Lesson video

Hello, my name's Mrs. Tomassi, and I'm gonna be working with you on your citizenship lesson today.

Hopefully you've got everything you need, and you're all good to go.

If that's the case, then we will get going.

Today's lesson title is "What are the key differences between the Westminster Parliament and the US Congress?" Now this forms part of the unit called, "How do others govern." So by the end of the lesson today, hopefully you'll be able to explain the key differences between the UK Parliament and the US Congress.

We're gonna have some keywords that are gonna pop up in the lesson today.

Now, if you ever need to, you'll see them in bold, and you can refer back to them here.

So the three keywords are, bicameral, which means two chambers.

So in a bicameral parliament, there are two separate groups that must both agree on changes to laws.

Example, UK Parliament is bicameral as it has two chambers, the House of Commons and the House of Lords.

Legislative, that is the law making body of state.

So example, Parliament in the UK.

And then third keyword is, executive, the branch of government that is responsible for putting laws or decisions into effect.

We will make a start with the first learning cycle, which is how do the UK and US political systems compare? So, to start with, actually it's quite good to know what a political system is.

So it's a set of processes and structures that work together to make political decisions and manage a country's government.

Now, there are lots of different types of political systems or forms of government.

Do you know any already? So these might ring some bells if you've heard of authoritarian states, democracies, monarchies, totalitarian states.

Now, obviously today we're looking at the UK and US.

Do you know what type of political system they have? Both are the same, and they are both a type of democracy, which is called representative democracy.

The reason it's called representative democracy is because citizens choose a representative to represent them and make important decisions on their behalf.

Do you know who the UK chooses to represent them? So in the UK, the citizens get to vote for their member of parliament, which is the MP, and that's the person that represents them.

So Alex is saying here, "As the UK and US are both representative democracies, does that mean they're run in the same way?" Now Jacob says, "Actually not quite, there are lots of differences in the political systems." And this is what we're gonna look at in today's lesson.

We will start at the beginning basically, and we will look at the buildings.

So in the UK, I've kind of mentioned it already, so hopefully you know what the building is.

The UK has the UK Parliament, which is located in the Palace of Westminster in London.

There's a little visual there of what it looks like.

Hopefully you've seen this one before.

A little bit more tricky, do you know what the building in the US is? In the US it's Congress, which is located in the US Capitol in Washington, D.

C.

And again, you've got an image of it there.

You might recognise this building.

So both have a bicameral political system.

Where does the word bicameral derive from? So if we take there, we've got bi, which means two.

And it was a keyword I went through at the start, so hopefully you might have an idea that cameral is chamber, and it means two chambers.

And also at the start I mentioned the UK's two chambers.

So can you remember them? We've got the House of Commons and the House of Lords.

Now, when we talk about the chambers, we're talking about parliamentary chambers and this is where the houses that make and pass the laws.

So they're part of the legislative branch.

As I've just gone through, we've gone through the ones in the UK.

So we've got the House of Commons and the House of Lords, and that's part of the UK Parliament.

There is a third part to UK Parliament.

Do you know what that is? So that's the Monarch.

We won't mention them so much in this lesson because we are looking at how the House of Commons and the House of Lords pass legislation.

But the difference is, at the end you do have the Royal Ascent, which is signed off by the Monarch.

Other than that, the Monarch doesn't play much of a role in creating the laws, so we won't mention them as much in this lesson.

We then move over to the US.

Now the US we've got Congress, which is made up of the House of Representatives and the Senate.

And we'll find out more about them in the lesson, if you don't already know about them.

So true false.

Congress is made up of the House of Representative, and the House of Lords.

That is false.

Why is that false? Congress is made of the House of Representatives and the Senate.

The House of Lords is a chamber in the UK.

So, in case you don't know what it looks like, here is an image of the House of Commons, and here is the House of Representatives chamber in the US.

Just starting having a look at both them images, can you see any differences? Obviously yes, one has people in and one doesn't, but the idea is, they both would have people in.

Any other differences like the layout and how it's set up.

So if you notice there, obviously the House of Commons are facing in, whereas the House of Representatives all sit around and they're facing the front.

A bit more like if you've seen the Welsh Parliament of Senedd that's got a similar layout.

So the elected chambers are similar and they have elected members that discuss political issues and they debate and vote on proposals for new laws, or changes to existing ones.

So both the House of Commons in the UK and the House of Representatives in the US are doing a similar job there.

They're both proposing new laws and changes to existing ones.

There are a number of different representatives in each chamber.

So to give you an example here, the UK, the representatives, we have 650 MP's from each constituency.

And the House of Lords has approximately 800 peers.

We then have the US, which has the House of Representatives, which has 435 members from 50 states.

And the Senate, which has a hundred with two members from each state.

Now also taking into account the size difference of the UK and US, you can have a think whether or not is that a good thing that they have more or less people, what do you think is better? And also, I mentioned earlier that the House of Commons and House of Representatives are both elected.

However, actually the House of Lords isn't.

And Jacob here says, "There are three ways to become a member of the House of Lords.

They're to be appointed, to inherit or as a bishop." So they aren't elected in by the citizens.

In the UK the two chambers are different.

So we've got the House of Commons that holds more legislative power, that's the main decision making body in Parliament.

We then have the House of Lords, which is more of a revising chamber.

So it's this idea that they scrutinise and they question and suggest amendments to legislation rather than creating new laws themselves.

However, in the US, both chambers are elected and they both have the powers to include lawmaking, approving budgets, and checking the president.

Give you an example there, that's the Senate.

So if you're thinking about how the House of Representatives looks in that chamber, they actually look quite similar.

They both have that semicircle layout, and they're all facing in.

If you take some time now, can you match the photo of the chamber to its correct name? Did you manage to work out that A is the House of Representatives, B is the Senate, and C is the House of Commons.

So that are the chambers and the buildings, now we're gonna have a look at elections.

Now elections run at different times for both countries.

So again, we'll have a look at it.

But in the UK you've got the House of Commons that's elected at least every five years with a general election.

The Prime Minister can call an election early, but it does have to happen at least every five years.

You've then got the House of Lords, which we saw is unelected.

Can you remember the three ways that you become a member of House of Lords? So if you're appointed, inherited, or as a bishop.

The US is a little bit different and their House of Representatives are elected every two years, and the Senate for the States is elected every six years.

Jacob says here, "In the US the president is also elected every four years," because their president is elected separately.

And that leads us onto what we're gonna talk about here.

So in the UK, the Head of State and government are separate.

The Head of State is the Monarch, and the head of government is the Prime Minister.

Whereas in the US, the president is both Head of State and the head of government and resides in the White House.

Check for understanding now, change only one word to make Sofia's statement correct.

In the US the Monarch is both Head of State, and head of government.

Did you manage to work out that the incorrect word is Monarch and it should be President.

So that moves us onto task A, which is to complete the table with the correct information.

So you've got House of Commons, House of Lords, House of Representatives and the Senate.

Can you work out what they do, how they get their job, the number of representatives, and how long they serve? Obviously take some time to go through it and then when you're ready, unpause and we can feed back together.

How did you get with that task? Hopefully you managed to work out, the House of Commons makes laws and they're elected.

There are 650 MPs, one per constituency, and they run for at least every five years.

The House of Lords makes laws and scrutinises.

They're appointed, hereditary or bishops.

They're non-elected.

They're not elected.

There are 800 peers and they serve for a lifetime.

And the House of Representatives makes laws, are elected, there are 435 representing states and they serve for two years.

And then the Senate makes laws, are elected, there are 100, two per state and they've serve for six years.

So that closed off how they compare, now we're specifically gonna look at how the separation of powers differ.

Divided among three branches to prevent any one personal group holding all the power.

The branches are legislative, executive and judiciary.

Remember, legislative and executive are keywords.

So if you need to go over 'em, you'll find them at the start, 'cause we are gonna talk about them a lot now.

The reason that we have this separation of powers for these three branches is because it allows scrutiny.

When we say scrutiny, it means that we can really check and question what they are doing.

It allows for accountability.

So people are going, actually, that was you and you need to own that.

And then it allows for checks and balances, so we can check what each one is doing to ensure there's not too much power.

So we'll go through some of that now.

So in the UK, the legislative branch, do you remember what that is? So that's the law making.

It consists of the House of Commons, the House of Lords, and the Monarch, like we mentioned earlier.

So the House of Commons hold more legislative power, while the House of Lords revises and scrutinises legislation, and the Monarchs role is mostly ceremonial with the Royal ascent and signing off on the bills.

Now the House of Commons is the one that creates and approves laws and taxes, while holding the government, the executive accountable.

And an important thing to know is the House of Lords can only delay a bill by up to a year.

So this is where we were saying, there's a little bit of a difference between the US where both chambers hold the same power in terms of creating new bills and laws.

So the US, the legislative, that's the law making branch, consists of Congress and the two chambers.

the House of Representatives, do you remember the next one? It's the Senate.

Now, US bills must pass through both the House of Representatives and the Senates, and both houses hold similar power.

However, only the House of Representatives can introduce bills that relate to taxation and government spending.

The Senate can't do that.

So the President is the executive and they can Veto bills.

Now what that means is that the President has the power to stop a bill coming through.

But if we are going back to this separation of powers, again to ensure that the President doesn't have too much power, Congress can override the Veto if two thirds majority.

So if there's at least like 66% of members saying actually no it needs to go through, it can still go through.

So this shows again that back and forth of the separation of powers, and checking each other and balancing everything out.

Laura says here, "Veto is a right to reject the proposed law." Jun says, "I know that the Monarch signs off bills in the UK, What happens in the US?" That's a really good question.

So Sofia says, "In the US the president, who is part of the executive, will sign off on bills.

So that's where you saw then that the president can then Veto bills, but they can't just veto it without being checked again by Congress who will go back and need the two thirds majority.

So check for understanding.

So we've gone through a lot of information there.

Fill in the blanks with the correct words.

In the, bills can be delayed up to a year by the House of, whose role it is to revise and scrutinise legislation.

In the, bills must be passed through both the House of, and the Senate.

See if you can work out what goes in each blank.

Did you work it out? So the first one is the UK, and it's the House of Lords.

The second is the US and that's the House of Representatives.

Hopefully, did you manage to get them the right way round? If you did, brilliant.

Well done.

So we will move on, and we are now gonna look at the executive branch.

Can you remember what that is? So the executive in the UK is the government which is formed by the political party that wins the most seats in an election, and has the authority to govern the country.

Now what the government is responsible for is running the country and they're led by the Prime Minister.

It's important to note, so obviously the US have a president that's elected, the UK citizens do not directly elect the Prime Minister.

The Prime Minister would be the leader of the political party that is in charge.

Some key responsibilities of the executive branch in the UK is things like setting taxes, deciding how to allocate public spending, and determining how the public services, so things like education, how they are run.

And they will have different departments and ministers that will decide this.

Now it's a bit different in the US because the executive branch in the US enforces laws and that is led by the president.

The president is elected every four years and it also includes the vice president and the cabinet.

Now the cabinet might sound familiar because the UK does have a cabinet as well.

So when I was talking about the ministers and the departments, that's similar to the US who also have department heads and advisors who help the president.

Now their key responsibilities though in the US is to implement federal laws, direct foreign policy, oversee national defence, management government agencies.

Like we said earlier, the president has the power to sign or Veto legislation.

They can also appoint federal officials.

So when we are thinking about separation of powers, think about whether that is completely independent or not.

And then as well, the president acts as Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces.

Now we're gonna move on to the judiciary branch.

So both the UK and the US, the judiciary operates independently from the executive and legislative branches, and they perform checks and balances.

However, slight difference.

In the UK the Supreme Court has the power to decide if a law goes against human rights, but it cannot change or overturn laws made by Parliament.

In the US, the Supreme Court's the highest court and can strike down laws that are deemed as unconstitutional.

So that's a bit of a difference there, they both have Supreme Courts, but the US Supreme Court can strike down laws, the UK one can't.

Now also a little bit different in the US is that the president appoints the Supreme Court justices.

So actually, does the balance of powers as well? Because the president has a say in ho the Supreme Court justices are.

That doesn't happen in the UK.

Again, the Supreme Court is now completely independent.

Didn't used to be, but it is now.

So which of the following are correct? A, only the UK has a Supreme Court.

B, only the US has a Supreme Court.

C, both the UK and US have a Supreme Court, or D, neither the UK or US have a Supreme Court.

It is C.

Obviously remembering, yes, they both have Supreme Courts, but there's still some differences there in how the Supreme Court runs.

So moving on to task B, we've now got Izzy here that says, "Both the UK and US have executive, judiciary and legislative branches, therefore they run in the same way." Explain why Izzy's statement is incorrect, demonstrating the differences for each branch.

So can you remember how each branch runs in each country? Take some time, and then obviously you can prepare this in however, whatever format you like, and then when you're ready, unpause it and we can go through the feedback.

How did you get on with that? Now hopefully you managed to work out some of the differences between the branches.

Your answer could look like this.

So Izzy's incorrect, because in the UK the executive is part of Parliament, legislative branch.

However, in the US the executive is a president who' elected separately and decides on their own cabinet.

The legislative branches are different because in the US both chambers are elected and have similar power and responsibilities.

Whereas in the UK, the House of Commons is the elected chamber and the House of Lords acts as a scrutinising and revising chamber.

The judiciary branches both have Supreme Courts, however, the US Supreme Court has the power to strike down laws, and the UK Supreme Court cannot overturn laws from Parliament.

Did you manage to get them once? You might have thought of something different, which is perfectly fine as well.

But whatever answers you've got, hopefully you've recognised that there is a difference in the separation of powers between the countries.

Which brings us onto the summary of today.

So we are coming to the end now, and to summarise, the UK Parliament is located in the Palace of Westminster London.

The US Congress is located in Washington D.

C.

They both have bicameral political systems, however, key differences include the election terms, the use of the two chambers, and the separation of powers.

For example, in the UK the executive is within the legislative branch, whereas in the US the executive is elected separately to the legislature.

The UK parliament passed laws and they are signed off by the monarch.

In the US, laws are signed off by the president.

Hopefully that all made sense to you and you've got a much better idea now of the differences between the two, which brings us to a close of this lesson.

Thank you so much for working with me today and enjoy the rest of your day.