Compare and contrast the position and powers of the US president and the UK prime minister.

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Compare and contrast the position and powers of the US president and the UK prime minister.

Political instinct alone seems to dictate to many that the American president - 'the world's most powerful man' - is the most powerful politician in any of the world's democratic nations. He is at the head of the world's most modern military force and the world's largest economy. What the president says is reported around the world and world share markets can fall or rise on any public statement by him. But is he the western world's most powerful politician?

In America, the president is the best known of many politicians. This alone gives him a great deal of authority as many people within their own states cannot name their own representatives in the House, Senate or governor. The simple fact, that the president has the title of president gives him enormous authority and power in that he is the main figurehead within the whole of the massive American political structure. To take on the president is seen as almost taking on America and all that the nation stands for. When Clinton moved towards the impeachment process during the Lewinsky scandal, he was paying the price for what he had done as a person not as a politician who happened to be president. Even so, the fact that the Senate failed to go all the way down the road to impeachment was probably because they did not want to see the title of president sullied in such a manner. The same is probably true of Nixon during the Watergate crisis. Here was a man who was allowed to resign rather than face the ignominy of impeachment and possibly a full trial in the full glare of the public at both domestic and international level. Protecting the name of the president and all he stands for does give the post-holder a great deal of authority and, in this sense, power.

The British Prime Minister does have the same international standing as the president. In the crisis involving Iraq, the driving force behind any move against the leadership in Baghdad has been the American president, G W Bush, while Tony Blair, the British Prime Minister, has been referred to as clinging onto the coat tails of Bush. Britain simply does not have the international standing to overtly influence policies - her military is weak compared to America and though a member of G7, our economic standing in the world is dwarfed by America's. Such a position does not allow the Prime Minister to drive an international agenda whereas the US president can. In this sense, the power of the US president abroad is far greater than that of the British Prime Minister.
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In domestic politics that same power is more open to question. The president can select his own cabinet with which he can work, but it has to be ratified by the Senate. Whilst this is usually a formality - as the Senate would usually want to be seen as giving a new president a sound start to his four years - it does in theory mean that the president might have to work with people he did not initially select for his cabinet. The Prime Minister has no such restrictions. He selects all those people he wants for ...

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