Is there any differences between these two words? Thanks
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2Of course there is. For starters, some countries have the one, others have the other. Have you ever heard of the US Parliament? Or the UK Congress?– RegDwigнt ♦Aug 5, 2015 at 10:08
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As a first approximation there is little difference. Political theorists could give you a basic distinction, but in pretty much all cases the details are spelled out in the government's organizing statutes (such as the US Constitution), so one could easily have a given legislative body called "congress" that is close to the British Parliament in operation, or a body called "parliament" which is close to the US Congress in operation.– Hot LicksAug 5, 2015 at 13:07
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(I recently read somewhere that the authors of the US Constitution chose to name the legislative body "Congress" rather than "Parliament" because they wanted the legislators to not get swelled heads, and "congress" was (at the time) a sort of "blah" term.)– Hot LicksAug 5, 2015 at 13:10
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1 Answer
They refer to two different democratic systems but they both are representative bodies with supreme legislative powers within a state.
Parliamentary democracy and congressional democracy are two systems of government that are utilized in democratic governments.
Parliamentary democracy is a system of democratic governance in which the executive branch is held accountable to the legislative branch and the head of government is almost always a member of the legislature. The Parliament is the legislative branch of a parliamentary democracy. This type of democracy is found in Britain and in free, independent countries that Britain used to rule.
Conversely, a congressional democracy is a system of democratic governance in which the executive branch is separate from the legislative branch and the head of government is not a member of the legislature. The Congress is the legislative branch of a congressional democracy. This type of democracy is found in the United States and a few other democratic countries.
While these two systems of government have similarities, they also have a few very important differences.
(study.com/academy)