Parliament and Prime Ministers

I had mentioned a few weeks ago I would tackle how the Prime Minister is chosen. Its always been confusing for me, so this is more for me than anyone else. Turns out it's pretty much as confusing as I thought it would be. Here we go.

People in England likely think the United States system is really confusing. So, I'll try to explain it by comparing the United States' and England's system. If you understand one, that will help you understand the other.

First of all, England has Parliament (US: Congress), which is made up of an upper, hoity-toity, group, the House of Lords (US: The Senate), and a lower house, the House of Commons (House of Representatives). The king or queen is the head of the country and the prime minister is the head of the government. (In 1776, the U.S. decided not to have a monarch, so a president fulfills both roles). The monarch does a lot of ceremonial things, while the prime minister executes the laws (the president does both). Parliament has primarily two parties - Labour and Conservative (US: Democrats and Republicans). 

Now, the hard part. The United Kingdom is divided into hundreds of what are called constituencies. They each elect a person to represent them. The party that has the majority "forms a government", which includes a prime minister. There is no ballot with the candidates names that people have a chance to vote for. They elect the representatives, then the winning party selects one of their own to be the party's and government's leader. That person then is technically appointed by the monarch. (The U.S. is kind of the reverse. The parties pick the candidates through primaries/conventions, then the people of the country vote on those candidates). 

I might have simplified this too much, but it's the only way I could understand it. There are a few other possible complications in each system, but they don't come up that often and are pretty confusing anyway.