Why are British election dates not as rigid as American ones? US elections are on Nov 3 every four years. But in the U.K. there was one on 2010, then no election til 2015 and then one in 2017
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In the UK elections have to be held at minimum every 5 years, but the current government can always decide to hold a “snap election” sooner than that.
Currently we have a fixed term in office of five years. This can only be changed with the permission of our elected representatives – MPs
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The US Election Day isn’t November 3, it’s the first Tuesday in November. It hasn’t been on the 3rd since 2020. Also, it’s only the Presidential election that is held every four years; Congressional and Senate elections are held every two years, and state and local-level elections can be held in other years too.
The UK has an entirely different system of government. The Prime Minister is not elected by the people, he or she is chosen by the majority party in Parliament. A Parliament can sit for at most five years, after which they must have an election, but the Prime Minister can call for early elections if they want. Because this can happen at any time of year, there is no set day except that in the UK it is conventionally always a Thursday.
There’s a deep structural difference in the way parliaments (generally) work compared to how the US government works. Parliaments are intended to have governing majorities pretty much at all times. And in the UK, only the lower house (the House of Commons) really matters and their leadership is the executive. Imagine if the Senate basically could only delay bills for a year, all the Cabinet Secretaries were congressional representatives, and the President was 100% ceremonial (but gets a crown).
So, an election happens in the UK. The largest party usually has a majority, but if they don’t they can negotiate with other parties to try to get one. The winning leader becomes prime minister and other leaders become other executive ministers. This “forms a government” and the new ministers write a speech (read out by the monarch) laying out what the government intends to get done.
But support and agendas can change. There’s a maximum of five years between elections, but they can be triggered early:
1) The government can call a “vote of confidence” to demonstrate that they still have the majority, and the opposition can call a “vote of no confidence” to demonstrate that they’ve lost it. If a majority goes against the government, either the government gets replaced by someone who does have a majority of the House of Commons, or by an election if they can’t agree on someone. This can also happen by default when certain bills fail, usually the budget.
2) The government can explicitly trigger an election. Say popular support for something has grown since the last election but parliament is resisting. The prime minister can say, “I think the people want X, you don’t, so we’re having an election to prove I’m right,” on the idea that the voters will elect a majority for X.
Well for starters, U.S. elections are *not* on November 3rd, they’re on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November. This means election day can be any day between November 2nd and November 8th.
But to answer your question directly, they have different law and a different political system. and that’s just how their election laws work. Their election laws require elections at least every 5 years but they can have early elections in certain circumstances. U.S. law does not allow for early elections to be called.
Because some people think that having unplanned elections is better. I think the UK still has a rule about the maximum length of a term, but it can be ended before that if there is a “vote of no confidence”. In that case the term ends early and there is an election.
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