Both houses of Congress have equal power, whereas the House of Commons dominates in Parliament. House of Lords can propose / amend but House of Commons will get its way - both houses in Congress must agree. Parliament Act 1949 established superiority.
Oversight
In the US, Congress and the Executive are entirely separate. In the UK, they are intertwined.
In the US, the executive will survive anything that happens in Congress. In UK, survival of the government depends on the support of the House of Commons (Theresa May 2019)
Senate's oversight of all appointments is not reflected in Parliament, nor is the Senate's power to ratify treaties.
Impeachment by Congress does not exist in the UK either. Congress has more power over the budget than Parliament, where executive control it.
Congress has the power to declare war, whereas in the UK, committing troops is one of the royal prerogatives of the PM. David Cameron asked parliament for permission to join airstrikes in Syria, they refused. Intervention did not happen.
There is no congressional equivalent to Question Time, because there are no executive members in Congress
Representation
Constituents select candidates for constituencies in the US, whereas local parties make the decision in the UK. MP Tim Yeo was deselected by his party after 30 years as MP (expenses)
House of Representatives members as re-elected every two years, whereas it's (at most) every 5 years for the House of Commons.
House of Lords not elected, whereas Senate is elected every two years.
Membership
Membership of both House of Lords and the Senate is similar in that it includes many former members of the lower house
Legislating
In House of Commons, legislation goes through several readings and stages. When the bill is passed to the other House, they can propose amendments and send it back and forth - this is called ping pong. Lords can only delay for one year.
In Congress, both Houses have to agree because both Houses are equal