The Relationship between the US and UK - Essay Example

? Several Essay Questions Q The central concern of the political science is that it determines who gets what andhow in various issues which happens around the world. Political masters always interact with the bureaucrats in the delivery of the public service and in the determination of the ways in which the rules are drafted. The relationship between U.S and U.K is extensive due to wide range of issues between them and thus is often referred to as transatlantic partnership. The two sides also share common values and concerns that have enabled them to grow continually independent in terms of security and economic prosperity in all sectors of their relationship. The transatlantic relationship between the U.S and the U.K is for the benefits of them all with most of the concentration given to the economic concerns. The overall tone of the U.S and the U.K relationship is has been largely positive especially during the Obama administration. The constructive tone as witnessed in the relationship between the U.S and the U.K does not always results into tangible results since some failures have been witnessed. Foreign policy objectives have been of great success with some failures witnessed during the execution process1. The United States and the United Kingdom have amongst the largest trade and investment relationship with great benefits to their mother countries in all business sectors. Over the past few years, the economic crisis posed a big danger to the trade between these two countries that has been very beneficial over time. The economic recovery as being witnessed in the recent years is providing an opportunity for the trade to flourish between the two countries. The administration members from the two sides of the country have been apprehensive about the possible effects economic crisis on the trade relation. The other sides have expressed concern over the limited avenues available for the United States in solving the crisis that led to great loss for most of the businesses. The Unites States and the United Kingdom continues to cooperate closely on a wide range of foreign policy issues since they both auger well with each other and they share common interest and goals. Many of the security challenges in which the U.S and the U.K are constantly involved in are found in the Middle East. Currently, the U.S and the U.K are negotiating on matters relating to security in Syria. The American invasion of Iraq got a big boost when the United Kingdom decided to give a helping hand in solving the crisis. There are also continuous talks emerging from either side in coming up with strategies of combating the Iran’s nuclear weapon which pose a great threat to global security. The rise of the Arab Springs is a matter of great concern for the U.S and the U.K since they have been closely watching and negotiating on regular basis on ways and means to go about it. The United States and the United Kingdom remains one of the largest target for the radical Islamist terrorist and the potential base for those who seeks to carry out attack in such regions2. The terrorism operation thus calls for close cooperation between the U.S and the U.K, which has been going on for some time now. This has been strengthened due to the aftermath of the 9/11 attack which claimed the lives and the property worth billions of dollars in the U.S. Cyber security issues of also a matter of great concern for both the U.S and the U.K authorities since they are amongst the widely accepted countries in the globe. The U.S and the U.K face a changing geopolitical environment due to changing business interests and the continuous emergence of china and other countries. This is however criticizes by some scholars who argue that the U.S and the U.K are likely to remain closes partners despite the changing global environment. The close partnership between the U.S and the U.K is thus the foundation of international action based on wide range of critical issues that affects everyone on the globe directly or indirectly. The structure of the United States Government The States System has an organizational structure that consists of the legislature, the judiciary and the executive and other independent establishments and government corporations both of which work independently. (Source: Own creation) The structure of the U.K government Unlike the U.S government, the British government is headed by a queen and seconded by the appointment of the prime minister. Their government also consists of House of Lords and the House of Commons, both of which work independently to pursue their goals and objectives in bettering the lives of their citizens. The British government consists of a well-balanced devolved system whereby the central government looks at matters of national interest while the local government handles the local development matters in their own jurisdiction. The British government system is very different from the U.S system since the queen heads the former, and she is responsible in appointing the prime minister and they are responsible for the national affairs of the country. Q.2 The progressive era in the American history lasted for about 30 years and it began in around 1890 but it legacy continued to influence the history of the country several years after3. The end of this era saw the election of Franklin Delano Roosevelt as the president and he initiated a myriad of policies to start the New Deal. The progressive era saw the U.S government undergoing depression and it required as stable and visionary leadership to steer the country forward during the tough times. The economic times experienced during the progressive era were so tough that some of the American citizens expected Franklin Roosevelt to be a dictator in order to solve the economic crisis that was bringing the country to its knees. During the progressive era, the term dictatorship did not carry the negative connotations it is associated with today but it signified the idea that a political commander was necessary to take charge and steer the country out of the financial problems that many leaders could not solve democratically. This was in resemblance to how Woodrow Wilson and other progressive minded leaders had fought hard in the best interest of the American people during the World War I. The American people had just come out of the world war and thus they required a leader who can easily command with authority to take charge of the government operations4. Franklin Roosevelt decided to attach the depression with his so-called New Deal, which targeted a series of economic programs during his first tenure in office and bringing many changes in the American history. The new deal was conceived at the climax of worldwide fascist movement designed to alter the ways and means in which the government is operated in most of the countries around the globe. During this movement, the socialist were continually becoming nationalist while the nationalist were continually becoming socialist thereby bringing a mixture of leadership and confusion in the country5. Roosevelt ideas during New Deal had policies that were indistinguishable from fascism and had many common features of New Deal Liberalism with same historical and intellectual forebears. The ideas which arose in the New Deal championed middle or the third between capitalism and socialism way in solving their issues since it sounded moderate and un radical. The leadership during the New Deal was to protect the interest of the common person and not the fat cats and the international bankers who only care of themselves and not the interest of the common person. Major Policy Changes of the Progressive Era In this era, the government introduced an impressive array of programs at all levels of the government by expanding its regulation of interest on commerce and antitrust polices in large-scale business. State government expanded their regulations on labour and product markets and established new forms of social insurance that helped many people in their work places. The liberal reforms rose from the cities to state governments to the federal governments thus removing the haphazard, amateurish, and corrupt operations that characterized most of the states. The progressives pressed for home rule to the cities more independence in their administration and fiscal affairs enabling transparency to thrive in those offices and an increase in tax collection. The governments also decide to reduce the number of the selected officials on realizing that the ward system was inadequate, by pressing for city wide elections of council members. The designs main aim was to separate politics from the administration to ensure that quality services are delivered to the general population. The government ensured that the city is administered by professionals whose main aim is to deliver quality services to the people as opposed to doing business with the people6. The progressive era also saw rapid expansion in infrastructure as more parks, high schools, and transport facilities were build to cater mainly for the poor citizens. The government also focused on the health of their citizens by introducing modern health facilities that greatly reduced the death rates and the incidences of diseases in their country. Women and children also got better and more improved protection from the progressives as children were compelled to attend schools. The state government also provided a legislation to cater for payments to people struck by misfortune and this saw the government providing to institutions catering for the deaf, the orphans, the blind, and the insane7. Most of the changes that happened during the Progressive Era and the New Deal achieved tangible results, which enabled America to build the strongest economy in the world. Some of these changes are stable due to positive results while others are continuing. Some of the changes that were affected in that time are being challenged today. A good example is the office of the presidency whereby majority of the citizens required a dictatorial president who would command the way forward for the country without much questioning. Today, the office of the presidency is closely watched and monitored by various organs and individuals and thus the president is required to consult widely before making any major decision concerning the country8. Q.3 The United States just like other countries have undergone several reforms aimed at improving the life of its citizens and the global populations. The U.S have improved on their global development policy, leaders in the administration and the congress in order to effectively deliver on the reforms as promised. The government of the United States is fully acknowledged that it had used non-strategic approach to deal with issues of development thus retarding their rate of growth significantly9. This has enabled them to initiate an array of policy instruments to adequately address the increasingly recognized challenges posed by global governance and environmental change. The United states also have to deal with human rights issues in all places around the globe. A fragmented aid infrastructure, outdated morass of laws and distrust between the congress and the executive led to inefficiencies in the aid practices the moment the they had grown considerably in their financial strength. The necessary reforms have mainly stressed on the foreign policy management of a government engaged in series of wars with other countries at the face of global economic crisis10. The Obama administration launched new presidential initiatives in the areas of food security, global health, and climate change with some development reform principles capable of radically transforming the Unites States in the near future. The reforms in the United States is characterized by long periods of consultation between the concerned stakeholders with the view of coming up with a common objective11. Another characteristic of the U.S development policy is that it strongly focuses on the sustainable development coupled with modern organization structure to deliver effective services to their citizens. The policy deliberations are greatly developed to ensure greater coherence across the range of the United States government capabilities and instruments. The United States also has good and democratically elected leadership that ensures effective partnership in the support of the proposed policies. The fiscal policies of the Unites states have also seen a myriad of changes since the government Obama administration took charge of white house. The budget outlook of the U.S had greatly soured and thus needed the through readjustment in order to come out of the negative effects of the global economic crisis that destroyed some of the gains of the Unites States. Reforms in China China is widely credited for its wide range of reforms that has enabled it to compete successfully in the economic front with other developed economies like the United States12. Most of the scholars argue that the reforms witnessed in the china are widely copied from most of the government systems in the west. China is thus accused of borrowing, learning and imitating most of the counties in the west in their approach to come up with their model of the administrative system13. Any reforming country is expected to collect most of the information from other countries on their reform experiences through travel and systemic analysis then they chose the design which best suit their reform environment. The reforms in china are of broad perspective of administrative functions adopted by picking certain elements of specific reform areas and incorporating with theirs. The reforms in China were initiated by their leaders who were in great thirst of transforming their country for the betterment of their people. The process involved a number of government agencies and research institutions like the universities who worked extremely hard to come up with the acceptable reform criteria than can drive the country forward. Reforms in the United Kingdom Just like any other country, the U.K has also been undergoing a series of reforms with the aim of improving the lives if its citizens. The U.K administration has been reforming all sectors of their operations to make them at par with other first world counties in the globe. a good latest reforms in the U.K is the Welfare reforms initiated by the Welfare Reform Act of 2012. This reform introduced the greatest changes to the welfare benefits in 60 years and is estimated to save 8% of the U.K budget for social security benefits in the nest tow years14. The reform is directly affects the main welfare reforms on the household incomes and has impacts on the economy and the social welfare of its people. The local government services are greatly improved courtesy of these reforms that saw an increase in demand for quality services. Q.4 Racial inequality have strongly molded the American history from its early stages since the U.S have always been driven by quest for freedom initiated by religious liberty and later political and economic freedom. The American society was equally founded on brutal forms of discrimination, inequality, and oppression characterized with absolute denial of freedom for the slaves who faced many difficulties in their lives. One of the great paradoxes of the American society is that the ideals of equality and freedoms coexist at the verge of the slave trade thus making people to wonder if they nature of their reforms15. Racism has profoundly shaped the American society and politics in such ways that deeply affects the lives of white Americans as well including the lives of the working class and the poor whites who live in racially diversified areas. Most people only think that racism has only disadvantages the minority groups like the blacks and the Latinos as well but it has also disadvantaged the whites in one way or the other. The groups within the white population in America have been disadvantaged in the sense that it has repeatedly divided the popular social and political movements from time to time16. This therefore greatly undermines their capacity and willingness to the prevailing forms of power and inequality as witnessed by them in various aspects of their lives. The ruling elite are very cunning in their strategies and have always used racism to divide and conquer hence protecting their class interest from radical groups who may wish to interfere. Racial discrimination has affected the nature of public organizations in a very wide scale and this in turn affects the lives of everybody alike. In the 1880s and 1890s, the populist emerged in the Midwest and south of America, they consisted of both the blacks, and the whites who were small-scale farmers and workers not satisfied with the landowners and the southern elites. This caused a lot of tension which needed to be addressed to stop the uprising with would otherwise destabilize the country due t the fact that it had a combination of both the blacks and the whites. Since the populist tend to pose a series challenge to the dominant political parties, they used a racial conflict to tear apart their agrarian unity leading to the decline of the movement with all its activities. Form this example, its evident that matters of inequality affects both parties with due regard to colour or origin since the elites mostly care of their vested interest and not the interest of a particular race. In the 19th century and part of the 20th century, most of the employers took advantage of the ethnic minorities as strike breakers in industrial disputes thus significantly weakening the unions ability to win strikes and champion for the better working conditions of the workers17. This further complicated the issue of racism since the effects of such happenings further deepened the resentments against the blacks and other ethnic minorities by the white majorities. The Republican Party under the leadership of Nixon used racial strategy to win the white working class voters to switch political allegiance from the Democratic Party thus ushering the era of conservative politics in the American government. The conservative politics ushered by this largely blamed for significantly harming the economic interests of white workers by weakening their unions and lowering the minimum wage resulting to reduced job security18. Research has established that areas of highly mixed population of the blacks and the whites are the same places where the white wages are lowest if compared to other areas of white dominance19. This therefore implies that inequality caused by racial divisions negatively affects both groups and this could only be reversed if they practice unity and equality for all regardless of race, religion or the social status. In the absence of racial divisions and the social classes, the popular social forces would have been stronger in general, with the capability of influencing the ruling class to act in their best interest and spur growth and development. The New Deal of 1930 got strong opposition from the southern democrats because such policies would benefit both the blacks and the whites since they democrats in the south were so much conservative on social welfare issues regardless of the poverty they faced20. Bibliography Alexander, Jennifer. Efficiencies of Balance: Technical Efficiency, Popular Efficiency, and Arbitrary Standards in the Late Progressive Era USA. Social Studies of Science; (2008). vol. 38, 3: pp. 323-349. Cymru, Llywodraeth. Analyzing the impact of the UK Government’s welfare reforms in Wales – Stage 2 analysis. Wales Government. 2013. Dong, Lishen., Christensen, Tom and Painter, Martin. A Case Study of China's Administrative Reform: The Importation of the Super Department. The American Review of Public Administration. Sage Publication. 2009. Unger, Noam. The Shape of the U.S Global Development Reforms. Brooking Blum Roundtable Briefs. 2011. Judd, Dennis and Swanstrom, Todd. City Politics: The Political Economy of Urban America, 8th Ed. London: Longman 2011. Jreisat, Jamil. Comparative Public Administration Is Back In, Prudently. Public Administration Review. 2005. Volume 65, Issue 2, pages 231–242 Osorio, Rafael Guererio. Is all Socioeconomic Inequality Among Racial Groups In Brazil Caused by Racial Discrimination? Working Paper No.3. International Poverty Centre. Brasilia. 2008. Peters, Guy.B. The Politics of Bureaucracy: An Introduction to Comparative Public Administration, 6th Ed. London: Routledge Publishers. 2009. Schachter, Hindy Lauer. Women, Progressive-Era Reform, and Scientific Management. Administration & Society; (2002). vol. 34, 5: pp. 563-578. Read More