Essay Sample on US & UK: Commonalities Despite Political Differences

Introduction

The United States of America and the United Kingdom have a long-standing history that makes them share some commonalities. They have different political systems due to the fact that the UK is headed by a monarch. Besides that, their democratic political system has virtually the same function. They also share some political ideologies and policies on immigration. The recent election of a racially biased president in the United States coincides with the exit of the United Kingdom from the European Union. Analysis might show a shared valued system in the two regions. This paper will compare the political regime, political conflict and competition, society, political economy, and current foreign policy issues facing the United States and the United Kingdom.

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Political Conflict and Competition

In the United States, the president holds both the positions of head of state and head of government. These positions are held separately in the United Kingdom. The Queen holds the position of head of state while the prime minister is the head of government (Goodwin and Ford 19). The Queen's duties are ceremonial where she would deliver speeches to the British public occasionally or order the lowering of the Union Jack. The prime minister is responsible for government management in the position as head of government. The President of the United States shoulders the responsibility held by the two leaders in the United Kingdom.

The United States has a constitution while there is no formal written constitution in the United Kingdom. The US constitution was penned in 1787 and then it was ratified in 1790 (O'Sullivan 294), It is the United States' supreme law. The UK has laws and regulations that govern the actions of the population and government operations that are equivalent to the US constitution. These governing laws and regulations are known through historical precedent and traditions save for the Parliamentary Act of 1911 that is a written statutory act.

America has judicial and executive branches of government that operate independently from Congress, the legislative branch. Congress includes the House of Representatives and the Senate whose mandate is outlined in the constitution (Mader, Scotto and Reifler 8). The three branches of the US government work independently but function to keep each other in check. In contrast, the UK has a parliament with a house of commons and a house of lords. Constituents vote for representatives to the house of commons. The Queen appoints the prime minister from the dominant party in the House of Commons (Goodwin and Ford 20). The House of Lords reviews and amend bills that keep the operations of the House of Commons in check, and they constitute unelected officials.

The United Kingdom has multiple political parties compared to the two major political parties in the United States. The US holds presidential elections every four years, two years for congress, and every six years for the senate (O'Sullivan 298). Parliamentary elections are held every five years in the UK, and the House of Commons can pass a vote of no confidence to trigger another election.

Society

Both the US and the UK align themselves with political parties whose ideologies define the citizens' national identities. People identify themselves in factions based on the attitudes of the right-wing, center, or left-wing (Mader, Scotto, and Reifler 7). Nonetheless, the right-wing carries more values of national identity than the left-wing in both regions. The political right represents the national values in both countries. The other political regimes have core values that change over time. The politically involved citizens of both countries believe that their respective country is just and a good force in the world.

The ethnic identity in the United States can be analyzed from the perspective of race relations. The country boasts its accommodative nature through its description as the land of opportunities where everyone has an equal chance to succeed. However, there have been race tensions over the years based on the rights to call oneself American. Immigrants have suffered due to the policies that have emerged to protect the country's national identity ((Mader, Scotto, and Reifler 2). The UK also share the same patterns of acceptance and social identification on racial lines. The two regions have most recently made drastic decisions based on their beliefs on ethnic and national identity. The UK voted themselves out of the EU with the reason to protect their national values and economy (Goodwin and Ford 18). America too voted in a president based on the ideologies of "making America great again" and creating a border wall. The two countries share the same political ideologies where they believe in the need for segregation from other ethnicities, particularly those of color.

Political Economy

Political economy can be described as the study of the creation of products and trade and their relations to the policies customs and government. It may also be defined as an integrative branch of social sciences that focus on an alliance among individuals and the government. In both the US and the UK, there are several safety and environmental regulations, but the US rules tend to be less struck as compared to the UK which is due to the subject of the rules of the European Union. The US rules are set at the state level, while the UK is subject to rules by the European Union (Hooghe and Marks 9). The UK offers a larger market place to sell and buy products because of the European Union, being able to trade in any country within the European union with being charged, this compares to the US is with a smaller market as compared to the UK. In the US, with regards to tax bills, the rates are significantly low as compared to the UK this is because in the UK human services are largely covered by national services financed through taxes. In the United States, the president holds both the positions of head of state and head of government. These positions are held separately in the United Kingdom. The Queen holds the head of state while the prime minister is the head of government. In the UK agriculture is intensive, highly industrialized and effective as per the European standards (O'Sullivan 309). The US is majority technological, especially in computers, pharmaceuticals, medical and aerospace and military equipment.

Approach to Current Foreign Policy Issue

The US government has initiated several programs to deal with immigration to and out of the country. The programmed being family-based immigration where an individual is allowed to have a green card if they already have a spouse, child or sibling or parent living in the US, called chain migration (Waters 13). The administration is to only consider the immediate family only to the individual. The US government also implemented refugee admissions, which has basically been lowered by the US government by freezing admissions due to a rise in security concerns. The other policy for immigration implemented is employment-based program. This is where the green card is offered to foreign workers and their families but specified for certain high skilled individuals such as directors and professors, this system has eliminated the investor immigrant. Diversity visas program was also used by the US but the current administration seeks to eliminate the program which focuses on consideration of immigrants from countries which are least represented. H-1B visas program is men for highly skilled foreign workers (O'Sullivan 298). It is the biggest temporary employment visa program.

The UK has also implemented several immigration policies programed such as Startup and innovator program, whereby applicants are required to be endorsed by trusted organizations in the UK and is to stay in regular contact with the organization. With reference Investor visa program, the UK govt has lengthened the period which funds must be held before applying from 90 days to 2 years (Hooghe and Marks 17). Exceptional talent policy fall for those individuals are recognized as exceptionally talented leaders in the fields of sciences and humanities, engineering and medicine. The student visa program is applicable when students.

Conclusion

In conclusion, America compares in many ways to Britain. Their values and political systems vary on few statuses but fundamentally operate under the same principles. The US has a constitution while the UK has both the Parliamentary Act and common law as equivalents. They compare the same on national values that are driven by their right-wing political parties. America might have borrowed some aspects of their systems from the British, and altered them to suit the political climate.

Works Cited

Goodwin, Matthew, and Robert Ford. "Britain After Brexit: A Nation Divided." Journal of Democracy 1 (2017): 17-30. Print.

Hooghe, Liesbet, and Gary Marks. "A post functionalist theory of European integration: From permissive consensus to constraining dissensus." British Journal of Political Science 39. 1 (2009): 1-23.

Mader, Matthias, Thomas J. Scotto, Jason Reifler. "How Political Are National Identities? A Comparison of the United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany in the 2010s." Research & Politics, 1. 3. (2018): 1-9.

O'Sullivan, Noel. "Conservatism." In: Freeden, M, Stears, M (eds) The Oxford Handbook of Political Ideologies. Oxford: Oxford University Press, (2013): 293-311.

Waters, Mary C. "Defining Difference: The Role of Immigrant Generation and Race in American and British Immigration Studies." Ethnic and Racial Studies 37, 1 (2014): 10-26.