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Essay / Government: Canada and China - 698
The two countries I chose to compare are China and Canada. Their systems of government are very different and have different powers and roles in their countries. Canada has a system of government very similar to ours. Although the Chinese government also seems similar, it is quite different. The government of Canada is democratic and parliamentary in form, but it is very similar to ours. Like all big governments, it is a representative democracy. Canada has a central government designed to deal with the country as a whole. Areas like national defense, banking, currency and trade are controlled by the central government. All other questions are left to the provinces. Education, hospitals and civil rights are the responsibility of states. The Canadian Parliament is made up of two chambers. Their Senate is made up of 104 members who serve until the age of seventy-five. The House of Commons is made up of 295 members elected by universal suffrage for a five-year term. Parliament elects the executive, the Prime Minister. Canada has a federal system and is divided into ten provinces which have powers like our states. The Chinese government is a dictatorship led by the Communist Party. A prime minister, now Li Peng, leads the country. Executive powers rest with the State Council, headed by Premier Li Peng. The National People's Congress is the most powerful organ of the Chinese government. Its members are indirectly elected for a five-year term. One representative is elected in each province for 400,000 inhabitants, with a minimum of ten representatives for each. There are approximately 3,000 representatives in the Chinese Congress. China also has a federal government. The country is divided into provinces, which are further divided into even smaller divisions of several types. The Communist Party controls the government. Other parties exist, but the Communist Party controls the government. Canada and China are very different states and are run by very different forms of government. The fundamental difference between the two governments lies in the distribution of sovereignty in the counties. In China, it seems that the people play an important role in the government, but after studying it, it is obvious that the power actually belongs to the communist party and the dictatorship. While in Canada, the people popularly elect their representatives who elect their prime minister.