Legislature of the United Kingdom

Parliament is the legislative organ and is constitutionally composed of the Monarch, the House of Lords, and the House of Commons. The Queen in Parliament represents the supreme authority within the United Kingdom.

The Parliament at Westminster legislates for the United Kingdom, for any one of the constituent countries, or for any combination of them.

The Parliament Act, 1911 provides that life of one Parliament may not exceed five years.

Parliament consists of two Houses: the House of Lords and the House of Commons.

The House of Lords is for the most part still a hereditary body. It consists of the Lords Temporal and the Lords Spiritual. The house of Lords is presided over by the Lord Chancellor.

The House of Commons is an elected and representative body, members (at present 650) are elected by almost universal adult suffrage to represent constituencies in England (523), Scotland (72), Wales (38) and Northern Ireland (17).

The Speaker of the House of Commons is elected by the members from the members to preside over the House immediately after each new Parliament is formed.

Government of the United Kingdom

The government consists of the ministers appointed by the Crown on the recommendation of the Prime Minister, who is appointed directly by the Crown and is the leader of the political party which has a majority of seats in the House of Commons. The office of Prime Minister dates from the 18th century and is the subject of a number of constitutional conventions.

The Prime Minister is the head of the government and presides over meetings of the Cabinet; by convention he is always a Member of the House of Commons. He consults and advises the Monarch on government business, supervises and coordinates the work of the various ministries and departments and is the principal spokesman for the government in the House of Commons.

The Cabinet is the nucleus of government, its members consist of a small group of the most important ministers who are selected by the Prime Minister.

Federal Government of the USA

The federal government of the United State is divided into three main branches: the legislative, the executive and the judicial.

The legislative branch of the government is the Congress. The function of the legislative branch of the government is to make laws and to finance the operation of the government through gathering taxes and appropriating money requested by the executive branch of the government.

The executive branch which includes the President, Vice-President and the President’s Cabinet, is responsible for administering and executing the laws.

The judicial branch of the federal government consists of the Supreme Court of the United States and the system of federal courts. It has the responsibility of judging the constitutionality of acts of law.

The Congress of the U.S.A.

The Congress of the U.S.A. is composed of the Senate and the House of Representatives.

The business of Congress is to make laws. The U.S. Constitution also gives Congress the power to:

raise money¹, by means of taxes of borrowing²; make rules for trade with foreign countries and between states; organize the Armed Forces; declare war.

The U.S. Senate has some special powers. It must approve by majority vote the President’s appointment of such high officials as ambassadors, Cabinet members, and federal judges. The Senate must also approve, by a two-thirds vote, any treaty between the U.S. and a foreign country before the treaty can become a law.

The U.S. House of Representatives has a special power of its own. Only a member of the House can introduce a bill to raise money, says the Constitution.

¹добывать деньги

²заимствование

The US President

The president of the United States is chosen in a national election for a four-year term of office, and may be re-elected for a second term. He must be a native – born citizen at least 35 years old. His salary¹ is $ 200,000 a year and he also gets an extra $ 50,000 for expenses²; but he must pay a tax on the whole amount³. He receives up to $ 100,000 tax-free for travel and $ 20,000 for offical entertainment and is provided with a home and extensive⁴ office space at the White House.

As head of the Executive Branch, the President must perform the government programmes adopted by Congress. He recommends programmes and laws to Congress and requests⁵ money for federal government operations. The President appoints federal judges, ambassadors and hundreds of government officials, and assigns duties to the elected Vice President.