POLT4701: Political Environment Essay on US and UK Governments

This essay delves into the political environments of the United States and the United Kingdom, offering a comparative analysis of their respective governmental structures. It begins by thoroughly explaining the presidential system in the USA, highlighting the powers vested in the president and the significant limitations placed upon them. The essay then transitions to the UK, exploring the powers of the Prime Minister within the parliamentary system. It provides a detailed examination of the checks and balances inherent in the British parliamentary system, demonstrating how these mechanisms constrain the Prime Minister's authority. The essay draws on scholarly sources to support its claims, offering a comprehensive understanding of the political dynamics within these two influential nations.

Running head: POLITICAL ENVIRONMENT 1
Political Environment
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The word has different aspects of politics. There are diverse components that are
involved with every Country around the world that makes it's unique. The word systems are
useful in governing states as per their ability and according to the attitude and ideologies of a
specific state. This essay will discuss and explain the presidential system in the United States of
America (US). The essay elaborates the specific limits which are put on presidential power. In
the essay, there is an explanation of the powers of the prime minister of the United Kingdom
(Britain). Within the essay, there will be a discussion of the checks that are put on the prime
minister of Britain by the Parliamentary system.
The presidential system is a political structure that embraces the head of the government
and the chief executive officer who is the president chosen through a democratic election. The
United state is the most prosperous and powerful country with a stable democracy and uses a
presidential system of government which has made it successful for over 200 years. The
president in the United States (US) holds the office for a fixed term of four years (Wilkins, &
Stark, 2017). The office of the president is the chief executive officer of the United States. The
legislature and the executive in the US government are independent of one another, thus creating
a separation of powers. In this case, the president has no power to remove any of legislatures
from the office unless a vote is conducted under certain conditions. The US presidential system
has a limited number of parties which is a two-party system (Goodnow, 2017).
The electro system comprises of first- past- the post elections and the final elections and
the offices are elected by individuals and not as a party. In a democratic system, people are rules
through their representatives. Democracy is described as the government of the people, by the
people and for the people and all persons are guaranteed equal rights. The major importance of
democracy is that it upholds all the basic human rights for example freedom of liberty or

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expression. In the US the democracy has prioritized on respect of all human rights while
involving the nation’s people (Russett, 2017).
The office of the president of the US is the most powerful elected official in the world,
and he/she is vested with great authority. The original nation’s founders intended to make the
presidency to be a slightly restricted institution. Due to the experiences the nation’s founders
encountered from the colonial governors that the executive power is detrimental to liberty, this
led to distrust of the executive authority. The founders of US also felt betrayed by the King of
Great Britain and Ireland, and thus they considered that a strong incompatible executive with
republican hold that in the declaration of its independence in 1776 (Bakari, 2016).
The constitution of the United States defines the powers, responsibilities, and functions of
the president. The president of the US ensures that laws are executed faithfully through the
cabinet-level department and he/she appoints all the executive cabinet heads and all highly-
ranked officials in the executive branch of the federal government. The appointment of these
executive officials has to be approved by the majority of the Senate. One of the presidential
nominees can be rejected if the majority of the members have strong objections. The presidential
power to make treaties with the foreign countries has to be approved by the Senate through a
two-thirds majority. The president also has the power to reject or approve the bills passed by the
Congress, although the Congress can supersede the president’s veto through summoning the two-
thirds majority considering the measure. The president of the United States who is also the
commander in chief of the country military has limitless power to direct the military movements
of the sea, air-force, and land (Kelso, 2017).
Recently, there were increased bizarre public conduct of current US president, Donald
Trump’s decision making and continued temperament to evolve his policies in favor of advisors

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limited diplomatic experience. Following this, the two houses of Congress are trying to curb the
presidential powers through legislation. America’s first president set the stage of two-term limits,
and he did it voluntarily which all other presidents who were to come after him had to follow.
The policy remained until when President Franklin D. Rooservelt blithely aspired and was
elected for four terms and this made the Congress react. Congress passed the 22nd amendment
that banned the presidents from being elected for more than two-terms (Nelson, 2018).
The US president has command authority to allow the use of a most powerful weapon,
battleships and jet fighter. However, it limited by the Congress which has the power to declare
war. Only days after the terrorist attack in September/11th/ 2001 that the Congress quickly gave
new military powers to the president. President George W. Bush was given supreme powers by
the Congress to use all available and necessary force against countries or any person who aided
or engaged in the terrorist attacks to prevent such future actions, and this allowed him to bypass
placed curbs if the enemy was imminent like a terrorist (Schattschneider, 2017).
The government of UK is made up of the legislature (House of Lords and House of
Commons), Prime Minister (The Executive Branch) and the Judicial (The Courts). Each of the
three branches has some powers to curb the powers or the actions of the other. The prime
minister of the United Kingdom (UK) is the head of the government of the United Kingdom. The
Prime Minister (PM) and his cabinet (ministers) direct both the legislature and the executive are
accountable for the actions and policies to the parliament, monarch, and their political party. The
PM is the head of the major political party, and he/she commands the majority in the lower house
of the legislature. In the British system of government, there is unity of powers instead of
separation of powers. The prime minister controls the process of law-making in the House of
Commons to enact the legislation forum of his/her party and thus can have legislation passed

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without too many difficulties (Rogers & Walters, 2015). The PM appoints all the cabinet
ministers and members. The PM coordinates the government’s activities and policies in all the
departments and the civil service. The PM represents the public “voice” and “face” (Spokesman)
of her country both abroad and at home (Fowler, 2015).
Even though the government of the United Kingdom is voted into power, it has to adhere
to the regulations, rules and be answerable for its actions and policies. There was a system that
was developed to introduce the checks and balances of powers in the UK government. The PM
of Britain is as powerful as his/her colleagues allow him/ her to be. The main curb on the PM
comes from the people of the United Kingdom (Blick, & Jones, 2016). Voting in the UK general
elections is the key restriction of the office of the PM whereby his/her government could be
voted out the power. Another great curb to the powers of the PM is from the political party that
he/she represents. If he/she lacks support from the back-benchers of his part, his/her powers
become very weak. Through the vote of no confidence, the Pm can be voted out by the
members of his/her party. When the PM is voted out by his/her party via the resolution
confidential vote, this leads to the resignation of the government, and thus a general election is
called for the election of a new government (Kaarbo, & Kenealy, 2016).
The fact that the PM is the one taken to be responsible for any major mishap that might
occur during his/her time, it is a limitation to his powers as the Prime minister. Members from
the Other parties also keeps in check to the governing majority party. There is a Prime Minister
Questioning whereby the PM and his government are accountable and questioned by the
parliament. The cabinet ministers and the House of Commons have the powers to prevent the PM
exactly everything he/she wants (Fisher, 2015).

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The electorate has no powers to hold the PM accountable, but it can hold the government
into account through the parliamentary elections. If the cabinet minister wishes to avow
themselves, this leads to the powers of the Prime Minister being checked and balanced in such a
way that the House of Commons selects a committee under the rule of the constitution. The
other factor that can limit the powers of the prime minister of Britain is that the European Union
has the power that can part-shape the government policy through imposing on the policies of the
members that had not been stated in the ruling party’s manifestos (Russell, & Cowley, 2016).
The essay has fully discussed and explained the presidential system of the united state
and also demonstrated the limitations that have been put in the presidential powers. There are
outlined some of the significant powers of Britain’s prime minister. Within the essay, there is a
demonstration of the checks that have been placed by Britain’s parliament on the prime
minister’s office.

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Reference
Bakari, M. E. K. (2016). Mapping the ‘Anthropocentric-ecocentric’Dualism in the History of
American Presidency: The Good, the Bad, and the Ambivalent. Journal of Studies in
Social Sciences, 14(2).
Blick, A., & Jones, G. (2016). Premiership: The development, nature and power of the British
prime minister (Vol. 36). Andrews UK Limited.
Fisher, L. (2015). Presidential spending power. Princeton University Press.
Fowler, W. B. (2015). British-American Relations 1917-1918: The Role of Sir William Wiseman.
Supplementary Volume to The Papers of Woodrow Wilson. Princeton University Press.
Goodnow, F. J. (2017). Politics and administration: A study in government. Routledge.
Kaarbo, J., & Kenealy, D. (2016). No, prime minister: Explaining the House of Commons’ vote
on intervention in Syria. European Security, 25(1), 28-48.
Kelso, M. (2017). The Contemporary Presidency: A Lasting Legacy? Presidents, National
Monuments, and the Antiquities Act. Presidential Studies Quarterly, 47(4), 803-815.
Nelson, M. (Ed.). (2018). The presidency and the political system. Cq Press.
Rogers, R., & Walters, R. (2015). How parliament works. Routledge.
Russett, B. (2017). The democratic peace. In Conflicts and New Departures in World Society
(pp. 21-43). Routledge.
Russell, M., & Cowley, P. (2016). The policy power of the Westminster parliament: The
“parliamentary state” and the empirical evidence. Governance, 29(1), 121-137.
Schattschneider, E. (2017). Party government: American government in action. Routledge.

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Wilkins, D. E., & Stark, H. K. (2017). American Indian politics and the American political
system. Rowman & Littlefield.