STATE AND POLITICAL SYSTEM OF THE USA

The United States is the longest-surviving existent constitutional republic *.

The Constitution of the USA (1789) creates the basic structure of the federal system, in which political power is divided between the national government and the government of each state**. So, there are three levels of political power: the federal, the state and the local. The constitution contains 7 original articles; the Bill of Rights (the first 10 Amendments to the Constitution (1791)) which is about the fundamental rights of any American: the freedom of religion, speech, and the press, the right of peaceful assembly, and the right to petition the government to correct wrongs, etc.; further 17 Amendments to the Constitution.

The US Constitution has proved to be a remarkably stable document. If one accepts that the first 10 amendments were in effect part of the original constitutional settlement, there have only been 17 amendments in over 200 years. One of the major reasons for this is that – quite deliberately on the part of its drafters – the Constitution is a very difficult instrument to change. First, a proposed amendment has to secure a two-thirds vote of members present in both houses of Congress. Then three-quarters of the state legislatures have to ratify the proposed change (this stage may or may not be governed by a specific time limit).

At the heart of the US Constitution is the principle known as “ separation of powers ”, a term coined by the French political, enlightenment thinker Montesquieu. This means that power is spread between three institutions of the state (branches of power) – the executive, the legislature and the judiciary – and no one institution has too much power and no individual can be a member of more than one institution.

This principle is also known as “ checks and balances ”, since each of the three branches of the state has some authority to act on its own, some authority to regulate the other two branches, and has some of its own authority, in turn, regulated by the other branches.

Not only is power spread between the different branches; the members of those branches are deliberately granted by the Constitution different terms of office which is a further brake on rapid political change. So the President has a term of four years, while members of the Senate serve for six years and members of the House of Representatives serve for two years. Members of the Supreme Court effectively serve for life.

The great benefit of this system is that power is spread and counter-balanced and the “founding fathers” who drafted the Constitution clearly wished to create a political system which was in sharp contrast to, and much more democratic than, the monarchical system of absolute power then in force in Britain. The great weakness of the system is that it makes government slow, complicated and legalistic which is a particular disadvantage in a world – unlike that of 1776 – in which political and economic developments are fast-moving.

Under the system of checks and balances each branch of power acts within its constitutional limits and has the following powers:

The legislative (Congress) has the power to:

· propose new laws;

· decide upon taxes and how money is spent;

· overrule presidential veto by two-thirds majority;

· bring impeachment to the President.

· Senate confirms presidential appointments to executive and judicial posts

· Congress exerts oversight of executive activities

• Can impeach and remove judges and justices

• Sets size of Supreme Court

• Can initiate constitutional amendments

• Creates federal courts inferior to the Supreme Court

The executive (the President) has the power to:

· veto laws;

· appoint Supreme Court Justices;

· grant pardons to federal offenders.

· Represents federal government before the court

· Vice President is President of the Senate and can break tie votes

The Judiciary (the Supreme Court) has the power to:

· determine which laws apply to any given case;

· determine whether a law is unconstitutional.

• declare presidential acts unconstitutional

• Chief Justice presides over trials of presidential impeachment

1. The USA legislature. The parliament of the Unites States – the Congress

The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the US, consisting of two houses – the Senate and the House of Representatives.

1.1. The House of Representatives is the lower chamber in the bicameral legislature.

The House consists of 435 members, each of whom represents a congressional district and serves for a two-year term. House seats are proportional to the population of states. Typically a House constituency would represent around 500,000 people.

Members of the House are elected by first-past-the-post voting in every state except Louisiana and Washington, which have run-offs. Elections are always held on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November in even numbered years. Voting levels in congressional elections – especially to the House – are generally much lower than levels in other liberal democracies. In a year when there is a Presidential election, turnout is typically around 50%; in years when there is no Presidential election (known as mid-terms), it usually falls to around one third of the electorate.

In the event that a member of the House of Representatives dies or resigns before the end of the two-year term, a special election is held to fill the vacancy.

The House has four non-voting delegates from American Samoa (1981), the District of Columbia (1971), Guam (1972) and the Virgin Islands (1976) and one resident commissioner for Puerto Rico (1976), bringing the total formal membership to 440.

The House is presided over by the Speaker.

1.2. The Senate of the USA is the upper chamber in the bicameral legislature.

The Senate consists of 100 members, each of which represents a state and serves for a six-year term (one third of the Senate stands for election every two years).

Each state has two Senators, regardless of population, and, since there are 50 states, then there are 100 senators. This equality of Senate seats between states has the effect of producing huge variations in constituency population (the two senators from Wyoming represent less than half a million electors, while the two senators from California represent 34 million people) with gross over-representation of the smaller states and serious under-representation of racial and ethnic minorities.

Members of the Senate are elected by first-past-the-post voting in every state except Louisiana and Washington, which have run-offs. Elections are always held on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November in even numbered years.

In the event that a member of the Senate dies or resigns before the end of the six-year term, no special election is held to fill the vacancy. Instead the Governor of the state that the Senator represented nominates someone to serve until the next set of Congressional elections when a normal election is held to fill the vacancy.

The Vice President of the United States is the ex officio President of the Senate, with authority to preside over the Senate's sessions, although he can vote only to break a tie. For decades the task of presiding over Senate sessions was one of the vice president's principal duties. Since the 1950s, vice presidents have presided over few Senate debates. The Constitution authorizes the Senate to elect a president pro tempore (Latin for "president for a time") to preside in the vice president's absence. Like the vice president, the president pro tempore does not normally preside over the Senate, but typically delegates the responsibility of presiding to junior senators of the majority party, usually in blocks of one hour on a rotating basis.

Legislative functions of the US Congress. Congress creates, abolishes and changes federal laws, which govern the nation. It plays an important role in establishing public policy – what the government does or does not say in response to political issues. Congress investigates the actions of the executive as well.

Though the main function of the House of Representatives and the Senate are alike there are some independent duties. Thus, the Senate approves or rejects the people that the president appoints to certain high-level federal positions. It also approves or rejects treaties that the President makes. The House’s unique right is to deal with taxes and spending: the Constitution provides that “All bills for raising Revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives”.