Political Systems

USA, UK, Australia

Constitutions

A constitution is the system of rules

about how a country is governed
Americas constitution was written in 1787
Australias constitution was written in 1901

British Constitution

The constitution is not a single

document:
laws (passed by parliament)
Common Law
conventions (unwritten rules)

Questions

What is a constitution?
structure of government?
criminal laws?
a single document?

What form does Chinas constitution

have?

Changing the Constitution

America: three quarters of states

Australia: public vote

Britain: no different to changing any

other law

Branches of Government

Legislative (legislate = make law)

two houses of parliament

Executive (execute = do something)

government departments, army

Judiciary (judge = make a court

decision)
courts and judges

Legislative (all three countries)

Two houses: lower, upper

New laws need a majority vote in both

houses

Laws may be first introduced in either

house (but usually the lower house)

Lower House
(House of Commons, House of
Representatives)

Regions (with approximately equal

populations) each elect one member

Senate

Original reason: small American states

were worried that the big states would
have all the power
America: each state elects 2 members
Australia: each state elects 7 memberss

House of Lords
nobles with inherited titles
nobles with non-inherited titles (appointed
by the Queen, on the advice of the Prime
Minister)

No elections

Over 1000 Lords, but only about 250

attend regularly

Executive

In Britain and Australia, the party with

the most seats in the lower house
becomes the government:
Party leader becomes Prime Minister
Some members of parliament become
ministers (control certain departments)

Queen has almost no real power

(mainly symbolic)

Executive

In America, the Executive is separate

from the Legislative
the people elect the president
the president appoints people to certain
positions (heads of departments, etc)

Presidential election every 4 years

Questions

Does China have a legislative,

executive, and judiciary?

Compare Chinas system to America

and Britain:
what is similar?
what is different?

Checks and Balances

Creators of the American Constitution

worried that one person (such as the
President) might become too powerful
They divided up the power
They provided ways for one part of the
government to stop another parts
activities: checks and balances

Checks and Balances

The legislative (Congress) makes laws,

but
the president must approve
the Supreme Court can decide the new law
is unconstitutional

The president can sign treaties, but

the Senate must approve

Checks and Balances

Balance power between state and
federal governments
Separate the branches (legislature,
executive, judiciary)
Two houses of parliament

Britain: legislative is the most powerful

executive is chosen from members

Checks and Balances

New laws need the presidents approval
But laws with a 2/3 majority in both
houses of the legislative do not
The Supreme Court can decide that a
law is unconstitutional
Treaties made by the president need
the Senates approval
The legislative can impeach (sack) the
president or a Supreme Court judge

Two Party System

(America, Britain, Australia)

Two major parties (plus smaller parties)

Therefore two choices for

government/President/Prime Minister

Not imagined by the creators of the

American Constitution