The Senate is actually doing something interesting for once, but the Senate doesn’t usually put forward legislation, and they’re completely unable to put forward spending bills. And on top of that, they’re not The Government.
That phrasing confused me for the longest time. In the US, the senate is part of The Government. It seems like most countries use “government” to mean something like what we Americans call “the administration”.
Yes, that’s more or less right. Different systems will slice it different tlt, but for the most part there’s “government”, which includes all the mechanisms of state, and then there’s The Government, which is the cabinet.
Many systems have independent heads of state and heads of government. In these cases, you have a president with executive powers somewhat similar in concept, but generally less broad in scope, to the US president, and a prime minister or chancellor who is elected by Parliament or the legislative assembly to form an independent cabinet.
It would be like if your executive secretaries were selected by the majority party leader.
In British Commonwealth countries, things are slightly different, because our head of state is the British monarch, and the monarchy has operated under a policy of non-interference for, like, almost a century now. So, they just rubberstamp whatever the head of government presents to them.
Westminster parliaments also operate under a principle of parliamentary supremacy. There’s none of this “equal powers” stuff. The head of state asks parliament for things, but for the most part thr head of state exists to enact the will of Parliament.
The Senate is actually doing something interesting for once, but the Senate doesn’t usually put forward legislation, and they’re completely unable to put forward spending bills. And on top of that, they’re not The Government.
That phrasing confused me for the longest time. In the US, the senate is part of The Government. It seems like most countries use “government” to mean something like what we Americans call “the administration”.
Yes, that’s more or less right. Different systems will slice it different tlt, but for the most part there’s “government”, which includes all the mechanisms of state, and then there’s The Government, which is the cabinet.
Many systems have independent heads of state and heads of government. In these cases, you have a president with executive powers somewhat similar in concept, but generally less broad in scope, to the US president, and a prime minister or chancellor who is elected by Parliament or the legislative assembly to form an independent cabinet.
It would be like if your executive secretaries were selected by the majority party leader.
In British Commonwealth countries, things are slightly different, because our head of state is the British monarch, and the monarchy has operated under a policy of non-interference for, like, almost a century now. So, they just rubberstamp whatever the head of government presents to them.
Westminster parliaments also operate under a principle of parliamentary supremacy. There’s none of this “equal powers” stuff. The head of state asks parliament for things, but for the most part thr head of state exists to enact the will of Parliament.
Thanks for explaining!