How are the british parliament and the US congress similar?

Answer 1

Overview

It is similar in that both the US Congress and the UK Parliament both have two houses; for Congress they are the House of Representatives (lower house) and the Senate (upper house) and for Parliament they are the House of Commons (lower house) and the House of Lords (upper house). The House of Representatives is very similar to the House of Commons in that all members (Representatives in the US and Members of Parliament in the UK) are elected by and to represent the citizens in their electoral district. The House of Lords is not as similar to the Senate however; the Senate is composed of Senators who are elected by the people of the state while the House of Lords is composed of mostly peers who have been appointed for life (along with a few bishops and a few hereditary peers who have been elected by their fellows). All elections to these institutions are by 'first past the post', which means that the candidate with the most votes, even if he or she has no majority of the votes, is the winner.

Lower House

Membership

The House of Representatives has a fixed number of 435 voting members and each Representative represents an average of 693,000 residents as of 2007. The House of Commons has 646 voting members (due to increase to 650 at the next election in 2010 at the latest because of changes to electoral boundaries), and each Member of Parliament (or MP for short) represents an average of around 100,000 residents, but this is variable. It should be noted that because the United States is a federal nation, and the United Kingdom is not, people are generally also represented by the individual state legislatures, which goes some way to account for the difference in the amount of people the politicians represent. Functions and procedure

The House of Representatives proposes and amends legislation and scrutinises the executive. It is perfectly possible for the House of Representatives to have a majority party that is not in government. For a bill to pass, a quorum, or a minimum number of Representatives, must vote on the bill.

The House of Commons mostly amends legislation and scrutinises the executive. The government proposes most legislation, and all members of government have seats in Parliament, with by far the majority residing in the House of Commons. For a party to govern effectively, it is deemed that they must have the confidence of the House of Commons (i.e., a majority), even if they must make a coalition with another party. If they cannot pass legislation, parliament is traditionally dissolved and another general election called.

Elections

Potential Representatives must be over the age of 25, have lived in the US for at least 7 years, and live in the state they wish to represent. They have two-year terms which are renewable for as long as they can get re-elected. Each election happens on a fixed day (the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November) and on even-numbered years only.

Potential MPs must be over the age of 21, be nominated by ten constituency members, and pay a £500 deposit to enter an election (refunded if the candidate gains over 5% of the vote). A general election (where all the constituencies elect a member) takes place when the prime minister decides it should be, and he or she then requests that the Queen 'dissolve' parliament and the Queen is bound by convention to obey in nearly all cases. In the event of a particular MP effectively resigning or dying before a general election, a 'by-election' takes place in that constituency alone. Salaries MPs have a standard salary of £64,766 ($105,307) although on average, £135,000 ($219,531) was claimed in expenses by each MP, with some of that going to office staff and equipment, travel, etc. Representatives have a standard salary of $174,000 (£107,001), though between $1.3m and $4.5m (£799,331 and £2,767,405) can be claimed to run an office. Upper House

Membership The Senate is an elected house of 100 Senators, with two elected by each state. Each Senator represents a very variable number of people due the massive disparities in state populations.

The House of Lords is an appointed house of 724 members as of September 2009. Each 'peer', as they are known, does not represent the people as such. While there are five 'ranks' of peer, they are all considered equal in the House (hence 'peer'), and only one rank, the lowest, was made available for life peerages: that of baron. No party in the House of Lords has a majority because roughly a third of peers are 'crossbench', meaning they are independent of party (and hence traditionally sit in between the opposing party benches).

Functions and Procedures

The Senate amends and proposes legislation and scrutinises the executive, although no revenue bills can begin in the Senate. The Senate is meant to represent the states rather than the people, and acts as a check and balance on the House of Representatives. This can lead to 'gridlock', where the House of Representatives and the Senate disagree on an issue and no progress can be made.

The House of Lords is very much the 'lesser' House in Parliament. It can amend legislation and scrutinise the executive, but all of its decisions must be ratified by the House of Commons. Revenue bills cannot originate in the House of Lords. The House of Lords can reject a provision or an amendment, or indeed an entire bill, from the House of Commons up to three times before the Parliament Acts allow the House of Commons to force the legislation through.

Elections/Appointments

Senators must be at least 30 years old, must have lived in the United States for at least nine years, and must live in the state they wish to represent in order to be elected. A Senator serves for a term of six years, and a third of senators are up for re-election every two years (once again on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November in even-numbered years).

A Lord must be over the age of 21, must be a citizen of the UK, the Republic of Ireland or a citizen of a Commonwealth country in order to be put forward for appointment to the House of Lords. All appointees must also be vetted for 'propriety' (being in good standing with regulatory authorities and in the community in general, and whether the appointment would enhance the reputation of the Lords and the appointments system in general).

A political party that has membership in the Lords may request the prime minister appoint a peer of their nomination, but only the main three parties have any real power to request appointments. A peerage is traditionally and legally a reward from the Crown, and so in theory the prime minister 'requests' that the Queen give peerages to certain people, but in practice, the Queen is powerless to interfere in this area unless the prime minister abuses his privileges of appointment.

A crossbench peer appointment has more restrictions: the potential peer must have a record of significant achievement in their chosen profession, and demonstrate a range of experience, skills and competencies; must have the ability to make an effective and significant contribution to the work of the House; must be willing to dedicate time to the work of the House; must have at least a basic knowledge of the constitutional place of the House of Lords; must be able to demonstrate integrity and independence; who are and intend to remain independent of any political party; and must pay tax in the UK.

In addition to life peers, there are also two other groups who sit in the House of Lords. The first is a group of 92 Lords with hereditary peerages that sit in the House of Lords due to a compromise during the Blair Reforms a decade ago; each of these 92 was elected for life by his or her fellows. As well as these, there are also a group of 26 bishops and archbishops of the Church of England, of which five are always represented (Archbishoprics of York and Canterbury and Bishoprics of Durham, London and Winchester) and the remaining are the 21 most senior bishops in the Church.

Salaries

Senators have a salary of $174,000 (£107,001) and between $1.3m and $4.5m (£799,331 and £2,767,405) in expenses to cover office costs.

Lords have no salary (and indeed, many have no office provided) although they get daily travel and subsistence allowances. Such expenses can amount to around £50,000 ($81,285) not counting travel expenses, but it is dependent on how often the Lord attends.

Approval Ratings

One similarity between both the US Congress and the UK Parliament is that both are very unpopular. The UK parliament has a net approval rating (the difference between the percentage who approve and the percentage who disapprove of the work of parliament) of -61 according to PoliticsHome in May 2009, and while the Constitution Unit at University College London found that in December 2007, slightly more people thought the House of Lords worked well than thought the House of Commons did, all ratings have probably gone down since the 2009 parliamentary expenses scandal.

The US Congress also has had very low approval ratings of around 19% as the average for 2008.

While both ratings may increase as new governments come in (and some say that the US Congress' approval rating has increased to around 30% since the election of President Obama), it is reasonable to suppose work may need to be done besides this to repair the reputations of these institutions.