1. Congress & Parliament
• Both bicameral
• Both dominated by two
parties
• Both have different routes
to membership
• Male/female ratio is
similar
• Both use FPTP for elections

2. Legislation
• Many more bills presented
to Congress than
Parliament (10,000
compared to a 60 or so
government bills)
• Government legislation is
much more likely to
approved in UK (90%+ to
approx 4%)
• Most backbench bills in UK
fail, US have slightly better
chance

3. Party discipline
• A PM must be leader of largest party in
Commons and usually commands a majority.
If his party loses seats he may lose office.
• A President may be a Democrat whilst the
Republican dominate Congress (Clinton 94-
00)
• So party discipline is stronger in UK: no MP
wants to be responsible for party losing
office
• Congressmen have to please much larger
‘selectorates’ than MPs, and incumbents can
be challenged within their own party, and
H.O.R. Elections are every two years – so
more pressure to ‘bring home the bacon’
and ‘please the folks back home’
• No real sanctions for voting against party in
Congress, so whips have ‘less sting’

4. Ideology
• Traditionally Parliament has been
more ideologically coherent than
Congress
• Over past 20 years there are signs
that Congress is becoming more
ideological – Newt Gingrich’s
‘Contract With America’ in 1990s set
a conservative agenda for
Republicans
• Parliament still more likely to vote
along party lines: and party can lose
a vote of no confidence which
triggers a general election (Callaghan
‘79)

5. Other differences
• More powerful Select and
Standing Committees in Congress
(1980 UK reforms took a lead
from U.S.)
• In UK matters concerning taxing
and spending are determined by
the Commons. Most powers are
retrospective. In U.S. The
president must get his budget
through Congress which may be
dominated by another party