12 Mark Essay Plans

Question 1

What are the 3 ways in which the Senate has more power than the HoL?

Answer 1

• The Senate is elected and therefore has a mandate
• The HoL can only delay not block legislation, (due to Parliament Acts 1911 and 1949)
• The Senate poses a threat to the Executive as they can hear impeachment trials, whereas, the HoL is not involved in the UK equivilent, which is a vote of no confidence

Question 2

Analyse how the US Senate has greater power than the House of Lords. In your answer, you must consider the relevance of at least one comparative theory. [12]

P1 - Elected vs Non-elected + Comparative Theory

Answer 2

Senate
* The Senate is democratically elected and therefore has an electoral mandate, (which the HoL doesn’t have)
* 100 senators are elected and all hold 6 year terms
* This means Senators are more effective in terms of proposing and scrutinising legislation, as they represent the people and are allowed to have a larger impact on legislation than the HoL
House of Lords
* Unelected and therefore has no mandate
* As a result of this, there is the Sailsbury Convention, which means that the HoL is not allowed to block legislation that is part of the Government’s election manifesto - Ex: Brexit
* HoL Reform Act 1999 tried to make HoL more democratic, through removing hereditary peers, (but 92 still remain as second phase of plan was never carried out)
* Opposition leader Keir Starmer says that in Labour’s next election manifesto, there will be plans to replace the HoL with a democratically elected upper chamber

Comparative Theory
* Can be explained by cultural theory
* In the US, there was a history of being governed by a nonelected power, which was the UK monarch
* Therefore, when the US gained independence, the population wanted to be represented properly in Government
* Therefore, the Senate is elected, allowing the electorate to have gain further representation

Question 3

Analyse how the US Senate has greater power than the House of Lords. In your answer, you must consider the relevance of at least one comparative theory. [12]

P2 - Checking the executive

Answer 3

House of Lords
* 1911 and 1949 Parliament Acts limited the HoL ability to check and scrutinise the executive - The 1911 Act removed their veto power and swapped it to a 2 year delaying power and the 1949 Act, reduced the delaying power to one year
* HoL cannot block legislation, but only delay it

The Senate
* Unlike the HoL, the Senate can ratify treaties and nominations, whereas the HoL can only delay legislation
* In 2010, the SMART Treaty was ratified by the Senate, which mean that the treaty successfully went through oversight of the Senate, (SMART treaty 2010 was a deal with Russia to hold back on the quantity of nuclear weapons they had)
* The Senate also holds great power in ratifying Supreme Court nominees, as these nominees can go on to influence the US for decades

Judgement
* Overall, this shows that the Senate is more powerful than the HoL
* This is because the HoL cannot limit the executive’s power as significantly in the UK, as the Senate can in the US

Question 4

Analyse how the US Senate has greater power than the House of Lords. In your answer, you must consider the relevance of at least one comparative theory. [12]

P3 - Impeachment vs Vote of No Confidence

Answer 4

The Senate
* Ability to try and impeachment case against the President, (The House of Representatives must introduce the case)
* Ex: The Senate heard an impeachment trial against former President Donald Trump, however, they were unable to remove him from office
* The fact that the Senate can do this, is an important power, which still threatens the President today

House of Lords
* In the UK, a vote of no confidence can happen, (rather than an impeachment), however, the HoL are not involved in the process; only the HoC
* This happened with Theresa May in 2019, who survived the vote

Judgement
* The US Senate is more powerful as they are more threatening to the President’s power, than the HoL are to the PMs power

Question 5

Examine how devolution in the UK differs from federalism in the USA. [12]

Question 6

Examine how devolution in the UK differs from federalism in the USA. [12]

Question 7

Examine how devolution in the UK differs from federalism in the USA. [12]