Both NZ and USA have 3 branches of government supposedly separate . They are the legislative , executive and judiciary .
The legislative writes the legislation (rules)
The Judiciary interprets and enforces those rules
The Executive proposes legislation and carrys out the legislation passed that apply to the running of the country , budgets , welfare, roads etc
America is a federal republic, ie its collection of states ruled by a federal with a democracy without a monarch.
Judiciary in USA is the supreme court and lower courts.
The supreme court judges are chosen by the president.
The Legislative Branch consists of the House of Representatives and the Senate, which together form the United States Congress. There are a total of 535 Members of Congress. 100 serve in the U.S. Senate (2 Senators per each of the 50 states) and 435 serve in the U.S. House of Representatives. In the House of Representatives, a state’s representation is based on its population.
Members of the House of Representatives serve two-year terms and are considered for re-election every even year. Senators however, serve six-year terms and elections to the Senate are staggered over even years so that only about 1/3 of the Senate is up for re-election during any election.
Members of Congress represent the people of their district in the United States Congress by holding hearings, as well as developing and voting on legislation. All bills must pass Congress before they can go to the President to be signed into law.
Legislation begin as ideas. First, a representative sponsors a bill. The bill is then assigned to a committee for study. If released by the committee, the bill is put on a calendar to be voted on, debated or amended. If the bill passes by simple majority (218 of 435), the bill moves to the Senate. In the Senate, the bill is assigned to another committee and, if released, debated and voted on. Again, a simple majority (51 of 100) passes the bill. Finally, a conference committee made of House and Senate members works out any differences between the House and Senate versions of the bill. The resulting bill returns to the House and Senate for final approval. The Government Printing Office prints the revised bill in a process called enrolling. The President has 10 days to sign or veto the enrolled bill.
The President is part of the executive branch of government. The executive is the part of government that carrys out the policys and legislation passed by the legislative branch .
The president of USA is decided by the number of electoral college
votes in a first past the post method. All electoral votes for each state go
to the party who gets over 50% in that state in a first past the posts system, except for Maine and Nebraska. . There
are 538 college electoral voters with one vote each. The president chosen is the first
to get 270 college votes.
Each state gets a
different number of electoral votes , decided on by representation in congress
which is based on the size of population in each state.
Each political party nominates its college electors .When public
voters are casting their popular vote they are for their parties nominated college electors . Its not college at obviously..
Electors are supposed to
vote for the president candidate of their parties choice but this doesn’t always
happen . Each state sets its own rules
for this. Only 33 states make it mandatory legally to vote for your parties
choice There have been court when this didnt happen. eg Chiafalo et al v Washington
Generally the candidate who
wins the popular vote wins the electoral college vote but not always Five times in U.S. history, candidates have lost the popular vote but
won the presidency — most recently Trump in 2016 (Clinton had 3 million more
popular votes) and Bush in 2000.
There are more than 2 parties in US even though you only hear about the main two . Two of the other bigger ones are the Green Party and the Liberal party . There is no Labour party in USA but the Democratic party tends to be the most left wing party although it wasnt always this way because it supported slavery and resisted the end of it well after the civil war not supporting civil rights until the 1960s.
Best described here
USAs politics are further to the right than most western countries including colonised Australia, NZ and Canada.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6LPuKVG1teQ&t=6s
By contrast NZ
is a constitutional monarchy.
1.
The Legislature consists of Members of Parliament and the Governor-General.
The role of the Legislature is to write legislation, and to scrutinise the
Executive.
The
elected MPs are in the house of
representatives (lower house) .The upper house was done away with in 1950.Some
MPs also become Crown MPS. MPs are
chosen by a Mixed Member Proportional system (MMP) in a national vote every 3
years. MMP came into use in 1996. Public voters get 2 votes , 1 for their
electorate MP and one for the party. The total % of the party vote decides the
number of MPs that each party gets in parliament . The balance between the
electorate MPS total and the party total are chosen from the “list” each party
puts forward.
Bills
are put forward by government MPs. There is also a ballot system for choosing Bills
to be voted on , not from government MPs.
Bills are passed into Acts through 3 readings and 2 committees;
- introduction
- first
reading
- select
committee consideration
- second
reading
- committee
of the whole House consideration
- third
reading.
A bill becomes an act after legislature approves it and the Queens representatives consent ( by Governor General) is given..
https://www.parliament.nz/en/visit-and-learn/how-parliament-works/fact-sheets/parliament-brief-the-legislative-process/
2. The Executive consists of Ministers (both inside and outside Cabinet) and Government departments. The role of the Executive is to decide policy, propose legislation (which must be approved by the Legislature) and administer the law.
3.
The Judiciary consists of all judges. The role of the judiciary is to
interpret and apply the legislation and the law. The Judges are appointed by the Governor General at the "suggestion" of the attorney General who is appointed by the Prime Minister. The Attorney General works for and is head of the Crown Law Office a public service department off the NZ Government.
The prime minister is the head of government of New Zealand, and the leader of the Cabinet of New Zealand, with various powers and responsibilities defined by convention. Officially, the prime minister is appointed by the governor-general of New Zealand, but by convention, the prime minister must have the
confidence of the elected New Zealand House of Representatives. The prime minister is always a member of Parliament, and is usually the leader of the largest political party in the House.
The 2 house system sold as a system of checks and balances , so are all the other systems, yet NZ is less polluted and corrupt than USA. USA is well corrupted by big corporate money. For one the constitution is limited by the first amendment of free speech which the supreme court has backed especially in the Citizens United v FEC case and so candidates can spend hundreds of millions of dollars from corporate dollars outdoing each other to convince and manipulate their voters while they bring in decisions for corporation . Their is no limit to the spending corporations can give especially through NGOs. Raising such large money from corporations indebts congressmen to corporations when it comes time to pass legislation . Then theres the close to 12000 lobbyists thats about 22 for every congressman for the last 20 years. Its estimated corporates spend 3 billion annually on lobbying.
NZ s the odd one out with one house;
Australia is a constitutional monarchy . The Parliament consists of the Queen
(represented by the Governor-General) and two Houses (the Senate and the House
of Representatives).
Canada is a constitutional Monarchy . The government consists
of the Canadian monarch,
represented by a viceroy, the governor general; an upper house, the Senate; and a
lower house, the House of Commons.
Comments
Post a Comment