"Is it true that in the UK, the legislature increases power of PM, while in the USA, the legislature decreases power of President?"

Essay Question: Is it true that in the UK, the legislature increases power of PM, while in the USA, the legislature decreases power of President?

It is said that Parliamentary government in the UK gives the Prime-Minister more power than US Presidential system gives to the President. Is it true that domestically the Prime Minister is more powerful and influential on executive and legislature branches than the US President? In order to identify that, this essay will discuss and compare the UK and the US legislature and position of each "chief executives" in the main areas of these governments such as elections, constitutional privilege, passing legislature, party system and international affairs.

Before answering to the question, it is essential to define a term "power". According to Keith Dowding(1991), 'social power' is "the ability of an actor deliberately to change the incentive structure of another actor or actors to get desirable outcomes".

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Miss S. Macdonald, P. M. Macdonald and Prime Minis...

Gerald Ford, official Presidential photo. Françai...

In other words, a power of an authority can be evaluated by its' effectiveness of setting costs and benefits of actions on citizens and officials. It will be covered later how the Prime-Minister can affect the incentives of its MPs in order to maintain the power. Steven Lukes'(1974) in his theory of "three faces of power" states that power of an "actor" can be exercised and expressed in three ways: by shaping, influencing and determining a will of another "actor" or "actors" (Lukes, Steven. Power: A Radical View. London: Macmillan Press, 1974. p. 25). However, this theory doesn't explain why one maintains more power than others. Which is better explained in resource-dependency ideas of Martin Smith.(2009) He highlights the importance of relationship of maintaining and exercising power by "negotiating, compromising and bargaining". (Hague R., Harrop M., Comparative Government and Politics, 8th edition , 2010,p.11) This concept is mostly used...