DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE BRITISH AND AMERICAN

CONSTITUTION

USA and the UK are two different conglomerate of

states in the world. USA, completely known as United
States of America has a federal and constitutional
republic form of government while the UK (United
Kingdom) instills the constitutional monarchy-
parliament governance. In this regard, the head of the
state along with the representatives are elected into
office by the people in the US. They do their roles as
government officials under the code of an already set
constitution. Conversely, the UK has its monarch who
acts as the head of state and absolute power is not
vested unto this monarch because there is usually a
duly elected separate head of the government that
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exercises political powers. These leaders, like in the
US, uphold a set of laws in the form of a constitution.

Perhaps the most fundamental difference between

the American and British political systems is the
constitution - or the lack of one. The United States
has a written constitution as does the vast majority
of nation states. The UK does not have a single
document called the constitution but instead its
constitutional provisions are scattered over various
Acts of Parliament. 1

Codified constitutions are those with one central

document. They also have mechanisms in place to
make changes extremely difficult. Additionally, one
institution, often a court, has the final say in how to
interpret the document. As a compendium of various
sources of law, the British Constitution is not codified.
The American Constitution is a prime example of
codified law.

The US President holds the position of Head of State

as well as Head of Government. The UK Prime
Minister, it would appear, has more influence in
domestic, able to dominate his part, legislature and
executive branch. The US President, on the other

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 hand, appears to have the position of supremacy in
domestic politics, He does not hold the same position
of power in domestic affairs as the UK Prime Minister,
but his position of strength appears to be in the
realm of foreign and international matters.

The U.S. has a Congress, with a Senate and a House

of Representatives that are completely separate
from the executive and judicial branches of
government. In the U.S. system, each of the three
branches of government acts as a check and balance
on the others. Both the House and Senate are elected
bodies, and their powers are outlined in the
Constitution The British have a Parliament, with the
upper House of Lords and the lower House of
Commons. Members of the House of Commons are
elected by their constituencies, and the leader of the
dominant party in Commons is appointed by the
queen to be prime minister. The House of Lords is an
unelected body of peers that can check the power of
the Commons by reviewing and amending bills.
Before 2009, Britain had no supreme court, and the
House of Lords also acted as the final court of appeal.

A defining feature of the American constitution is the

strict separation of the powers of the executive, the
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 legislature and the judiciary. The British political
system has no such formal separation of the powers -
indeed one person is actually a member of all three
arms of government, since the Lord Chancellor is a
member of the Cabinet (the executive), a member of
the House of Commons of the House of Lords (the
legislature) and the head of the legal system (the
judiciary).

While both these nation states fall within the

democratic framework, they differ in some significant
ways. For one, while the American system is
essentially a two-party democracy, the British
system is a multi-party one. Also, the American
system is federal, meaning that there are two
levels of government, both of them being equally
powerful and have separate designated roles to
play. On the other hand, the British system is what
is called a unitary one, the parliament being the
sole legislative body. While the federal system of the
United States, assigns specific roles for the Senate
and the Congress, the British parliamentary system
can make laws on any matter, local government has
whatever powers the national government delegates
to it.

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 In the United States, political discourse frequently
makes reference to the constitution - typically
Republicans arguing that Democratic initiatives are
'unconstitutional'. Besides the fact that the UK does
not have a constitution as such, it is rare for British
politicians to argue that the actions or proposals of
their opponents are illegal or ultra vires.

Although the American political system has a strict

'separation of the powers' meaning that nobody can
be a member of more than one of the three arms of
government, members of the Supreme Court (the
judiciary) are nominated by one of the other arms of
government (the President) and approved by one
part of another arm of government (the Senate which
is part of the legislature). In the UK, almost all
members of the upper chamber of the legislature (the
House of Lords) are effectively chosen by the political
party leaders in the lower chamber of the legislature
(the House of Commons). 2

While the U.S. has two major political parties that

dominate the country's politics, British politics has a
multitude of parties representing diverse
constituencies. Elections in the two countries also
vary, with most U.S. federal elections happening on a
regular schedule: The president is elected every four
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 years, senators every six, and congressional
members every two. Previous to 2011, general
elections in Britain were not fixed. With the passage
of the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011, Parliament is
required to hold elections every five years, beginning
in 2015. However, elections may occur before the
five-year schedule if the House of Commons passes a
vote of no confidence.3

In terms of the number of states, the US is

composed of fifty different states and a federal
district (the seat of governance). The UK is a unitary
or single state nation that is composed of four
separate countries namely: Northern Ireland,
England, Wales and Scotland.

GAYATRI SWANI
BA LLB 3A
02951103816

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