The Political System of the United States

of America
(Compiled by
Oleksiy Zabolotnyi
; based on
Spotlight on the USA
, by
Randee Falk
, OUP, 1993)
The United States is an indirect democracy. It means that
peoplerule through representatives they elect. Over time the vote
hasbeen given to more and more people. In the beginning
onlywhite men with property could vote. Today virtually any
citizenwho is at least 18 years old can vote.

The Constitution

The United States Constitution, written in 1787 and ratified in

1788, established thecountrys political system and is the basis
for its laws. The constitution is based on thedoctrine of the
separation of powers between the executive, legislative and
judiciarybranches. Despite the fact that the USA has
experiencedenormous growth and change in the course of its
history, theConstitution works today as well as in the period when
it waswritten. Since 1788, 26 amendments have been added.
Thefirst ten, known as the Bill of Rights, established a number of
individual liberties. Among them are the freedoms of religion,of
speech, and the press, the right of peaceful assembly, andthe
right to petition the government to correct wrongs. Otherrights
guarded the citizens against unreasonable searches, arrests and
seizures of property. The 13
th
, 14
th
and 15
th
Amendments abolished slavery and gave African-Americans the
rightto vote.
Federalism
The United States of America is a federal state. There are 50
individual states, each with itsown government, united under the
rule of a single federal, or national, government. Somepowers,
such as, for example, the power to declare war, belong to the
federal government;some powers belong to the states. For
example, each state establishes its own educationalsystem.
However, some powers, like taxation, belong to both national and
stategovernments.

Three Branches of Government

Within the national government, power is divided among three
branches: the legislative,executive, and judicial branches.
The legislative branch
is represented by the USCongress, which consists of two parts:
the House of Representatives and the Senate. There are
435representatives and 100 senators (2 from each state). The
number of representatives from each state dependsupon the size
of the states population. Congresss mainfunction is to make
laws.
Right:
US Capitol in Washington D.C. is where the Congress sits.
The executive branch
is headed by the President of theUnited States who is also the
head of the country. ThePresident is elected for a term of four
years and can onlybe re-elected for one more term. The President
must be a

natural-born citizen of the United States, at least 35 years old,

and a resident of the countryfor at least 14 years.
Right:
The White House is the Presidents residence.
The President forms the Cabinet with the approval of the Senate.
There are 14 departmentsheaded by

secretaries
of State, Treasury, Defense, Interior, Agriculture, Commerce,
Labor,Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban
Development, Transportation, Education,Energy, Veterans Affairs,
and the Attorney General. However, a lot of power is exercised
bypresidential
aides
who are not members of the Cabinet. For example, the
PresidentsExecutive Office includes the Office of Management
andBudget, the Council of Economic Advisors, and the
NationalSecurity Council.
The judicial branch
interprets the laws and makes surethat new laws do not
contradict the Constitution. There areseveral levels of federal
courts. The Supreme Court is themost important. It consists of
nine members (
see the photoon the right
) who are appointed for life.

The system of checks and balances, established by the

Constitution, prevents any branchfrom having too much power.
Each branch has certain controls over the other branches.