Party Structure Of United States And Great Britain Essays

Party Structure Of United States And Great Britain Comparing the Party Structure of the United States and Great Britain When a decision on foreign policy has to be made, looking carefully about the nations' party is especially important. Not just on the basis of their clientele, their programmes and ideology but also on their structural characteristics. In this paper, I would like to focus on comparing the two super powers which are the United States and Great Britain. Both parties of the United States and Great Britain that have established themselves successfully within the party system , and which have managed to win seats at elections , possess three levels of organizational structure. First , they obviously have some sort of legislative structure ; indeed, this was the sole level of organizational structure which the earliest parties possessed. The parliamentary party will normally have a leader or chairman , some form of business manager or whip, and , if sufficiently large to warrant it, a pattern of commitees, many of which will be related to the policy sectors with which the legislature concerns itself. Second, parties normally have a national organization, with a head office and necessary staff, a national party leader ( who may or may not also be the leader of the parliamentary party), an executive committee to manage the party on a day-to-day basis, and a periodic party congress which generally is recognized as the sovereign authority of the party , at least in formal terms. Third, parties possess a local or constituency level of organization; the unit to which members are recruited . This is normally a geographic unit, such as town or a suburb. Te local party may be linked to the national party through intermediate levels of state parties in the USA, and area organizations in Britain. Patterns of organization at the level of the legislature are different in these countries . The congressional parties in the United States have strong legislative structures , consisting of elected leaders of each party in both House of Congress, whips to organize and coordinate party activity , and party meetings related to the very influential legislative and procedural committees of Congress. US government has a presidential and federal form. The structure of the American party is that of a loose federation of national and state agency. The strength and the primary legal control of the sysem lie in the fifty states , each possessing its own party government and its own electorate. Campaigns must be waged and won in enough individual state to capture the presidency by a majority vote of electoral college. In order to ensure controll of Congress, a sufficient number of votes mut be obtained within each state to elect a majority of the House of Representitives and the Senate. The parliamentary parties of the Great Britain, which are different from the presidential and federal parties in US, are led by the Prime Minister (the party in power) and the leader of the opposition for the chief opposition party. The structure of British parties is relatively simple in comparison with that of parties in the US. British parties are not called upon to cope with fifty states parties or to compete periodically in a vast nationwide election to select an executive like parties in the US. There are only three elective offices in the UK. The national office filled by popular vote is that of member of parliament; in local government, county and borough councilors are elected. There are fewer elections. The small size and pactness of the territory minimize functional and sectional political differences. Dicipline, relating both to issues and to the behavior of the party representitives, is more specially defined and enforced than it is in the US. The leader of the House of Commons act as business manager for the for the governing party, aided by the Chief Whip and assistant whips; the opposition parties also have their whips for coordination purposes . The Conservative back bench MPs have a party committee: the 1922 committee, to discuss policy and to act as a channel of collective communication to the government. The labor party meets as the 'parliamentary party' which, in opposition, elects a committee from which the Leader of the party chooses his policy spokesmen. The smaller