Legislative Assemblies in USA, UK and France

Introduction

This  research  paper  aims  at  answering  the  questions that  are  posed  in regard to  the  judicial  review  taking  into  consideration  the  differences  on  how  the  judicial review takes place  in  USA  vs  in France. Again, the research paper will concentrate on the concepts  related  to  the upper  chambers of legislative assemblies  in USA,UK  and  France  giving  their  similarities  as  well as  their  differences( Vanberg,  2005)..  This will be based on their power as well as their constitution. Another thing that the writer will concentrate on in as far as this research paper is concerned is the is the relative powers of heads of government as well as the heads of state in the USA, UK as well as in France. Finally, the research paper will concentrate on the way the election is held in US or  rather the system of lection in United States,  taking  into  consideration the  advantages  as  well as  the  disadvantages  of this  system. On completion of this research paper, checks and balances in the government as well as the differences between the presidential and parliamentary democracies will have been discussed.

Discussion

Based on the constitutional principles, the judicial  review as a court of authority is meant to  analyze as well as invalidate the legislative or the executive in case  its  action  are  not  in line  with  the  constitution principles. In line with  this, the supremacy of the law courts  to  be  in  a position of  analyzing actions of the  legislative as well as  that  one of the executive, is referred  to as the judicial review (Stone, 1992). Being associated with the supreme courts of the United States as well as being an invention of Americans, judicial  review  is  primarily associated with the supreme court  of the  United  States  and also being  posed  by  most  of  the  law  courts and federal  in  the  united  states .

On the other hand, as far as the judicial review in France is concerned, there exists a judicial review which to some extent is limited as compared to that of United States (Vanberg, 2005). The reason behind this is the fact that it is only during the president,  prime minister,  National  Assembly's  president, senate's  president or 60 senators, that the Conseil  Constitutionnel  can assess the  legislation   based  on  the  constitution. It therefore emerges that, a law cannot on it's entirely be challenged based on the constitution once it has been signed by the France's president.      

In United States of America, the senate or the small house is usually referred to as upper house. The upper chamber in the United States of America enjoys the exclusive power when it comes to trying articles related to impeachment as well as powers to endorse the governor's appointments. Also,  it  enjoys  powers  related  to  endorsing  the  treaties as a condition  prior to their  approval  including verification of federal judges, military officers and secretaries to the cabinet appointments (Stone, 1992). The  upper  house  in  the  united  states  of  America  is  composed of the United  States congress as well as United States House of  representative. It is worth mentioning that every US state is usually represented by 2 senators irrespective of the population.

In France, it is important to note that the upper house represents the local government. Most of the members of the upper chamber in France serve as regional presidents, mayors as well as councilors. Again, they are elected  for a term which does not exceed six years  compared  to  that of  united  states  which is  for  six-years terms. Despite  being  presided  over  by  the  president ,  it  has  less  fame  as  compared to that of  the lower chamber. This is  different  from that  of  US  which  is  more  powerful  than the  lower  house (Wolfe,1994). Since  2010,  the  number  of  senators  who  make  up the  senate  has   increased  to 346.This is a reflection of the  transformations made as far as the country demographics are concerned. As mentioned earlier regarding the  power of  the  senate,  it  does  have less  or  rather relatively the  same  power as that one of the lower house since both the upper and the lower house have to strike  a  mutual consensus regarding any bill that is tabled in the national assembly. The France senate supervises the actions of the government through publishing of as many reports as possible regarding diverse topics.

In the United Kingdom, the upper chamber which is popularly known as the House of the Lords and is mostly composed of the Lords Spiritual as well as the Lords temporal. The Lords Spiritual are senior bishops and constitute a total of twenty six Lords Spiritual where as the rest of senate is made up of the Lords Temporal (Vanberg, 2005). The House of the Lords has a total of 786 members. As far as power is concerned, the upper chamber which in this case is the House of Lords  enjoys less power than that of the lower house (House of Commons).This is  because  the  latter  has  got  advanced legislative  powers  than  the  former. The decisions of the lower house do override those of the senate.

There are several ways which exist and by which the incoming president may be selected. For instance, in United Kingdom, the powers of the queen may be handed over to the Counselors of the state incase she is unavailable. In United  State  the  head of  the  state is the  president while  in the  united  kingdom,  the  head  of  state  is  the Queen  Elizabeth. It  is  worth  noting  that in  both  United  state and  France,  the  president has to  be voted  in by the  public and  must  belong  to  a  certain political  party  where as in the United  Kingdom whoever  succeeds  the  queen  depends  on  the  rules  of  succession  which  determines  who should  become  the  next queen. It is said that in line with the throne is the Lord of Royals (Stone, 1992). This  queen is  more  like  a  policy which  is  determines how the country should  be  ruled  and  this  depends  on the parents  of  whoever in is the  queue.

As far as  the  power  of  the  president  of United  state  is  concerned,  he  is  the  head of  the  state, government, has  power   regarding  foreign  affairs as well as enjoying  being the  commander  in  chief of the  armed  forces. He is also autonomous from the parliament. Also, the case is the same in France  since  the  president or  rather  the  executive  enjoys  the power  of  making  laws. In  UK  on  the  other hand,  the  Queen or  the  King  is  the  head  of the  state  but the  prime mister  is  the  head of  the government. It is  worth  mentioning  that  the  queen  or the  king is  supreme in  UK but  his  or  her  powers  are limited  alongside  those  of Parliament(Bates, 1986). The queen  also  enjoys  endorsing  legislations  passed  by the  parliament as  well as  appointing  the  Prime minister.

Caucuses as well as the presidential primary elections series can be regarded as part of conducting elections in the United States. Local government as well as the state runs the primary elections. Political parties on the other hand do carry out the Caucuses. A form of indirect election can be looked from the perspective of the primary election held by the state (Vanberg, 2005). This means that the number of delegates to go for every party's convention rather than voter being involved in selecting a candidate to vie as a presidential candidate. The  advantage   of this  is  that it is  possible  to  establish  the  number  of  delegate to every  national convention  party  that  a candidate  can  get from  state.

Other  than separating  powers,  Madison's suggest  the use  of  separation of  powers in the  departments  which  are  in a  state or rather a country. This idea calls for autonomous of each and every department or organ of the government (Bates, 1986). This again enables the organs to have substantial powers such that they can keep others in check. The  check  and  balances  should  therefore  be  ensured  in  judiciary, legislature  as  well as  the  executive.

If the  congress is  divided into two, the  power  of  legislature  would  be  curbed,  therefore not  being  predominant. The executive on the other hand requires to be fortified to eliminate its weaknesses. As far as relation of president and the legislature is concerned, veto power can be used to reinforce the president.

A parliamentary  democracy  is  whereby  the  executive  does  not have overall  or absolute  power  over  the ruling  of the  country. This means that, he is dependent on the parliament. It is expresses through what is called vote of no confidence. It  therefore  has  what is referred  to as  check  and  balances  as  compared  to that of presidential  system which do not have. A state that does exercise parliamentary democracy is the United Kingdom (Bates, 1986). Presidential  democracy  on the  other  hand  is  whereby the  executive  exercises  overall  power as a result of being autonomous  from  the  legislature. A good example is the United States of America. The head of state who is   the president is voted in by the public. The advantage of parliamentary democracy is the form of check and balances that do exist between the legislature and the executive. In presidential  democracy  the president  has  got  the  power  to  endorse  all  the  bills passed  by parliament as  well as controlling the military.