The Differences Between the UK and US Constitutions Essay -- Politics

The Differences Between the UK and US Constitutions The headspring invites an analysis of how the differences between the UK and the US constitutions establish the semi policy-making placements in both(prenominal) countries, and further whether at that place is distinction between the political systems. Initially I will define what a constitution and a political system are. Subsequently in the main body of the text I shall dissect the differences between the constitutions, and how they influence each separate political system. Loosely defined, a constitution creates institutions and should state any definite power, indicates the relationship between divergent state institutions, and how the constitution can be amended. In my essay I shall illustrate the differing state institutions in America and Britain, who has the power according to the constitution, and wherefore which state institutions wield the power and authority, and additionally if the d ifference in sleep of changing the constitution is responsible for a difference in political system. In my conclusion I shall assess whether my investigation is corresponding to the statement. Friedrich (1937) believed a constitution should be a system of effective regularised restraints on government action, and then should be a statement of individual rights.1 This leads to the question, should a constitution accept a Bill of Rights like the American constitutions amendments? In America there are freedoms in religion, speech and the press for example, yet Britain has no enforceable Bill of Rights in its constitution. There are essential rights and freedoms in the European Human Rights Act but this is at the h... ...rnment and Politics An Introduction (Hampshire Palgrave, 2001), p. 186. 2James Q. Wilson, American Government (Boston Houghton, 2000), 54. 3Simon Hix, Britain, the EU and the Euro, in Patrick Dunleavy, Andrew Gamble, Ian Holliday and Gi llian Peele, eds., Developments in British Politics, (Hampshire Macmillan Press Ltd, 2000), p.54. 4Wilson, American, 32. 5Vernon Bogdanor, Britain The political constitution, Vernon Bogdanor, ed., Constitutions in Democratic Politics (Aldershot Gower, 1988), 56. 6Hailsham cited in Bogdanor, Britain, 66. 7Richard Hodder-Williams cited in Joseph Hogan, The no-win presidential term and contemporary presidential-congressional relationships, in Robert Williams ed., Explaining American Politics issues and interpretations (London Routledge, 1990), p. 48.