From The British Parliment To The U.S. Congress: A Comparative Study

This thesis mainly focuses on the differential analyses of the institutional arrangements between the British Parliament and the U.S. Congress.Although both the British Parliament and the U.S. Congress conduct the parliamentary functions, due to the different guiding ideologies upon which they establish their political systems, these two legislatures are virtually different both in legal roles, internal structures, and in the allocations of their powers.With the method of analogy, induction and antitheses, the author of this thesis focuses on the institutional arrangements of these two legislatures, and carries out the in-depth analysis of the differences from structures to functions. It reveals the dissimilar constitutions and organizations of these two legislatures owing to the ideologies of’fusion of powers’in Britain and’separation of powers’in the United States. Therefore, the advantages and disadvantages in their democratic systems are elaborated to some extent.This comparative study could serve as a reference to the on-going reform of political structure in China. Democratic system is not peculiar to western countries. The National People’s Congress and the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference in China are also unique manifestation of the democratic system. By the objective law of the social development, China is experiencing the primary stage of socialism in the context of the market economy and the process of democratization. If we intend to build our socialist state with prosperity, democracy and civilization, it is necessary to make intensive studies on the political systems, especially the parliamentary systems, of the contemporary capitalist countries, to analyze their features, advantages and disadvantages, experiences for reference, disciplines of the development of political civilizations, etc. We could find the fruits of human civilization and apply it to the undertakings of China. And this could be my ultimate goal to make the research on comparison between the British Parliament and the U.S. Congress.