Similarities and Differences between the Political Systems of UK, India, and USA

Political systems 

A political system is the structure of government and politics. Political systems depend on the country. Political systems can be placed into various categories, which imply the authoritative figure in the government, influence of the government on the people and the economy. Anthropologists recognize four types of political systems, which can fall into two classifications: centralized and uncentralized. Uncentralized systems include Band societies and tribe while centralized systems include chiefdom and sovereign states. There are supranational political systems which are created as a form of an alliance of independent nations to gain strength and, or reach an agreement. These include empires, leagues and political parties in systems of politics. Political parties vary depending on the countries. The American political parties are divided into democracy and republic (Kollman, 2013). In the United States' constitution, political parties are not mentioned when describing the election of presidents. The U.S constitution gives a system of democracy and republics that the government creates without political parties (Nelson, 2013). 

Political interest in sociology is identified by seeing who holds power between people and the government and how the government uses power. In sociology, moreover, political systems include authoritarianism, monarchies, and democracies (Nelson, 2013). In an authoritarian government, people have no representation or power. People blindly obey the government and cannot ask questions as their individual freedom is suppressed. An extreme form of authoritarianism is totalitarianism, which threatens people through terror and controls all freedoms and aspects of life such as media freedom and communication. Monarchies are governments ruled by a king or a queen who has a right to the throne by birth. There are constitutional monarchies and absolute monarchies where the Absolute monarchy is a government where the leader makes all the rules in the country while a constitutional monarchy is where the royal family does not have a lot of power as there are also elected officials who work with them to make decisions. Democracy is where people create laws and vote for the legislation through representatives or directly. Democracy does not always ensure that the needs of all individuals are met as minorities are not always represented by the majority form the government (Nelson, 2013). 

Political systems of India, UK, and the USA 

India is the world largest democracy with a population of over one billion. The democratic system in India is better compared to other democracies such as Bangladesh and Pakistan, which were part of India before they split in 1947. The political system in India was recently constructed unlike other systems such as the British and American political systems, which have existed for centuries in their current form (Lee, 2013). The Indian political system was adopted in 1947 after the country got independence from the British. In 1950, the current Indian constitution was developed to promote equality, justice and liberty for the citizens. The Indian constitution is the longest compared to other countries. It has four hundred and forty-four articles and about one hundred and twenty thousand words in its English version. Consequently, the Constitution of India is among the most amended legislations in the world with more than one hundred changes. 

The British political system is known for its continuity. Britain has not been occupied or invaded for nearly a millennium, which cannot compare to many other countries which have been invaded and colonized (Tournier-Sol & Gifford, 2015). Britain is also a country which does not have a written constitution, which makes it unique. Other countries which do not have constitutions are New Zealand and Israel. Change has been slow in Britain since it relies on consensus. The political system is not logical or neat or particularly efficient as there are no set structures.

In Britain, a myriad of milestones exist. The political system has moved from an all powerful king to a parliament that represents ordinary people. The first milestone was realized when King John signed a Magna Carta for power sharing with the barons. The move was a representation of citizen rights for the first time in the world. In 1295, King Edward I summoned the first model assembly to get their approval on taxing his subjects. The Bill of Rights was created in 1689 to limit the crown powers and to state the rights of parliament. It was also meant to make way for freedom of speech. The Bill of rights was also designed to allow the freedom to question the monarch without fear of retribution. Some parts of the United Kingdom also have administrators. The largest part of the United Kingdom, England, took a new form as they conducted elections and the Scottish National party won. The United Kingdom has also been a member of the European Union since 1973, which regulates some aspects of decision making (Forbes, 2004). 

The United States is the second largest democracy in the world after India. It is almost the world superpower, politically, militarily and economically. It has a different constitution compared to other nations. The Constitution used by the Americans came into use two centuries ago. It was enforced after the war with the British where the founding fathers decided to create a system that was different from the monarchy of Great Britain. To achieve this, the new constitution was designed to spread power between the judiciary, executive, and legislature. The power was distributed between the three arms of the government equally to control the exercise of the power of the others. The Electoral College handles the elections of the president. When coming up with the Constitution of the United States, there was a great compromise between the New Jersey Plan and the Virginia Plan (Kollman, 2013). This caused the House of Representatives to base on the population and the Senate to be made up of the same number of representatives despite the population. Changes in this Constitution were basically to balance power. 

Similarities 

One of the similarities between the British, and the United States political system is that they have a court system, lower and upper house and a head of state (Forbes, 2004). They also have constitutions in place to define citizens' rights and government rule. The political systems are also democratic. They also have systems to limit and contain power in the government. The Indian political system is also democratic, which is similar to that of the United States. 

In the United Kingdom, the King or Queen is the head of state while in the United States; the Prime Minister is the official head of state (Tournier-Sol & Gifford, 2015). The same is done in India where the head of government is the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom handles political matters and heads of the government. 

The upper house of the United States is the Senate while that of the United Kingdom is the House of Lords. Despite the size of the state, each state has two senators who are elected and allowed to serve for six years (Kollman, 2013). The British House of Lords is different as they are not elected and cannot be voted out. The members of the Upper House in the United Kingdom are members by appointment, inheritance and rank in the England church. The roles of the House of Lords and Senate are similar as they review legislations submitted by the lower house through discussions, voting legislation, and debates. 

The lower house in the United States is the House of Representatives while in the UK, it is the House of Commons (Forbes, 2004). The similarities between this two is that the representatives are chosen by the citizens of the country. Control of the House of Commons and Representatives also goes to the party that has the majority. The leader of the party holding the majority seats in the United Kingdom is automatically the Prime Minister and head of government. In the United States, the head of representatives with the most votes automatically becomes the speaker of the house. 

The executive in India and the United Kingdom is the Prime Minister. The prime ministers of India and the United Kingdom are heads of government only. Both prime ministers are members of the party with the most seats in parliament. Moreover, in India, the members with the most seats vote for a prime minister among them while in the United Kingdom, the leader of the party with the most seats automatically becomes the Prime Minister. 

Differences

System of Governance 

One of the differences between the United States, India, and the Kingdom is that the United Kingdom system of governance assumes a monarchy-government while the system of governance in the United States is a republic form of government (Tournier-Sol & Gifford, 2015). The citizens elect the head of state in the United States. The head of state also governs the country through a set constitution. In the United Kingdom, the Monarch is the acting head of State. However, the monarch does not have absolute powers as there is an elected head of government who has political powers. Another difference between the United Kingdom and the United States is that the United States constitutes fifty states while the United Kingdom is a single nation with four different countries. The Indian system of democracy is distinct from that of the United States. The American democracy makes an effort to involve the people to participate at different levels to support the government. In India, this is different as Individuals matter as family politics is the norm. Voters also look to get benefits from local politicians instead of changes in the government by voting for the politicians. 

Constitution 

The constitution is another difference between the United States, India, and the United Kingdom. The United States has a written constitution, which is a common thing in various Nations and Countries. India is a Country with the largest constitution as it has four hundred and forty-four articles and about one hundred and twenty thousand words in its English version (Lee, 2013). The United Kingdom does not have a written constitution. The form of constitution used in Britain is through Acts of Parliament, which has the constitutional provisions. In the United States, it is hard to change the constitution (Kollman, 2013). 

This is different in the United Kingdom as acts of parliament can be changed by majority votes. The British constitution has not defined the power-sharing in its constitution while this is well defined in the American Constitution with the powers of the Legislature, judiciary and executive separated strictly. In India, there is also no distinction in legislative branches in the government written down in the constitution. This is a problem for the people of the India as the executive has a lot of power, making the government have more power than the people. Therefore, in the Indian system, people elect leaders in terms of who they would follow and not who will fulfill their wishes (Lee, 2013). 

The executive

The difference between the system of the United States, India, and the United Kingdom lie on the Executive. In the United States, the presidential system is headed by the President, who is elected while in the United Kingdom and India, the head of government is the Prime Minister. In the United Kingdom, moreover, there is a system in place where the member who holds the most votes in the Lower House is automatically made Prime Minister and has the responsibility to manage political situations. The Indian Prime Minister comes from the members of the party with the most seats in parliament. The Prime Minister of India has a lot of power as it is easy for them to push legislations as they have the most number of party members in Congress.

The American president also has much more power as compared to the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and India. However, the American president does not have the authority to push legislations in Congress while the Prime Ministers of the United Kingdom and India have more power to push legislations. The transition period between the election and inauguration of a new president in the United States is two and a half months (Kollman, 2013) while in the United Kingdom, the transition to a new Prime Minister is immediate. The Secretary of State is the senior most person in the United States cabinet while in Britain, the secretary of state is the political head of a government department. Therefore, most cabinet members are secretaries of state. 

The Legislature 

Another difference between United States, India and the United Kingdom is seen in their legislature. In the United States, the members of the upper and lower house are elected while in the United Kingdom, the members of the lower houses are elected and members of the House of Lords are selected and appointed by the King or Queen (Forbes, 2004). In the United States, members of Congress introduce legislations while in the United Kingdom, the government introduces all legislations. However, some bills with minimal implications are submitted by parliamentary members in Britain and are classified as Private members Bills.

In the House of Representatives and Senate in the United States, the party with the majority chair committees with considerable power. In the United Kingdom, the chair of the committees does not have a lot of power and are selected from different parties. In the house of the representatives in the United States, the speaker is selected by the party with the most members while in the speaker of the House of Commons is chosen by the whole house. The legislature of India is known as Sansad (Pushkar, 2012) while in the United Kingdom, it is just known as the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The Congress controls the power of the President in the United States while in India, the president is in control of the legislature because his party is the dominant one in Parliament. 

The Judiciary 

In the United States, the judiciary is an intense political institution. Appointment of members of the Supreme Court is done by the president and is highly politicized. This is different in the United Kingdom as the members of the Supreme Court are not chosen on a political basis. Political Parties 

In the United Kingdom, there is a party between Labor and Conservatives known as the Liberal Democrat party (Forbes, 2004). This is different from the United States, which has two distinct parties, the Democrats, and Republicans. In the United Kingdom, the parties represented by Congress are federal parties meaning there is none which seeks votes in one or a few states. In the United Kingdom, there are parties which seek votes through the country and some that are nationalists where candidates represent specific regions. In the Indian democracy, there are several political parties. There are two popular political parties in the United States and the United Kingdom while India has around five political parties. Political parties in India are dominated by members of the same family while in the United States and the United Kingdom, the members of the parties are different. Consequently, in India, the political parties do not have visible ideological affiliations such as Democrats, Republicans, Labor and Conservatives like the United States and the United Kingdom. This is because members of Indian parties are usually made up of Individual family members (Pushkar, 2012). 

In conclusion, India, the United Kingdom and the United States have similarities and differences in their political systems. The United States, India, and Britain practice democracy despite the United Kingdom being a Monarchy. However, their systems are different as they have different legislations. A good political system is one which meets the needs of the people by giving the people a voice. Their people should have their fundamental freedoms, and there should be a balance of powers and separation of power for the political system to work as in the case of the United States as India, which have a democratic system, but the powers of the executive are too much. Freedoms are also essential so that citizens in the country are not oppressed. 

Recommendations 

The best approach that political systems can employ is a deliberative democracy. This would be a critical approach as it can help in legitimate deliberation. To do this, the voters should be given reasonable and accurate information that can be used in making considerations. There should also be a substantive balance where arguments are answered to give different perspectives by various parties. There should also be diversity so that the participants represent the position of the public. The participants should be sincere in their arguments, and there should be equal consideration of the participants' arguments. 

References

Forbes, I. (2004). Making a Crisis Out of a Drama: The Political Analysis of BSE Policy-Making in the UK. Political Studies , 52(2), 342-357.

Kollman, K.(2013). The American Political System (Second Core Edition (without policy chapters)) 2nd Edition . W. W. Norton & Company.

Lee, A. (2013). Book Review: Poverty amid Plenty in the New India. Comparative Political Studies, 46(7) 883-886.

Nelson, M. (2013). The Presidency and the Political System 10th Edition . CQ Press 

Pushkar (2012). Democracy and Infant Mortality in India’s ‘Mini-democracies’: A Preliminary Theoretical Inquiry and Analysis. Journal of South Asian Development, 7(2), 109-137.

Tournier-Sol, K. & Gifford, C. (2015). The UK Challenge to Europeanization: The Persistence of British Euroscepticism Kindle Edition . Palgrave Macmillan.