US versus Canadian Democracy

 

Canada’s democracy

 

Constitutional monarch refers to a government where the head of state is a monarch and it is established in both written and unwritten law (Solski , Ruth  n.d). The head of state for Canada in this respect is the Queen of England.

 

Written constitution- The laws are contained in a document that govern the whole political and legal system. The constitution of Canada is partly written where laws are contained in several but not one document (Solski , Ruth  n.d).

 

Unwritten constitution – refers to a set of laws that are not embodied in a one document but its basis is precedent and customs set in judicial decisions and statutes.  The constitution of Canada is partly unwritten, comprising of customs and precedents previously set (Solski , Ruth  n.d).

 

Parliamentary – Canada’s democracy is parliamentary, meaning that the legislature enacts laws and is composed of persons that have been selected to represent the people of Canada (Solski , Ruth  n.d).

Opposition parties – these are composed of members of parliament who opposing the government and include registered parties or person who are not any party’s affiliates (Solski , Ruth  n.d).

Cabinet ministers -are selected by the Prime Minister mostly from ruling party members as confidential advisers.

Responsible government - means the requirement that government should operate responsibly and the Cabinet Minister should be accountable to Parliament (Solski , Ruth  n.d).

 

Vote of no confidence – a motion passed by the legislature to censure or indicate lack of support for current government or its policy (Schultze, & In Sturm,  2000).

Party solidarity – refers to the expectation that once the Cabinet and Prime Minister make a decision the ruling party support by voting accordingly (Schultze, & In Sturm,  2000).

 The patty whip –is  a political party member in Canadian senate and House of Commons whose role is maintaining discipline of the party among its members (Schultze, & In Sturm, 2000).

Caucus meeting – refers to a meeting by members or supporters of a given party or political movement.

 

Bicameral legislature refers to the fact that legislative branch comprises two chambers or bodies.

 

United States Democracy

 

Congressional - means that in democratic governance, the executive I branch is separated from the legislative organ and the president is not a legislate member (Connelly, 2010).

Republic- means that the people and together with people’s selected representatives hold supreme power (Connelly, 2010).

Partisanship - refers to strong support for policies of a person’s party while being reluctant in compromising with opposing parties (Connelly, 2010).

Bipartisanship - refers to where opposing parties take a centrist position through comprising their extreme positions (Connelly, 2010).

 Non-partisanship- refers to where one is not offering support for a single party over others (Connelly, 2010).

Separation of powers - means the spelling out the mandates of the congress, executive and the Supreme Court or inferior courts, so that there is no concentration of powers in any branch of government (Connelly, 2010).

Checks and balances - refer to a system established to ensure that no branch of government gets too much power (Connelly, 2010).

Vote – refers to President’s or Senate’s power to decline approving a bill pr resolution and thereby preventing it from being enacted into the law (Connelly, 2010).

Filibuster –refers to a procedure where legislation’s debate is extended allowing members to prevent or delay the proposal’s veto (Connelly, 2010).

Both U.S and Canada

Federalism – refers to a political system that involves the division of power and responsibilities between legislatures in state or provincial level and the federal legislature (Schultze, & In Sturm,  2000).

Pluralism refers to where the people puts limits on the governments powers that could affect individual rights (Solski , Ruth  n.d).

Unitary refers to a system where the country is a sovereign state and is governed as one entity, with administrative divisions to whom the central government delegates power. Both countries are federal but not unitary states(Solski , Ruth  n.d).

Patronage refers to a system where the political party that wins election gives jobs to the party supporters or friend a reward to their effort towards victory(Solski , Ruth  n.d).

Civil servant refers to a person employed in the public sector for agency or department of a government.

 

Canada Government		US government
Constitution Monarch	Executive	Congressional
Senate	Legislative	Senate
House of commons		House of Representatives
Supreme Court	Judicial system	Supreme Court

 

                                                           

 

 

 

Reasons for bicameral legislature

The bicameral legislature was adopted in order to ensure check and balances and having practical politics. Check and balances ensured that no single government branch concentrated a lot of power.  Practical politics meant that congress representation had to be awarded on an equal basis for all the states (United Cities and Local Governments., & World Bank.  2009).

Canada’s Senate organization

The Senate consists of 105 members appointed by governor general on prime ministers advice. They meet in the Red Chamber where the Governor –general give an opening speech at each new session. The members represent various territories and provinces and they take part in Chamber’s sessions.

US senate organization

It consists of Senators who are representatives of every state and two senators represent each state, hence there are 100 senators. The president of the Senate is normally the Vice President of U.S and in his absence, the senior member of party with most of the seats becomes the presiding officer (United Cities and Local Governments., & World Bank., 2009).

 

References

Solski , Ruth ,( n.d).Our Canadian Governments Gr. On The Mark Press77-86

In Schultze, R.-O., & In Sturm, R. (2000). The politics of constitutional reform in North America: Coping with new challenges.

United Cities and Local Governments., & World Bank. (2009). Decentralization and local democracy in the world: First global report by United Cities and Local Governments, 2008. Washington, DC: World Bank.

 

Connelly, W. F. (2010). James Madison rules America: The constitutional origins of congressional partisanship. Lanham, Md: Rowman & Littlefield. 220-222