* General difference
USAIndia
1. Oldest written constitution consisting of a preamble and 7 articles.1. New constitution (1949) originally consisting of a preamble, 395 articles and 8 schedules.
1. Highly rigid: All parts of the constitution are to be modified by special procedure which is 2/3rd majority in both the houses and ratified by 3/4th of the states.2. Mix of rigidity and flexibility. Some parts of the constitution can be modified by ordinary law and some require special process.
1. Federal constitution more power is given to the states, with states having separate constitutions and residual powers.
3. Federal constitution with a strong center. There is division of power between center and states with residual power with the center. Also, the subjects (union+ concurrent) available to the center are significant in numbers and matter.
3. Bicameral legislature (congress) house of representative (lower house) and senate (upper house) with powerful upper house. 4. Bicameral legislature (parliament) loksabha (lower house) and rajya sabha (upper house). The loksabha is more powerful.
1. Form of Government
USA Presidential form of governmentIndia Parliamentary form of government
1. Head of the government (president) is elected by the people directly via an electoral college constituted for the purpose.
2. Head of the government (PM) is appointed by the President. He is leader of the party/coalition having majority in the lower house.
3. He is assisted by a cabinet, an advisory body consisting of non congress members appointed by him.
4. He is first among the ministers. All the ministers are appointed by the president on his advice.
5. He is not responsible to the congress for his acts.
6. He is responsible to the lower house.
7. He does not attend the congress sessions.
8. He attends the parliamentary sessions and has the voting right in which he is a member.
9. He is elected for a fixed term of 4 years and can be removed by impeachment.
10. He has to resign if he does not having the confidence of the lower house.
1. Office of President
USA India
1. Elected by an electoral college created for the purpose. Size of this is equal to the size of congress and members are elected by the people from the states. The presidential candidate who secure absolute majority is declared winner. If no candidate secures the majority then the Houser of representative elect the president among the three candidates securing the highest votes.1. Elected by an electoral college consisting of :
* Elected members of parliament.
* Elected members of state assemblies.
* Elected members of assemblies of UT of Delhi and puducherry.
1. Only natural born citizens and residents for 14 years are eligible. 2. Any person who has the Indian citizenship is eligible.
1. He can grant pardon and reprive for offense against federal laws.3. He can grant pardon and reprive on federal and state laws.
1. His pocket veto is limited. When a bill is sent to him for assent he can reserve the bill for not more than 10 days.4. He enjoys unlimited pocket veto.
1. He can call special sessions of the congress for consideration of urgent matters.5. There is no such provision.
1. Civil Services
USA India
1. Its a mix of merit and spoils system. Around 10,000 senior civil service posts are filled based political patronage.
2. All recruitments are based on merit system only.
3. There is a system of lateral entry. This facilitates entry at all levels and any age ensuring movement between government and private jobs.
4. There is no system of lateral entry and strict age restrictions are followed.
5. Examinations are assembled and unassembled. Assembled examinations are used to fill lower posts by conducting written tests. Unassembled tests are used for senior posts by individual interview and testimony.
6. All the examinations are assembled.
7. No definite education qualification is prescribed.
8. Education qualifications are prescribed.
9. There exists a system of pre-entry and post-entry trainings. Trainings are flexible involving universities as well as in house training conducted by OPM (Office of Personnel Management).
10. Only post-entry trainings are available.
11. Less Restriction on fundamental rights such as:
* They have the right to express views on government policy matters however they can be disciplined in cases such as false information, confidential information, affects the performance of organization, etc.
* Right to form/join associations and collectively bargain is allowed.
1. Restrictions on fundamental rights such as:
* They dont have any rights to comment on policy matters. This is done to ensure political neutrality.
* Right to form/join associations is guaranteed. However the government would consult or negotiate only with the recognized ones.
India and UK
* General difference
UKIndia
1. Oldest democracy which is a blend of monarchy, aristocracy and democracy.1. New democracy which is a parliamentary and republic.
1. Unwritten constitution. The administration is carried out based on great charters, statutes, conventions which are backed by tradition and public support. 2. Lengthiest written constitution.
1. Flexible constitution. There is no distinction between ordinary law and amendment.3. Mix of rigidity and flexibility. Some parts of the constitution can be modified by ordinary law and some require special process.
1. Unitary constitution. The provincial governments are for administrative purposes only. They can be abolished at any time by the center.
4. Federal constitution with a strong center. There is division of power between center and states with residual power with the center. Also, the subjects (union+concurrent) available to the center is significant.
4. British system is based on the doctrine of supremacy of parliament. The laws made by the parliament cannot be declared void by judiciary.
2. Indian system is based on the doctrine of supremacy of constitution. The Supreme Court is constitutional given the right to validate the laws passed via judicial review.
3. The head of the state/president or Crown is not elected but decided by inheritance. 6. The head of the state is elected by the people indirectly.
1. Shadow cabinet is formed by the opposition party. Almost every member shadows the ministers. The leader of opposition heads the shadow cabinet. They closely monitor the working of respective ministries. 7. There is no such concept here.
1. Civil service
UKIndia
1. Elaborate recruitment procedure called country house method is used. After candidate qualified after the written tests are taken for a 2 day interview tests to a country house and various interviews individual/group are carried out.1. See USA.
1. There is a 2 year probationary period.2. There is no probation period.
1. Promotions are carried out professionally :
* Candidate is informed well in advance of vacant posts.
* Suitability is decided by board.
* Aggrieved candidates have the right to appeal.3. It is carried out by the Department of Personnel and Training. The is scope to improve this area.
1. A highly comprehensive system is in place for better employer (state) and employee relations - whitley counsels. 4. There is no such mechanism.
1. Rights
* They have the right to express views on non political matters of public importance.
* There is a total ban on political activities at higher level. It becomes less relaxed to the middle and lower levels. The lower levels can participate in all the political activities.
* Right to strike is not illegal. However they can be subjected to disciplinary actions.
* Right to form/join associations and collectively bargain is allowed.5.Rights
* They dont have any rights to comment on policy matters. This is done to ensure political neutrality.
* They cannot involve in any political activity like joining political parties, attending meetings, etc. However they enjoy the right to vote.
* They dont have the right to strike.
* Right to form/join associations is guaranteed. However the government would consult or negotiate only with the recognized ones.
* Parliamentary Commissioner
UKIndia
1. Limited scope. Does not include ministers, PM and MPs.
2. Wider scope includes ministers, PM and MPs.
1. He investigates matters of maladministration which he is free to define.
2. He investigates matters of corruption.
3. All the matters that are referred to him come via MP. This process is known as MP filter.
4. The aggrieved citizens can directly approach him.
5. He is only an investigation agency and cannot persecute.
6. After investigation, the findings are presented in a special court. A copy is also sent to the competent authority that has to report with the action taken.
1. CAG
UKIndia
1. He is an officer of the parliament and audits the accounts of the union.
2. He is a constitutional body who audits the accounts of union as well the state.
3. Any money can be drawn by the executive from the public exchequer only after his approval. He is both the comptroller and auditor.
4. He has no control over the money drawn from the consolidated funds and is involved only during the audit stage when the expenditure has already occurred. He is only auditor.
India and France
1. General difference
FranceIndia
1. Rigid constitution, a special procedure requiring 60% majority in both houses is required. 1. Already covered
1. Features of direct democracy like :-
* President seeking referendum on amendments Is available.2. No such futures.
1. Highly unitary government. No separation of power and power to abolish provincial governments.3. Already covered.
1. Quasi-Presidential and Quasi-Parliamentary system. The president is elected by the people and is powerful. There also exists a cabinet headed by PM responsible to the legislature.4. Already covered.
1. Restricted parliament, it can make laws only on those subjects listed in the constitution. The residual powers are vested with the executive. This is to ensure powerful executive.5. There is no such distinction.
1. There exists a constitutional council to check the constitutional validity of the executive decrees and parliamentary laws.6. There is no such provision.
1. The peculiarities of the constitution like powerful executive, direct democracy, emergency provisions etc are to ensure smooth working of the system as France has the history of unstable governments and redrafting the constitution every 12 years.7. NA
1. Office of President
FranceIndia
1. Directly elected by people. The candidate has to secure absolute majority. If there are no results then 2nd ballot is used to decide between the first two candidates securing highest votes.
2. Already covered.
3. No age restrictions and elected for a fixed term of 5 years. He can be removed by impeachment involving parliament and judiciary.
4. He has to be 35+.
5. He is powerful with the following functions:-
* He presides over the cabinet meetings and directly influences the government.
* He appoints the president and members of the constitutional council.
* He can summon special sessions of the parliament.
1. He has only nominal powers.
2. There is a constitutional provision to ensure republican form of government meaning there is no scope for monarchy through amendment.
3. There is no such provision although its a basic structure of the constitution.
1. Civil service
France India
1. It is known as civil service state or administrative state due to the weak government.1. Stable government.
1. It had the system of Sale of Office; the vacant posts were sold to the highest bidder.2. It has been merit based.
1. The Ecole Nationaled Administration (ENA) is the apex institute involved in pre-entry, recruitment, post-entry training.3. Already covered.
1. It has world class training. Some feature:
* Practical rather than theoretical.
* Handled by senior civil servants.
* Provision for private trainings.
* Long term trainings.4. It is not as comprehensive as France.
1. Provision to switch to private and public is available.5. There is no such provision.
1. Promotions are based on merit and seniority.6. Promotions are based on merit.
1. They enjoy all the rights :
* They enjoy freedom of expression on all matters.
* They can join/form association/trade unions.
* They are given the right to strike.
* They enjoy all the political rights. In fact they can get elected and come back to the service after resigning. 7. Indias rights can be derived from points mentioned against USA/UK above.
* Administrative courts
FranceIndia
1. It is created to provide justice to citizens on all administrative matters. The scope is wider. The administrative laws known as Droit Adminsitratif are safeguarded.
2. It has a narrower scope and is created for curbing corruption.
3. It can ask for compensation to the aggrieved citizens as well as take asks action on disciplinary matters.
4. It can only ask to take action on disciplinary matters.
India and Japan
1. General differences
JapanIndia
1. Features of direct democracy like ratification of amendments passed in the legislature by people at special referendums.1. Already covered.
1. Unitary constitution with no separation of powers.2. Already covered.
1. Constitutional monarch enjoys only ceremonial functions.
* He does not enjoy the power to choose but only appoint the PM. PM is chosen by diet.
* He does not appoint the ministers. They are appointed by PM.
* He cannot remove the ministers. They are removed by PM.3. Elected president and enjoys few powers.
* He enjoys the power to choose and appoint PM.
* He appoints the ministers of course on the advice of PM.
* He can remove the ministers on the advice of PM.
1. Parliamentary government with powerful PM. He can appoint and remove the ministers. He can choose at will but majority have to be from the diet.4. PM does not enjoy the power to choose from outside the parliament.
1. Renunciation of war is a constitutional provision that was added by the General MacArthur to see that Japan does not have the sovereign right to raise war.5. Its a matter of Indias foreign policy.
1. Civil service
JapanIndia
1. The administrative officers called careermen or elitos are attached to ministries. Japan seems to believe in specialist administrators.1. IAS is not attached to any ministry. They move from one to another. India believes administration is a generalist job.
1. All the civil servants join on the same day 1st April, the 1st day of financial year.2. They can join at will.
1. Promotions are based on seniority then educational background, university and area of specialization.3. It is based on merit.
1. At lower levels promotions are based on written tests.4. It is uniform across levels.
1. System of collective seniority is prevalent at higher levels. Civil servants who have same seniority get promoted at the same time. Whoever is not able to find position has to resign and start Second career. 5. There is no such provision.
1. On retirement, a civil servant is placed in a private corporation. This system is called amakudari system.6. There is no such provision.
1. Rights
* Right to form/join associations is allowed except for police and maritime safety agency.7. Indias rights can be derived from points mentioned against USA/UK above.
Sample questions of PubAdm (mains)
1. Government has been slow in using modern methods for discovering executive talent Examine the validity of the statement with reference to recruitment to higher civil service in India. USA and France (1990)
2. In what respects, the powers of proposed institution of Lok Pal in the Bill already introduced in Indian Parliament, will strengthen the institution as compared to Parliamentary Commissioner of UK? (2001)
References
1. Public Administration M. Lakshikanth
2. Indian Polity M. Lakshmikanth
3. PRS - http://www.prsindia.org
4. Internet digging.
Personal Info:
Name: Rajith P.R.
