A side-by-side comparison of the politics and government of the United States and Canada

Introduction 

Politics means a group of activities linked with the governance of a given country or a state and ii involves decision making that has to apply to the group members. It may also mean achieving and exercising governance positions to control people in a society or community. On the other hand, the government refers to the system or rather a group of people governing a country or an organized community. It comprises of the judiciary, executive, and legislature as the dominant arms of government. The three arms of government may vary or compare from one state to another. Arguably, there are numerous types of government across the world, and they may include democratic, republican, communist, autocratic, oligarchic and theocratic government. Numerous states in the globe practice different types of government. Canada and the United States are in the same region, and therefore, they demonstrate both similarities and differences in their structure of government. For the fact that both countries were under British rule shows that there must be dominant similarities between them. The two countries border each other, and as such, they share the history of British rule, both practice democracy but they have different methods of government ( Bakvis & Brown 2010) . The government of the United States and Canada show uniqueness in their operations. The paper seeks to compare and contrast the politics and government of the United States and Canada. 

Differences 

Despite that, the two countries share a common history of British rule, they exhibit numerous differences in their politics and government. 

Head of State And Government 

Government institution in both countries is different in various ways. For instance, Canada practices constitutional monarchy type of government while the United States adopted a type of democratic government referred to as republic. The head of state in Canada happens to be the British monarch and is represented in Canada by an official referred to as governor-general ( Howard, Busch & Sheets 2010) . Governor-General, who is the leader of the state appoints the Canadian head of government, that is, prime minister but the head of states limits his or her powers. On the other hand, in the United States, there is no division between the head of states and head of government. There is no prime minister position in the United States as it is in Canada, but they have a presidency position whereby the president is the leader of the state and is elected by the people for a term of four years. 

The head of state in the United States is also the leader of government, but in Canada, the head of state is not the head of government. The Canadian government is headed by a prime minister who the head of states appoints him or her. Differently, the head of the state in Canada is governor general, who is appointed by the queen on the prime minister's advice ( Jaeger, Paquette & Simmons 2010) . Ideally, the Canadians only participate in electing the members of the House of Commons since the head state, governor general appoints the senate members. In Canada, the head of state cannot be impeached since he or she is the queen's appointee, but in the United States, the president can be impeached by senators when he or she demonstrates gross misconduct and abuse of office. 

The powers of the head of state, that is, president in Canada is advising the crown on how to exercise his or her executive powers as enshrined in the constitution. As the head of government, the president cannot appoint judges, cabinet secretaries among other state officers since it is the role of the prime minister to do so. Differently, the head of government in the United States has all powers conferred to him or her by the constitution to appoint and dismiss cabinet secretaries, judges and other state officers provided he or she follows the due procedures for removal. 

Parliament and Congress 

The United States has a congress, while Canada has parliament as their respective legislative bodies responsible for enacting laws ( Simeon & Radin 2010) . In the United States, congress members, that is the House of Representatives and Senate are public elected by the people. The house of representative members is voted once for a term of two years while the senators are elected once for a term of six years. For the case of Canadian parliament, it is different from the United States congress because only the House of Commons members are democratically elected by the people who hold office until the dissolution of parliament after five years. 

Nonetheless, unlike in the United States, the senate members in Canada are appointed by the head of the state who serve until they step down or attain the age of retirement of 75 years. Congress of the United States is bicameral while the Canadian parliament is not really. The House of Lords or rather the senate of Canada does not have real powers as it is in the United States senate. For example, the senate of the United States can initiate a motion for impeaching the president while the Canadian senate doesn't have such powers. The parliament of Canada is an integral part of the executive as well as legislative body while in the United States, the congress is independent with clearly stipulated powers by the US constitution. 

The Prime Minister and The President 

In the United States, the president is the head of government while in Canada it is headed by a prime minister who is an appointee of the governor general. The prime minister in Canada is the leader of the political party that has the most house of common members. The term of a prime minister in Canada has no limit, but he stays in power until the house of commons is characterized by majority members from another party. In the United States, the state head has a limit of 2 four-year terms after which he or she is not constitutionally allowed to vie for the presidency again ( Olson 2015) . Unlike in Canada, the head of the United States is voted in by the citizens and remains to hold offices irrespective of the political party with many members of the congress. The state and the government of United States are headed by one person referred to as president while in Canada, the government is headed by the prime minister while the state is headed by a constitutional monarch known as governor general. They have different roles as far as government is concerned. For instance, in Canada, the prime minister is tasked with appointment of senate members while in the United States the president does not have such powers, but they are vested on the people who publicly elect them in democratic elections. 

Division of Powers 

The division of powers in both countries demonstrates a lot of differences. For example, the governing bodies of both countries have different powers as enshrined in their different constitutions. Arguably, the governing units of the United States were created on the division of powers principle to prevent abuse of power by officeholders ( Caramani 2017) . The constitution of the United States has equally divided powers of the three bodies of government to avoid any of the three from becoming too powerful and influence the others to perpetrate impunity. The three arms of government, legislature, judiciary and executive in the United States serves a check against each other to ensure smooth governance. On the issue of Canada, they believe in the idea of power consolidation. The Canadian head of government or prime minister is a parliament member and possesses the power to alter the decision made by the majority and single-handedly determine the government policy. Nonetheless, the minister has the powers to control dissenting House of Commons and senate members and to force their immediate resignation at any time. In this case, the Canadian government can abuse power since there is no division of the same. Unlike in the United States, political leaders in Canada are given absolute powers to determine what the government needs to be done. The president of America who is the head of state and government cannot be a member of congress like the prime minister in Canada who is a member of parliament with powers to determine the business of the house. 

Composition of Congress and Parliament 

The Canadians parliament comprises of three parts which include the queen, the House of Commons and the senate. The three entities work together to make regulations or laws of the country. On the other hand, the congress of United States is bicameral which consists of two levels, that is, the house of representatives as the lower house and the senate as the upper house ( Achen & Bartels 2017) . The head of government in Canada is a member of parliament while the US president being the head of both states and the government is not required by law to be a member of the US congress. 

How Laws are Passed 

Arguably, there is a difference in how regulations and laws are passed in Canada and the United States. Despite both countries having parliament and congress as legislative bodies, laws are different passed by the members ( Wilson 2017) . For example, in the United States, the laws that the head of state wants them passed must undergo several procedures such as passing through the House of Representatives and the Senate for debate. Before bills are passed into law in parliament, the two houses should do thorough debate to establish the benefits of the bills to the electorates. In the United States, the head of the states does not influence the ratification process of bills, and if they fail the constitutional threshold, such bills are thrown out of the flow of the houses. Contrary, the parliament of Canada does it differently since the procedures of passing laws differ from those of the congress in the United States. Despite that the parliament of Canada has two houses, the House of Commons and the Senate, bills may originate from the head of government which would ensure that the bill passes the two stages. The head of government being a member of parliament determines how bills are passed because he may differ with opinions of the majority of members in the house to pass the laws for the benefit of the government. 

The House of Commons drafts the legislations of Canada, but they do not have absolute power of enacting them since they could be opposed by the queen or the senate ( Albert & Cameron 2017) . Interestingly, the congress of the United States have the powers to research and draft their bills instead of voting for bills they do not know their origin. In the Canadian parliament, the House of Commons finds itself ratifying bills they have not searched or drafted. In this case, the powers of the parliament are limited to some extent, unlike in the United States Congress. In Canada, the head of state or government may find his or her way to the parliament to introduce a bill for ratification, but in the United States, the president and cabinet secretaries are barred by the constitution from introducing bills in the congress for debate. Moreover, the members of congress cannot be a cabinet member or president. 

Similarities 

Despite the above differences, the United States and Canada show numerous similarities in their politics and government. 

In both states, the head of government exercises the powers of appointing state officers such as cabinet ministers and judges. Despite the different titles, in both countries, the prime minister and the president are the head of government who are in charge of the administration of the country. Both countries have legislative branches tasked with reaching and drafting bills for the benefit of their electorates. Canada and the United States practice democratic politics because in both the citizens exercising voting rights to elect their political representatives (Bennett 2015). For instance, the united states elect their leaders such as president, senators and house of representative members in a democratic way. For the Canadian citizens, they elect the members of House of Commons from where the head of government is selected from the house. In a nutshell, there is an element of democracy; however, minimal it may be exercised. 

Moreover, in both countries, they have a judicial system such courts for interpreting the law. The two countries have supreme courts as the apex courts for dealing with complex cases that could not be handled by the lower courts. The supreme court of both countries comprise of nine judges, and they are led by chief justice as the president of the judiciary. In both countries, the head of government and cabinet secretaries form the executive arm of government. In the United States, the executive branch of government comprises of the president and cabinet secretaries just like in Canada where the head of state and government (governor general and prime minister respectively) and cabinet secretaries are members of the executive. In both states, the executive is mandated by the constitution to implement government policies for the betterment of the citizens. 

The United States and Canadian senate play essential roles in enactment of laws of the two countries. Majority of bills that lead to laws of a country originate from the lower houses, the house of commons in Canada and the house of representatives in united states but in both houses, the senate would review the bills which are about to be ratified through voting into laws. Therefore, the senate of both countries contributes immensely into the law-making the process in the two countries (Bennett 2015). Moreover, the senate of both countries also checks on the government of the day by evaluating bills and keeping an eye on the government administration. In both countries, senators are essential in vetting appointees of the head of government. Ideally, the head of state might appoint an individual to fill in a vacancy in state office, but the senate may consequently fail to approve his or her appointee on the grounds that the head of government did not follow the due procedures of appointment or the appointee does not meet the integrity threshold to hold a state office. 

Nevertheless, the countries have governments that are separated into federal, provincial or state and municipal governments. The two countries use the above levels of government for effective administration. For example, the municipal and local government in Canada and the United States respectively serve the purpose of enhancing government administration at the grassroots level ( Caramani 2017) . In both countries, the federal government is the highest level of administration that supervises the junior government levels. The federal structure of government in both countries is divided into provinces for Canada and states for the United States. 

The two countries use political parties when vying for elective posts in government. For instance, the politicians in Canada have several parties used during elections such as a liberal party of Canada and a conservative party of Canada while in the United States, the popular political parties are a democrat party and Republican Party ( Achen & Bartels 2017) . Research shows that both countries practice multiparty democracy, whereby there is more than one party. The states have both dominant and small parties as a show of full democracy. The two countries have lower houses tasked with legislation roles. For example, the Canadian parliament's lower house is the House of Commons while in the United States Congress in the House of Representatives. Another similarity of both countries associated with lower houses is that the people democratically elect both of their members. Nonetheless, the members of the lower houses in both countries act as representatives of the people whereby they present the grievances of citizens on the floor of the houses for necessary measures to be implemented by the government. 

Conclusion 

In conclusion, contemporary government across the world shows differences and similarities in many aspects. For example, they may compare in terms of democracy, roles of political leaders, and the structure of government. In the paper, it is known that the politics and government of the United States and Canada have numerous differences as well as similarities right from the invention of the institution of government. They have demonstrated differences in terms of head of state and government, the issue of the prime minister and president, parliament and congress, how laws are passed, the composition of parliament and congress and division of powers. Moreover, there are dominant similarities in both countries, such as the existence of the Supreme Court with a nine-judge bench, both have many political parties, both have a senate and lower houses. In both countries, they have a judicial system such courts for interpreting the law. The roles of the houses in both countries show similarities like for example, the lower houses in both states are tasked with drafting and ratifying bills into laws. The countries have governments that are separated into federal, provincial or state and municipal governments to help ineffective administration at the grass-root level. 

References 

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Caramani, D. (Ed.). 2017. Comparative politics . Oxford University Press. 

Howard, P., Busch, L., & Sheets, P. 2010. Comparing digital divides: Internet access and social inequality in Canada and the United States. Canadian Journal of Communication , 35 (1). 

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Simeon, R., & Radin, B. A. 2010. Reflections on comparing federalisms: Canada and the United States. Publius: The Journal of Federalism , 40 (3), 357-365. 

Wilson, W. 2017. Constitutional government in the United States . Routledge.