US politics;

In my attempt to know what's going on in the preparation for Ali's big project for US election WINOL, I have done a little research on American politics.

I found it easiest to distinguish the major differences between UK and US governments because they work completely differently.
The most obvious difference is that we have a parliamentary democracy (we have a prime minister) and the US have a presidential democracy, giving them a president.
A prime minster is not the head of state (the monarchy is) but supervises government power, putting the laws the government decides on into practice. However, a president is the head of state, meaning they have control of government, as well control of the military, and is able to call upon the legislature as any time.

With Romney and Obama battling for the title of US president I figured it was best to outline how the president is determined. .
In the US the executive, legislature (Congress - The senate and House of Representatives) and judiciary separated, unlike our parliamentary government who have elected (House of Commons) and unelected (House of Lords) members standing in more than one branch of government. The US cabinet cannot stand in the legislature like ours do.
The separation of the branches of government in the US' federal system is one of the main reasons why their electoral system is different from our unitary government. A federal government power is split between the executive and the constituencies, which are the different states. This means that the elected authority in each state has the power to make constitutional changes - but when these congress offices are elected they do not effect who is president. Our unitary government only uses local government as a means of representation of executive power- a middle man - serving as the 'administrative arms' of central government.

In the US the president is elected by the electoral college, made up of elected 'electors' who are chose by each state. Before the elector is chosen, they make a pledge as to which of the president and vice president candidates they will vote for if they are elected. The electors pledges aren't binding and they are able to change their minds once elected, but it is their pledges which constituents vote for. Once all of the electors have voted, whichever party has the overall majority becomes president.
Our prime minister is elected by the number of seats their party gains in parliament through local government elections (this does not necessarily reflect the majority of votes, instead is determined by the party who is first past the post in terms of seats in parliament) - the local government candidate represents a political party and a seat in parliament.