This essay is going to give a general introduction of party systems first, then address the US and UK party systems from several aspects respectively, finally compare

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The main purpose of this essay is to talk about party systems in the United States and the United Kingdom. This essay is going to give a general introduction of party systems first, then address the US and UK party systems from several aspects respectively, finally compare and contrast these two party systems. Therefore, a conclusion can be drawn which is that the system in UK is a strictly disciplined multi-party system while the one in US is less disciplined and a distinct two-party system.

Party system is the interaction between different parties. Parties operate within party systems and are affected by different party systems. There are three types of party systems, the first one is the dominant party system, where there is only a single party in a country and it always operates in government, such as Japan. A two-party system is the one where two parties always compete against each other for power and the US is a good example of this system type. The last type is the multi-party system, which is very popular in the Europe, with competition from more than two parties.

As mentioned in the paragraph above, US has a two-party system. Republican and Democratic parties are the two main parties, which have been competing with each other since the middle of the nineteenth century for the divarication on ideologies. The Republican Party is relatively more conservative, both economically and socially. Republicans are anti-welfare, anti-government intervention, and also on social side, anti-gun control anti-abortion. On the other hand, the Democratic Party is much more liberal, the introduction of “New Deal” by Roosevelt is the best example. Moreover, as opposed to the Republican Party, the Democratic Party is becoming social liberal as well, pro-abortion, pro-gun control and so on.

The US party systems have several characteristics that distinguish it from other party systems. Firstly, there is a lack of mass party membership in the US. As a study from Indiana, even those who have official jobs are not all active on party’s behalf, including ten percent of totally inactive officials. Moreover, those who are active within the party are often without status. The lack of formal membership leads to a lack of control on entering party activities and less income to support the party activities. Secondly, the party power in the US system is quite decentralized. National parties have little control on election, as there are different laws, citizens with different culture-religious orientations in different counties, and local government interventions as well, national parties cannot attract people to vote for the candidates they promoted. Thirdly, US party system is quite weak disciplined. Because of lacking control over selection, local parties cannot discipline elected representatives, which lead to the inefficiency of national parties in the end. In addition, on one side, candidates more stand for themselves rather than for parties, as not many people care about which party he is from, instead, voters vote for candidate that they like or believe; on other side, as the decentralization of the system, elections are so voter-dominated, national party organizations have no means to discipline efficiently, either. As a result of the membership lack, decentralized power and weak discipline, the American party system has become quite powerless. However, recently, the party organizations are trying to be more discipline than before, which may change the condition of this distinct but weak two-party system in the future.

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The inter-party competition in the US party system is mainly on power contest, however, though as said in the previous paragraphs that there are noticeable differences between the Democratic and Republican parties, with time goes by, they are both trying to attract the rest of population by meeting their needs, even differed with their ideology sometimes. For example, Reagan and Bush had put out policies on tax break for big businesses; on the Democrats side, they have put more effort on making social programmes legal. Therefore, over time, the two parties have gone closer rather than apart.

Though British government is ...

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