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Comparative Politics Categorise
Target Level
C
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Rational
Cultural
Structural
Both lower chambers often tend to be far more adversarial than their upper counterparts, which tend to have a more (but not always) collegiate attitude to their business than the lower chambers.
Unlike the fully elected legislature of Congress, the unelected House of Lords can lead to members voting very differently from their elected counterparts in the House of Commons, given the relative and comparative freedom they have.
Factions in parties (along with caucuses in the USA) can often lead to votes against their own party given their strongly held beliefs, particularly in areas surrounding moral, social and, in some cases, economic reasons.
In both the UK and the USA, the legislative processes are very much set. These can often produce very different outcomes when factoring in other variables such as elections.
Both legislatures often serve as a starting block for political careers, as seen with UK politicians such as Cameron, Brown and Johnson and with US politicians such as Biden, Pelosi and Pence. Members' actions are often to further their own careers.
For different reasons, the actions of both MPs and congressmen/women can be explained in terms of what is best for their careers. For MPs this is most evident in party loyalty, while in Congress it is most evident in representing their constituents.
In both countries third-party politics is heavily limited and discouraged, leading to an adversarial two-party system dominating proceedings.
The way in which each legislature is structured affects the impact of how its work is scrutinised. In the UK the fusion of powers and the fact that the Conservatives have a large majority makes it difficult to effectively scrutinise policy.
In both Congress and Parliament, the actions of the key leaders are heavily influenced by pragmatic considerations potential impacts on their power base. Defeats would affect their positions politically, and this is often affects decisions.
There has been growing discontent over the perceived unrepresentative nature of the legislative bodies, and there have been wider calls to have more diverse representation across the legislative bodies.
While the influence is arguably stronger in the UK than the USA, an individual's actions are often guided by their adherence to the ideology of the party as a whole.