Both NZ and USA have 3 branches of government supposedly separate . They are the legislative , executive and judiciary .
America is a republic, ie its state without a monarch. Its also democratic just in the way its thought of representative democracy works in say NZ. They had a different sort to restrict the majority making decisions for all. The president is the Head of State as well as the Head of Government.
Republics like Israel and France have separate presidents (head of state) and Prime Ministers (heads of government)
Judiciary in USA is the supreme court and lower courts.
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.
Presidents are voted in every 4 years and can only sit for 2 terms.
So American public are voting every 2 years for various different roles of government
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.
This is because the founding fathers couldn’t decide how to choose a president and opted for the college vote system to prevent popular vote winning . So the states with smaller populations get dis-proportionally slightly higher number of college electoral votes
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 after the civil war. But it has moved further to the right here since the Civil Rights Acts in 1860s thou it has moved further from the republican party, here .
The surprising origins of the 2 man parties animal symbols nd its not complimentary, here
By contrast NZ is a constitutional monarchy.
The Monarch is the titular head of state.
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 partys 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 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 governor general is the Monarchs representative and should be chosen by them but usually chosen by NZ government . While governor general on behalf of monarch gives royal assent [signs off] all legislation and has the ability to not sign off denying it passing into an act this has not happened in the British Monarchs Realm [Canada Australia , NZ & UK = Northern Ireland & Britain. Britain =Wales Scotland, England]since 1702 . Thou in Gough Whitlam was dismissed from Australian Government in 1975 . Because the real power lies with government as it has the assets, tax base , army and proposes all the rules usually without input from the monarch...
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 outdoing each other to lobby and support their chosen representatives . 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 . Like USA its a federation of states uniting and creating the Federation in 1901. 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.
UK a constitutional monarchy . The business of Parliament takes place in two Houses: the House of Commons and the House of Lords. Their (both houses) work is similar: making laws legislation (laws), checking the work of the government (scrutiny), and debating current issues. With the public voting in the MPs in to the commons . Generally, the decisions made in one House have to be approved by the other.
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