The American Political System

The Structure and Function of the American Democratic System

1. The United States Does not have a monarch, and all executive power rests in the president and his
cabinet. Legislative is also distinctively divided in the States. And even though, it also follows a
FPTP system, its electing system includes the Electoral College.
2. The American executive branch has a few similarities with the Canadian system, but also with
quite a few major differences. They both act as commander-in-chief of the countrys armed
forces, have the power to sign into law or veto bills, and appoint cabinet and other important
government officials. However, the Canadian leader possesses far more power, as he also has
control over the legislative branch, whereas the president has no legislative power at all. The
American executive branch is incredibly inefficient due to the opposition from the legislative
branch, but it is one of the most democratic system there is. Vice versa, the Canadian executive
branch is able to pass many bills that help the country, but gives the Prime Minister the power
close to a dictator.
3. a. Members of the House of Representatives and the Senate are elected, and not appointed. The
Senates powers include the power to initiate legislation and modify or reject legislation passed in
the House of Representatives, The Senate also oversees and confirms presidential appointments
of the cabinet, ambassadors, and judges to the Supreme Court. One way the Senate provides a
check on the office of the President is with the power of impeachment. Since the House of
Representatives are elected by population size, the Senate offers an equal representation for even
the states that have a low population.

4. The most important role of the Supreme Court is to review challenges to the legislation and to
decide whether it is constitutional or not. The judges are appointed for life by the president, and
confirmed by the Senate.
5. The judges should be appointed because it prevents bias and influence, as elections cause judges
to sway toward the popular opinion rather than the right one. It also gives the judges a different
purpose of getting re-elected instead of judging truthfully.
Since judges are appointed for life, they have little restrictions and it is easy to abuse their power.
Electing a judge will prevent a judge from abusing his power, and also gives judges consequences
for wrong decisions.
6. The American system is more effective in ensuring the prevention of abuse of power as it has a
strict separation of powers, especially its distinctive separation of the legislative and executive
branches. This is not the case with Canadas system, as with a majority government, the Prime
Minister has powers to make laws with little to no opposition.
7. The Canadian system is superior in the process of law-making as it is able to actually pass laws,
without always getting shut down by the opposition. The American system prevents a lot of laws

from passing as the opposition has enough power to stop bills from passing, and since there is a
distinct difference of ideology between the two parties, not many bills are passed.
8. No, the constitution is the fundamental basics that lists the rights and restrictions of the people. It
was carefully thought out and it shouldnt be easy to change it. But times are changing and new
human rights and laws that were not thought of back in the day are appearing. For example, the
invention of computers and the internet has led to cyberbullying and harassment, while new
studies have changed societys perception of the LGBT community. All this needs to have new
rights and laws added to the constitution, so it should not be near impossible to change the
constitution either.
9.