the House of Commons and the House of Representatives

This analysis begins by exploring the major differences between the U.S. Congress and British House of Commons in terms of political accountability, committee importance, and party loyalty to the President/Prime Minister. The basic political structures of both the House of Commons and the House of Representatives are very similar in structure and function and this most likely stems from the fact that the United States Congress is based, at least in principle on that of the British House of Commons, however those similarities soon diverge from each other rather quickly and both implement policy and law in a very different fashion. Just as there are similarities between the Congress and House of Commons there are striking similarities between the House of Lords and the United States Senate. These types of political systems found both in the United Kingdom and the United States are referred to as “bicameralism” (congresslink.org n.d.). Bicameralism is defined as a government body that consists of two chambers. Congress, like most of the world's legislatures, is bicameral, that is, it is composed of two chambers, just as the British Parliamentary system. In the United States there are two chambers, One consisting of the House of Representatives, and the other consisting of the senate. The British parliament also consists of a two chamber system which includes the house of the lords (the equivalent of the United States Senate), and the House of Commons (which is the equivalent of the United States Senate). Not only do these systems parallel each other in their make-ups of legislative bodies but they are also similar in that they both were set up to accomplish similar work which consists of creating legislation, and enacting or amending...

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...the British House of Commons are formed and maintained as needed or as specific bills are introduced. The members of these committees normally do not normally work together and are selected to form said committee only for the consideration of a specific bill. These members normally do not possess any particular level of expertise when it comes to the subject matter of the bill and once all considerations are made and the bill is formally introduced the committee is disbanded and no longer exists. The committee does not have the authority to call witnesses or hold open hearings on the bill. There is no permanent staff assigned to the committee and although they are allowed to read, discuss, and propose changes they cannot make changes to the legislation nor can they stop, stall, or otherwise impede its process to the floor for a vote or consideration (fas.org, 2005).