Lesson video

Hello, my name is Mrs. Harrison.

I'm the person who's going to be guiding you through today's lesson.

The lesson today is called "What are the Differences between the UK and US Political Systems?" and it's part of a larger unit of work called "How is the UK Governed?" By the end of today's lesson, you are going to be able to say, I can explain and compare some of the key differences and similarities between the UK and the US political systems. Some of this learning might be new to you, some of it might be older and some of it might be challenging, but I'm gonna guide you all the way through it and we'll tackle it together.

Let's start with the key words then.

I'm going to say the key word, you are going to repeat it back and then I'll tell you the definition.

Government.

The group of people with the authority to govern a country and in the UK, the government is chosen and led by the Prime Minister.

Legislative.

That's the lawmaking body of a state or a country, and that is Parliament in the UK.

Executive.

That's the branch of government that's responsible for putting laws or decisions into effect, and the Prime Minister is the leader of the executive branch in the UK.

It's time for our first learning cycle.

What is the UK political system like? The United Kingdom is a Parliamentary democracy and this means that citizens of the UK vote to elect ministers to sit in Parliament to represent their views and their interests.

They're elected through something called the general elections, and these happen at least once every five years.

They can be called earlier by the Prime Minister if they want to.

So the last UK general election was in July, 2024.

What happens with this is the political party with the most seats in Parliament will make up the executive government and that's the branch that's responsible for running the country.

This group of people then, in the executive government, we refer to them as the government and that government is accountable to Parliament and they have to follow the rules set by them.

The United Kingdom is also a constitutional monarchy.

Now this means that the Monarch is the head of state, but the ability to make laws and make rules actually lies with elected leaders and not the monarch themselves.

The Monarch does however, play a role.

They have lots of ceremonial and traditional duties, things like opening and closing Parliament every year, appointing the Prime Minister after a general election and things like that.

The next monarch is determined through the royal line of succession, so in other words, the children of the current king, they are the next lines of succession to become heirs to the throne and it passes down through the family like that.

The United Kingdom is what we call a unitary state, and that means most of the power and the authority with decision-making lies with the central UK government and that has the power to enforce laws and to enforce rules across the whole country.

There are devolved governments in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland and there is some limited devolution in areas of England as well, and devolution gives power from the central government to regional governments on policy areas that affect their region, so things like education, health, housing, environment.

And then some devolved governments can also have some legislative control, which means they can make some laws.

However, with a unitary state, it's the central government that maintains authority overall.

It's time for our first quick check for understanding then.

So can you fill in the correct words to complete this passage? The United Kingdom is a Parliamentary.

And a constitutional.

It is a, state which means most of the power and decision-making lies with the central government.

Take a few seconds to think about it and then we'll come back together and check the answer.

Okay, then let's have a look at the answer.

So the United Kingdom is a Parliamentary democracy and a constitutional monarchy.

It is a unitary state, which means most of the power, decision-making lies with the central government.

Well done if you filled those three gaps correctly.

Now, a really key way of ensuring democracy in the country is through something called the separation of powers, and this is what it looks like in the United Kingdom.

At the top there we have the head of state, and then under there we've got three branches.

We have the Parliament branch, which is the legislative branch, and that's responsible for discussing debating and passing laws.

We also have the government, that's the executive branch which was responsible for things like the day-to-day running of the country, making policies and then enforcing the laws that Parliament make.

And we also have the judiciary and that's the judicial branch, which is like the legal fairness, the justice, the courts, making sure that justice is served and it has to apply all the laws set by Parliament.

Today, we're going to be talking about these two parts.

That's the Parliament and the government.

This purple arrow here helps us remember what we've just said, and that's when elected leaders are voted into Parliament.

The largest party within Parliament get invited to make the government.

That's the branch that does the day-to-day running of the country.

And so the Parliament and the government are very closely linked.

Now Parliament is the legislative branch of the UK state and we've just said, haven't we, that it's got the authority to make and change laws.

And the place that it meets is in the Palace of Westminster in London.

Parliament's made up of three parts.

It's got the House of Commons, which is known as the Lower House of Parliament.

It's got the House of Lords, which is the upper House of Parliament, and then we've got the monarchy, which is the king or the queen of the UK.

Parliament's include things like debating and passing laws.

We've got scrutinising the government, making sure they're on the track and questioning what they're doing.

We've got that their job is to represent the citizens of the UK.

That's their main role actually.

Also things like approving how the government spends public money and it's also a really important place for debate and discussions of very important things.

In the UK, it's got the highest level of authority, which means no other part of government can override its decisions, and that's what we call being sovereign.

So the UK Parliament is sovereign.

Jacob says here that laws are usually proposed by the executive branch, so that's the government side of it, but they have to be approved by both Houses of Parliament before they can be put into place.

This is the House of Commons here on your screen right now and the House of Commons is made up of 650 members of Parliament or MPs for short, and the MPs are directly voted in by citizens.

There is one MP per constituency and elections happen at least once every five years.

But as we've said on an earlier slide, these can be called earlier by the Prime Minister if they so wish.

The last UK general election was 2024 in July.

MPs can remain an MP as long as they get their votes next time.

So once the Prime Minister calls an election, the MPs have to stand down and they have to gain their seat again if they want to.

However, if they lose the election, if they don't get voted back in, then they lose their seat and are no longer an MP.

Another part of Parliament is the House of Lords, and this is made up of Lords, Ladies and Peers.

Now, rather than being elected like MPs, these have been appointed directly, so handpicked into their position.

And usually, the reasons why they're chosen are it's hereditary, so it's passed through the family.

It could be appointed because they've been chosen for their skills or their expertise, or they've got knowledge in a certain area, or it could be through honours.

So that means they've made a very exceptional contribution to society and it's seen as an honour to be there.

Members of the House of Lords can have their seat for the rest of their life unless, for example, they retire, if they just choose to resign for themselves or they're removed from misconduct.

So for example, illegal acts or not actually attending the House of Lords and attending what they should be doing.

Let's move on to the monarchy now then.

Now the Monarch is the head of state, as we said, and rather than having authority over the decisions like rulemaking and lawmaking, their role is symbolic and ceremonial, doing things like granting royal approval.

That's Royal Assent to all the laws, opening and closing Parliament every year, appointing the Prime Minister after an election.

Now the Monarch has a slightly different role to those in the House of Commons and the House of Lords who have a political role to play.

The Monarch has to be politically neutral, which means they can't talk publicly about their own personal political beliefs.

Another quick check for understanding then, which of these is not a role of Parliament? We've got A, scrutinising the government.

B, debating and passing laws.

C, day-to-day running of the country, or D, representing the citizens of the UK.

Take a few seconds to think which of these is not a role of Parliament.

Okay, so which of these is not a role of Parliament? It is C, the day-to-day running of the country.

And Laura's telling us here that the day-to-day running of the country, that's the responsibility of the executive branch, not the legislative branch that Parliament is.

Well done if you've got that one.

Let's move on to the next branch then.

So we're going to talk about the executive branch now.

Now their rules and responsibilities are things like proposing legislation, so thinking at laws that they'd like to put in place and then passing it onto Parliament to consider that.

We've also got their responsibility as the day-to-day running of the country.

So things like public services, so health services and so on.

They also then make the policies and enforce the law.

So if Parliament passes a law, it's the government's responsibility to then put that in place.

And the Prime Minister is the leader of all of this.

The Prime Minister is the leader of the political party with the most seats in Parliament and usually they have to have the majority, which is 50% plus 1 of all of the seats in Parliament.

So that's 326 seats that they have to have.

And so as we've said, the Prime Minister is the head of the government and is also the main representative of the UK on an international scale.

So meeting with other countries, representing the country for meetings and different events and so on.

The Prime Minister also has another role, Jun is telling us.

Prime Minister selects and is head of the cabinet and the cabinet is the main decision-making body in government.

There are around 20 cabinet ministers and each one is appointed by the Prime Minister.

They have to be a member of the House of Commons or of the House of Lords.

So it's essential for the people who sit on the cabinet to also be a part of the legislative branch.

So that's the Parliament branch.

If these ministers lose their seat as a member of Parliament or their party loses control of the government, then that means the ministers on the cabinet will also lose their seat on the cabinet.

Otherwise, they can stay on the cabinet as long as the Prime Minister allows them.

Often if you get a new Prime Minister, the cabinet will change because it's their special advisors who they work with them.

But if the Prime Minister wants to keep a person there, then they can stay there as long as they keep their seats in their constituency.

The United Kingdom has what we call an uncodified constitution, which means that the Constitution isn't written down all in one place in one document.

Laura is telling us here that a constitution is a little like a rule book for a country.

It explains how government works, what each party is responsible for, and what rights and freedoms people have.

So as we've said, the UK doesn't have this written down in one place.

It's actually made up of lots and lots of separate laws, courts decisions, traditions, and lots of historical documents.

It's evolved over many, many centuries and it can be changed for future and having it in different documents makes it much more flexible for change in the future, to adapt and to change as the country changes itself.

Another quick check for understanding then.

So Jun is explaining what the role of the Monarch is.

Is he correct and if not, why not? So Jun says, "The monarch of the UK can bring in laws and chooses the Prime Minister." Is this true? Is he correct? Well, if not, why not? I'll give you a few seconds to think about it.

Okay, let's have a look then.

So Jun is not right.

So yes, the Monarch will grant Royal approval to the laws and will appoint the Prime Minister.

This is actually ceremonial now, so it's done just as a tradition rather than it being their influence.

So they can't choose the Prime Minister, that's the leader of the main political party in Parliament, but they will appoint them as a matter of tradition.

They can't make the laws, but they have to give their approval as a matter of tradition rather than influence.

Well done if you understood the differences there.

We're onto task A now, so this is your chance to fill in the table by adding important information about each part of the UK political system.

So we've got six different parts here.

So we've got about the head of state, head of government, the legislative branch, branches of power, constitution type and the cabinet.

So to fill in this table, by thinking very carefully about these six different things within the UK political system.

What's really helpful now is for you to pause the video to give yourself the time to do this task and then we'll come back together and look at some possible answers.

Okay, let's go through some of these answers then.

So your answer should look something like this.

So the head of state is the Monarch and that currently is King Charles III.

The head of government is the Prime Minister and that's the leader of the executive branch.

It's the largest party in Parliament.

The legislative branch is made up of the House of Commons, the House of Lords and the monarchy.

But the monarchy remember is ceremonial and on traditional only now rather than having an influence or any authority.

The branches of power, there are three.

We've got Parliament, which is the legislative branch.

We've got the government, which is the executive branch, and we've got the judiciary, which is the judicial legal branch.

And remember that all important thing that Parliament is sovereign.

The Constitution type is uncodified.

It's not written down in one document, it's written in many documents.

And the cabinet is chosen by the Prime Minister, the cabinet must be, as we've said, be a member of the House of Commons or the House of Lords.

So that shows that really important link between the Parliament branch, the legislative branch, and the executive branch where the cabinet, the government has to be taken from the Parliament branch.

Really well done if you got these important bits of information.

It's time for our second learning cycle.

What is the US political system like? The United States of America, that's what we call the USA or the US is a large country divided into 50 states.

On this map here, we've got the USA highlighted in red and we've got the UK highlighted in blue.

So you can see the position in relation to each other.

The USA is bordered by Mexico in the south, Canada it in the north, and it has coastlines on the Pacific Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean, and it also has the Gulf of Mexico as well.

The United States government is what we call a federal system.

So this means that power over the whole country is shared between central and regional governments.

Now on that map there you can see the 50 states divided up and you can see their capitals as well.

And all of the power for that huge country is divided, as we say, between central and regional governments.

So there we have the USA flag and it's showing that we have federal rule, so that's laws that apply throughout the whole of the USA.

So they have authority on laws such as things like civil rights, immigration, if you go bankrupt, so you can't pay the bills that you have, for example, and tax laws and fraud as well.

So some criminal laws and some laws cover the whole of the US.

They also have the state laws as well.

So there are 50 states and in each of those 50 states there are their own systems of laws and courts and they have authorities on things like marriage, education.

They have different gun laws, also things like the death penalty, rules on health and rules on theft as well.

So slightly different rules there.

So there are federal rules and laws and there are state rules and laws as well.

So depending on which USA state you live in, your rules on marriage or your rules on gun laws might be different to those in a different part of the USA.

There are also local laws and rules as well.

So there are in the counties, in the cities, in the towns, they also have their own systems of working.

So they'll have authority on local matters.

So things like parking, housing, building, regulations, things like smoking rules as well, and sanitation.

So taking away waste and so on.

So the whole of the power across the USA is split between federal, state and local laws and rules.

A quick check for understanding then, can you match the description to its correct terms? So here we have A, its own systems of laws and courts.

B, laws apply throughout the USA and C, authority on matters such as parking, housing and building regulations.

And the ones you have to match, these two are federal, local or state.

So which description matches which term? I'll give you a few seconds to think about it.

Okay, so A is the state.

Yep, it describes the state laws.

B is federal because that applies to the whole of the USA.

And so C is local.

So that's local matters such as parking, housing, building regulations.

Well done if you've got that one.

Now, just like the United Kingdom, the USA also has separation of powers.

They too have a head of state at the top.

Well, theirs isn't the monarch.

Let's look a little bit more closely.

So one of the branches is Congress and that's the legislative branch.

So just like the UK, that's the branch that's responsible for making laws, approving budgets and representing the interests of the people who live in that country.

Another of the branches is the government branch, that's the executive branch and that's responsible for enforcing and carrying out the laws that are made, managing national affairs and directing things like foreign policy.

So being the representative of the USA to the world stage as well.

And the third branch is the judiciary and that's the judicial branch, responsible for courts, the justice and the legal side.

Now judges in the USA can declare a law that is made by Congress as unconstitutional.

So in other words, they don't feel like it sticks to the USA constitution and they can actually decide not to apply it.

They have to have very good reason for doing so, but they can choose not to apply it.

These are the two branches we are looking at today.

That's the legislative branch of Congress and the executive branch of government.

Now Congress, as we've said, is the legislative branch of the USA and it has the authority to make and change laws.

It meets in the US Capitol building in Washington DC and there's an image of it at the side.

Congress is made up of two parts.

It has the House of Representatives, which is known as the lower house.

And then we have the Senate, which is known as the upper house.

And Jacob here is telling us that both parts of Congress debate and vote on the bills, so the bills of the proposed laws.

If they agree, they then send that bill over to the president and then that president will then sign it into law.

Responsibilities of the Congress include things like debating and passing laws.

Scrutinising, so that's checking up on the executive branch and the work of the president.

Is also about representing the citizens of the USA, perhaps the most important job that they do.

And also they have the power to declare war as well.

They confirm appointments like judges and cabinet members.

They don't appoint those judges and cabinet members, but they confirm those appointments, so giving kind of their seal of approval.

And they can also impeach government officials.

So if a government official is accused of doing wrong, they can accuse them officially of doing that and then they can take them to trial.

Laura says here that unlike the UK, however, if a judge sees a new law that the Congress passes as unconstitutional, they don't have to apply it.

And as I said before, they have to have very good reason for not doing so, but they don't have to apply it if they believe it goes against the USA constitution.

So this here is the House of Representatives, and in that place there are 435 directly elected representatives.

So that means they're chosen directly by the citizens of the USA.

Now, the number of representatives that each state has is dependent on how many people they have in their population.

So for example, California, one of the biggest states has 52 representatives who sits in the House of Representatives.

Whereas Illinois, the smallest state has 17 representatives.

Now, if somebody is chosen to be a representative, if they are elected, they serve a two-year term.

So every two years, all 435 seats are up for election, they're up for somebody to take those positions as new representatives.

And once they're in power, once they're into those seats, there's no limit to how many terms they can serve.

So if they keep getting elected by the citizens, they can stay in the House of Representatives as long as they like.

This picture here is the Senate.

Now the Senate is made up of again, directly elected people and there are a hundred of them.

Within the system, the people are called the senators when they are elected and each state has two senators.

So this time it's different to the House of Representatives where it's dependent on the population.

In the Senate, it's two senators per state no matter how big the state is.

Now, with this, elections happen every six years, but it's not all the same time.

So you don't have all a hundred being elected every six years.

It's about one-third of the Senate elected every two years.

So every two years, one chunk will be reelected and then the next two years, there'll be another chunk and so on.

And so it kind of rotates around like that.

Again, just as the House of Representatives, there is no limit.

It's the same for a senator as well.

As long as they keep getting elected, as long as they stay in their office position and they continue to be reelected, they can stay in that senator position as long as they're elected.

Another quick check for understanding then.

Can you choose the correct options to complete each sentence? I'll read it to you first.

There are 200 or 435 representatives who serve two or six year terms. There is no or a limit to how many terms they can serve.

And the second one, each state has two or six senators who serve two or six year terms. There is no / a limit to how many terms they can serve.

I'll give you a few seconds to think about this.

Okay, let's go through the first one then.

So there are 435 representatives who serve two-year terms. There is no limit to how many terms they can serve.

And the second one, each state has two senators who serve six-year terms. There is no limit to how many terms they can serve.

Well done for getting those ones.

Now in the United Kingdom, the head of state is the monarch, isn't it? But in the USA, it's the president who is the head of state.

Now, in this role, the president represents the country in ceremonial roles and also internationally as well.

President is also head of the executive governments, and that means that they're responsible for en enforcing the laws, directing foreign policy, leading the military, appointing key government officials like judges or cabinet members.

And they also have what we call a veto.

So they have the authority to veto a law.

So if Congress want to sign in a law and everybody agrees there, it moves over to the president for them to sign it.

However, if they don't agree with that law, they can veto it and say, no, I don't agree.

I'm not signing it into law.

So it's quite an important and crucial role that they have there.

The president of the United States is elected indirectly through something that they call the electoral college.

Now, what happens with that is that every state has a set number of electors.

Now there are 538 in total.

And again, like with the House of Representatives, it's based on the population.

So Washington state is slightly smaller and it has 12 electors, whereas the largest state of Texas has got 40.

Citizens will vote for their preferred presidential candidates.

So they'll choose candidate A or candidate B.

Whichever candidate gets the most votes, they win all of the state's electors.

So if there's a hundred people voting and one gets 51 votes and one gets 49 votes, the person who wins those 51 votes would win all of the state's electors.

The only states that do this differently are Maine and Nebraska where they share out their electors proportionally.

So if you've had just under half voting for one and just over half, then they would split the electors proportionally to match those percentages.

The final stage of this then is that the electors do the official choosing of the presidents and the vice president.

So once the electors know who their electorate has chosen, they will vote depending on that.

So if a state has mainly chosen candidate A, then the electors will officially select candidate A.

Again, it's a little bit different in Maine and Nebraska where they have that precautional representation.

So they choose it slightly differently.

For the other 48 states, it's the winner takes all.

Now to win, a candidate needs to get 270 electoral votes to win the presidency.

Now this system of the electoral college has been in place since 1787.

So a really, really long time now.

But some people don't think that this system is completely fair because it can result in a candidate winning the presidency when they didn't actually get more votes from the citizens than the other candidate.

For example, you could have a candidate winning millions of votes in one state, but in a very small state, another candidate might win that by only getting half a million votes, for example.

So when you add up all the individual votes for every citizen across the whole of the USA, you might end up with a candidate winning the most votes, but still not winning the presidency because they didn't win the individual states, for example.

Presidential elections can only happen every four years, and that is a rule it it can't happen before then, it can't happen after that, it is every four years.

If something happens to the sitting president, so for example, they die or they resign, or they're removed from office before their term ends, generally, the vice president will take over rather than an election being called.

Here on the screen, you can see the president's formal residence, which is called the White House in Washington DC.

Presidents can serve a maximum of two four-year terms. So they could have those two four years together.

So for example, Barack Obama did four years and four years right next to each other.

So an eight-year stretch or it could have a gap in between.

So you could have four years and then a gap, and then another four years.

Donald Trump is an example of a person who's done that.

The last presidential election was November 2024, which means the next one is scheduled to be November 2028.

A quick check for understanding then.

The US president is elected directly by the citizens of the US.

Is that true or false? Take a few seconds to think.

Okay, is it true or false? It is false.

So why? Why is it false? Take a few more seconds.

Okay, so it's false because the president is elected indirectly via the electoral college.

So citizens vote for their chosen presidential candidate and then based on what state decides, it's the electors that then make that final decision as to who becomes president.

Well done if you got that one.

Now, another role of the president is to choose the cabinet and the cabinet is made up of the president's top advisors.

President then leads this cabinet in making the decisions and setting policies for the whole of the country.

And in the USA at the moment, there are around 25 cabinet members.

Here's a picture of President Obama leading the cabinet in 2009.

Now a big difference between the UK and the US is that cabinet members are not allowed to be part of the Congress.

They can't be part of that legislative branch.

In the US, it has to be completely separate.

There is no fixed term for cabinet members.

So they can be replaced or they can be removed at any time.

If the president changes, it's very likely that a person on the cabinet will lose that position because the president will typically appoint their own cabinet members.

But as long as the president allows 'em to stay in that place, they can stay on the cabinets as long as they are permitted.

The United States has what we call a codified constitution, which means it's written down all in one document.

Here on the screen you can see page one of the first ever Constitution of the United States.

And that was written in 1787 and it became law in 1789.

Now the constitution can be amended.

It has lots of things called amendments over the time, but the process to do this is very complicated.

There have been 27 amendments made so far, and some of the most famous ones include the Bill of Rights.

There are amendments that ended slavery and also ones that gave women the right to vote.

A quick check for understanding things.

So in one sentence, can you sum up what the word codified means when considering the US Constitution? Take a few seconds to think.

Okay, so quick summary could be a codified constitution means the laws and rules of the country are all written down in one document.

Very well done if you've got that one.

So we're onto task B already.

So what you're going to do for this is sort the statements into the Venn diagram according to if they apply to the UK, the US, or both.

Let's have a look at these statements then.

So number one, the head of state is the monarch.

Two, there are three branches of power.

Three, the government must be chosen from the legislative branch.

Four, the government must not be a part of the legislative branch.

Five, the cabinet is chosen by the leader of government.

Six, the constitution is codified.

Seven, head of government is indirectly elected by citizens.

Eight, the constitution is uncodified.

Nine, the head of government is also the head of state and 10, the legislative branch is sovereign.

Okay, so sort those 10 statements out according to if they apply to the UK, the US, or if it applies to both of those countries.

As ever, pause the video to give yourself the time to do that and then we'll come back and we'll look at the answers together.

Okay, let's go through these answers together then.

So here's a Venn diagram.

And to be correct, you should have sorted the statements like this.

So we've got the UK on the left, we've got the USA on the right.

Here we go.

So number one, the head of state is the monarch would be under the UK.

Two, there are three branches of power, that is both the countries.

Number three, the government must be chosen from the legislative branch, that is the UK.

Yes, because anybody who sits on the cabinet must be a part of Parliament.

Number four, the government must not be a part of the legislative branch.

Well, that's the USA, isn't it? They can't be part of congress.

Number five, the cabinet is chosen by the leader of government.

That is both.

Yeah, so the prime Minister chooses the cabinet and the president chooses the cabinet.

Number six, the constitution is codified.

That is the USA.

Number seven, the head of government is indirectly elected by citizens.

That is both of them, yes.

So the UK don't directly choose the Prime Minister, it just happens to be the leader of the party with most seats in Parliament.

And the USA, the citizens choose the presidential candidate, but ultimately is elected by the electors of the state.

Number eight, the is uncodified, that is the UK 'cause it's written down in many documents.

Number nine, the head of government is also the head of state that is in the USA because that's the president.

And finally, number 10, the legislative branch is sovereign.

So that means the laws cannot be challenged.

Parliament is sovereign, so that is the UK, number 10.

Really well done if you've got all 10 statements in the correct places.

Fantastic job.

Let's summarise our lesson, which is being called, what are the differences between the UK and the US political systems? The UK is a unitary state with three branches of power.

There's Parliament, the legislative branch, government executive branch, and the judiciary, the judicial branch.

Parliament is sovereign.

Citizens vote representatives into Parliament and the leader of the political party that wins the most seats in a general election usually becomes the PM.

The PM serves as the head of the UK government and selects the cabinet, which must be made up of members of the legislative branch.

The US is a federal state with three branches of power: there's Congress, the legislative branch, government, the executive branch, and the judiciary, the judicial branch.

Citizens vote representatives to Congress and for electors who choose the president.

President is both the head of the US government and the head of state.

The cabinet is chosen by the president and its members cannot be part of the legislative branch.

Really, really well done on that lesson today.

There has been a lot of content to take in.

So fantastic if you have kept up and you have understood this.

I hope to see you again soon.