EchoMrs. NelsonEnglish WritingApril 7, 2010British System of Government and American System of GovernmentBritish system of government and American system of government are both a kind of bourgeois democratic political system. They both have their own parliament or congress who masters the power of legislative authority and a two-party system. Also they both adopte separation system as the mode of power operation.Although they are similar, the two systems of government are very different from each other in the following five aspects.First, Britain system of government is parliamentary-based constitutional monarchy, but American system of government is democratic republican presidential system.Second, as to the parliament or the congress, the British parliament 's position is much higher than American congress in their own system of government. Although they both have the rights of making laws, supervising the government and supervising the finance, British parliament is the highest organ of state power and the highest national source of administrative power. What is more, it is the settled constitutional position of the United Kingdom that sovereignty rests with Parliament.Third, as to the government and its leader, the British government is composed of the Prime Minister and other ministers, who are formally appointed by the Queen on the advice of the Prime Minister. All the ministers must be the members of either the House of Commons or the House of Lords. Minister are responsible collectively to Parliament for all Cabinet decisions; individual ministers are responsible to Parliament for the work of their own departments. As the head of the government, the Prime Minister controls not only the Cabinet but also the Parliament, as he or she is the leader of the majority party in the House of Commons. The Prime Minister also must be responsible collectively to Parliament. In contrast, the President of the United States is both the head of state and the head of government. The Constitution gives the executive power to the President alone. All the government departments, agencies and offices are led by the President and are responsible to him. But the President is not bound to be responsible to Congress as he is neither appointed nor elected by it. The Cabinet, made up of the heads of the government departments, only advises the President and does not make any decision. The President is free to consult or ignore their advice. In the USA, the legislative branch, the executive branch and the judicial branch are supposed to be independent of each other, but each checks the other two so that no one can get all the power.Fourth, as to the head of state, in the UK, the head of the state is a king or queen who inherits his or her position. Theoretically, the Queen has all the power, in reality, however, almost all her acts are performed only on the advice of the ministers. She does not personally take part in the process in which decisions are made. Royal duties include visiting many parts of Britain each year to inaugurate scientific, industrial, artistic and charitable works of national importance; paying state visits of foreign counties; and undertaking tours of other countries in the Commonweath, of which the Queen is the head. On the other hand ,the head of state of the USA is the President, whose authorities and rights have been listed in the third aspect.Fifth, as to the party system, although the two countries both have a two-party system, in which two most important political parties compete with each other and come to power in turn, they are very different from each other. In the UK, the key of coming to power for each party is to win in the parliamentary election. Then the Cabinet will be composed by the parliamentary majority party, the winning party, whose leader will be the Prime Minister. On the other hand, in the USA, the key to coming to power for each political party is to win the presidential election after which the leader of the winning party will be the President. Parliamentary majority party is not necessarily the ruling party.That is the similarities and differences I can conclude between the two systems of government. They each has their own characteristic and advantage, which make their country and government distinctive and operate in their own way.。