SYSTEMS OF GOVERNMENT: THE US AND UK AS EXAMPLES

SYSTEMS OF GOVERNMENT: THE US AND UK AS EXAMPLES

Systems of government around the world are based on one question: how is power distributed? Differences in systems of government can be the result of how power can be distributed among the branches of government, as well as the manner in which power is distributed within the country. The United States of America (USA) and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (UK) serve as adequate examples to illustrate how power is diffused quite differently, in an effort to better understand the diversity and legitimacy of other systems of government that are neither presidential nor centrally organized as in the Colombian case.

The government type of the UK is a constitutional monarchy and a commonwealth realm, being the Chief of State Queen Elizabeth II and the head of government Prime Minister David Cameron. This system of government is characterized by being guided by a monarch whose rights, duties and responsibilities are spelled out by custom since there is no written Constitution in the UK and instead it is made up by statutes, common law and practice. The distribution of power, however, needs to take into consideration how the UK is associated internally, as the UK is not a single country but instead is a country of countries, containing inside of it four co-equal and sovereign nations: England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Former colonies of the British Empire that gained their independence but still continue to recognize the monarchy as the head of state in exchange for a local, autonomous parliament are known as the Commonwealth Realm, and they are Canada, Australia, Papua New Guinea, New Zealand, Jamaica, Solomon Islands, Belize, The Bahamas, Barbados, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Grenada, Antigua and Barbuda, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Tuvalu. There are three further entities that belong to the crown and these are the Crown Dependencies: The Isle of Man, Jersey and Guernsey. Unlike the Commonwealth Realm, they are not considered independent nations, but are granted local autonomy by the crown and British Citizenship by the United Kingdom – though the UK does reserve the right to over-rule the laws of their local assemblies.

In the last group of crown properties there are the last vestiges of the British Empire, namely the British Overseas Territories, 16 non-independent nations that continue to rely on the UK for military and economic assistance. 10 of the British Overseas Territories are part of the 17 territories that are deemed still to be under colonial rule and labeled by the United Nations as “non-self-governing territories (NSGTs)” — areas in which the population has not yet attained a full measure of self-government.

The UK recognizes some degree of self-government to these territories, but retains the right to over-rule their local assemblies, as it happened in 2009, when the Government of the UK suspended parts of the Constitution of the Turks and Caicos Islands (TCI), in response to allegations of systemic corruption in the territory. Direct rule from London was imposed over the democratically elected local government. This unilateral, top-down action removed the constitutional right to trial by jury, suspended the ministerial government and the House of Assembly, and charged a UK-appointed Governor with the administration of the islands.

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