Cyrix’s Codex

I’ve always been curious about how US presidential system actually works. All I know so far is that their practice of the separation of powers are much more stringent compared to the parliamentary system, with a separation of powers between the Executive (ministers) arm and the Legislative (policy-making) arm among it’s Congressmen.

US Capitol Hill

However, that’s about all that I know about it. IMO, it’s system there is pretty confusing. For starters, even the labels used there are preplexing. The 2 terms I hear the most when watching American movies involving politics and The Simpsons are ‘Congressmen‘ and ‘Senators’. After a bit of research from Wikipedia, I managed to de-preplex these 2 terms. Apparently, that big mosque-like thing in the picture above is called the Capitol building, situated on Capitol Hill. It houses the Congress, which is just what those recalcitrant Americans call their Parliament. The Congress is divided into two houses: The House of Representatives (HoR) and the Senate. So that’s not so different from the parliamentary system. So ‘Senators’ are apparently a subset of ‘Congressmen’. But even on this point, I’m confused. Why are Senators given so much more prominence in comparison to the HoR members there? Forgive me if I err, but based on what I know of the parliamentary systems in Malaysia, the UK and Australia, the HoR MPs are the ones who really see kick-ass action during Parliamentary Question Times. Heck all Prime Ministers and most of their Cabinet Member in parliamentary systems are members of the HoR. The Senate here varies in their influence and power, but it is generally much less important compared to the HoR. The HoR is the primary lawmaking body in these parliamentary system countries. So why all these references to ‘Senator Tom’ and ‘Senator Jane’ in the US? What happened to the HoR members there?

UK Westminster Parliament

The second issue I don’t understand regarding the US parliamentary system is the appointment of the President’s Cabinet. Where does George W. Bush get Condi Rice/Donald Rumsfeld/Dick Cheney/etc from? Are they elected Congressmen and women (ala Senators or HoR members)? But this can’t be so, as the presidential system specifically requires the strict separation of the Executive (ie Cabinet Ministers) arm from the Legislative (Senators and HoR members) arm of the government. So does this mean Condi Rice and Co. are actually unelected by the people? Like does George W. Bush pluck her out from a university to serve as the Secretary of State or something? Wow, that sound exceptionally undemocratic to me man.

Lastly, but definately not the least is this burning question of mine: Where the heck is the Opposition Leader in the US system??? It seems that come Presidential Election time, the aspiring President-wannabes from the opposition party (ie: Democratic Party) will go through a series of filtration process via state popularity contests, and the person who wins this series of contest earns the right to challenge the incumbent President. In 2004, it was John F. Kerry, a Senator (again!). However, after he lost, he just quickly slink into obscurity. What the…??? Why isn’t he the Opposition Leader ala Michael Howard (UK), Kim Beazley (Aus) or something? Who leads the Democrats in their crusade against the Republicans in Congress during non-election days (ie: now) then?

This is what I am guessing happens in the US then: Let’s say that the President wants to make it compulsory for all schoolkids to wear only yellow socks to school. He conveys this noble aim to his Secretary of Education. The Sec of Edu heartily agrees to this innovative suggestion, and drafts it out into a bill. This bill is then presented to the Congress for the Congressmen (Senators and HoR members) to mull and vote upon it. Assuming that if in this case, the Republicans managed to get more seats in the Senate and HoR in the previous Legislative Election, the President will then be able to pass the Yellow Socks Bill quite easily then. However, if both (or even 1) houses are dominated by Democrats, then what? I’m assuming the President will then have to resort old-fashion haggling, persuasion or compromises in order to pass it. But in all this, I don’t see where the role of an Opposition Leader fits here.

All in all, the US has a pretty weird political system… Feel free to enlighten me on these points if you’re more Yankee-inclined than me