Lecture 4 - The USA

Theme 4.

The structure of the Federal Government

The system of checks and balances

The US is a democratic republic. The National Government is the government of all the people and their representatives. It’s called the FederalGovernment because the nation is a federation of states. The US Constitution gave the FG only limited powers, all others belong to the individual states. The main principles of the governmental system:

1) separation of powers,

2) system of checks&balances,

3)federalism

1) There are 3 branches of powers: legislative, executive, judicial. Each branch has different functions. No member of one branch can have a seat in the other two.

2) This system implies that each branch is checked and controlled  by the other two.  This is to keep any branch from gaining too much power or from misusing its powers. The system makes compromise and consensus necessary. The system protects against extremes .

3) The division between the national government, state and local governments. Federalism is more efficient for large land masses because the local government is much closer to their people than the federal.

National (federal) level: Congress– President, Administration  – Supreme court , Federal courts.

State: State Legislature  – Goverment – State Courts.

Local (City): City Council– Mayor  – Municipal Courts.

The Congress of the US

Supreme  legislative body

Congress  meets in Washington DC consists of 2 chambers: the Senate & the House of Representatives. The composition of Congress reflects the historical background of the Constitution. All states are represented equally in the Senate. Two senators from each state independent of their territory and population, thus 100 members, each elected for a term of 6 years. The elections are held every 2 years and 1/3 of the Senate is elected. A Senator  must be at least 30 years old, a citizen of the USA for at least 10 years. The Senate is presided  over by Vice President. He doesn’t vote but does cast a deciding vote in the case of a tie. The Senate is the only body to try all impeachments  – accusations of a public officer for treason or misconduct during the term of office.

The House of Representatives has 435 members+3 for Washington DC who are elected every 2 years. They must be at least 25 years old, citizens of the US for at least 7 years. Representation is based on population. The country is divided into congressional districts with equal population in each. Each state, no matter how small its population is, has at least 1 representative. In the USA there are on the whole 538 Congressmen (100+435+3). The presiding  person of the HR is the speaker.

The work of both houses is largely done in committees. There are 16 permanent committees in the Senate and 20 in the H of Representatives. The main function of the committee is to inquire into each bill and to recommend whether the bill should be accepted or not, or to recommend changes to it. Legislation can originate in either the Senate  or the House of Representative, but before any bill is sent to the President for signature, it must be passed by both houses. Besides the main power of Congress of passing laws, there are some more powers: approve state budget, set federal taxes, approve presidential appointments, overrule presidential vetos, declare war, impeach the president.

Theme 5.   

The Judicial branch

The judicial  branch interprets the laws and makes sure that new laws agree with the Constitution.

The judicial branch of government has three levels:

Level 1: The Supreme Court created by the Constitution.

Level 2: 13 courts of appeal

Level 3: 91 Federal district courts and special.

The Supreme Court has nine members, called justices (the nine old men), who are appointed for life by the President with the consent of the Senate. This is so that they can remain independent, and not be afraid of losing their jobs if the government does not like their decisions. The head of the court is the Chief Justice.

Three types of cases commonly reach the Supreme Court:

1.     Cases involving litigants of different states.

2.     Cases involving the interpretation of federal law.

3.     Cases involving the interpretation of the Constitution.

The U.S. is notorious for its high crime rates. To get through with criminals, many states have been applying the death penalty or capital punishment. The other serious problem threatening public safety is the accessibility of handguns. In average, Americans own 2 handguns for every three households .

Theme 6. President as the head of the Executive power, the US administration.

The Executive Department is headed by President. He is both the Head of the Government and the head of the state. The official residence – Washington DC. The President is elected for a 4 years term. Under 22 amendment he can’t be elected more than twice. He must be a natural born US citizen, at least 35 years old.

The Constitution gives the President wide executive powers:

·  Commander-in-Chief  of the armed forces

·  Has the power to make treaties with other countries

·  Appoints ambassadors, judges 

·  Has the power to veto the legislation.

·   Pocket veto– the president doubts or hesitates. In 10 days the Bill becomes law even without the president’s signature.

·  Has the authority to recommend measures to Congress, merely all important legislation originates in the White House

·  He is the major legislator

·  Is required by the Constitution to inform the Congress on the state of the union. Each year in January he presents a Report to Congress in which he reviews the work of the government for the past year and outlines the proposals for the current year.

The Cabinet

The President’s control over the Federal Executive Administration is primarily exercised through the heads of 14 executive departments. Department heads/secretaries are responsible to the President who can ask for their resignation at any time. The members of the cabinet are never members of the Congress. Their appointment requires the Senate’s approval, but this is generally a formality. The Cabinet is usually composed of members of the Presidents’s political party (republicans– the ruling party). Much of the President’s power derives from the fact that he is the Head of the political party. Each incoming  President awards thousands of government posts to leaders and members of his party.

Departments: of State, Treasury, Defence, Justice, Agriculture, Labour, Health, Education, Transportation etc. in addition to them there are numerous boards and offices as well as independent agencies, (FBI - Federal Bureau of Investigation), NASA - National Aeronaughtics and Space Administration

 The Presidential Elections  

They are held in leap-year. They consist of 2 separate campaigns one is for the nomination of candidates at national party conventions, the other is to win the actual elections. The whole campaign & the election lasts a year:

1) winter - declaration of ΄candidates;

2) spring – primary elections;

3) summer – nominating conventions;

4) November – general elections;

5) December – electorial college;

6) 20 January – the day of inauguration.

1) Everyone who wants declares  himself when he’s going to run the race.

2) Сandidates and campaign managers  develop a strategy to win delegates from numerous primary caucuses. Candidates win their party nomination through successful showings in presidential primaries and state caucuses. A presidential primary   is a state-wide election where voters from each party select the candidate they like to represent their party in the general elections. These candidates are awarded the status “delegates”. They vote then for the candidate at the party notion convention. The candidate with most delegates wins the nomination and the right to run in the nation presidential elections.

3) The nominating race is the competition between the members of the same party. Nomination conventions are held by each party to nominate the presidential and vice-presidential candidates and write a platform.

4) The run between the candidates from different parties. Big campaigns (TV ads, TV debates– opportunity for the public to determine each candidate’s qualifications.

5) The Election College is a method of indirect popular election of the president. The EC is a group of people called electors, sometimes delegates, and each represents an electorial vote. They relected by their states to officially elect the President & Vice-President. The number of electorial votes is equal to the number of representatives in both Houses of Congress (more population->more power at the elections) 538 people. The EC is based on a “winner-take-all” system. The winner of the majority of votes in each state gets all of that state’s electorial votes. The system was designed  to prevent a candidate  who is very popular in a particular region from winning the elections based on the success only there. The electors arrive at their state capital on the 1^st Monday after the 2^nd Wednesday in December to cast their ballots. Then the ballots are sent to Congress, where they are counted in early January and the winner is declared. If nobody wins a majority the House chooses among the 3 top-candidates.

Theme 7. Education in the USA

Education in the US is provided mainly by the government, with control and funding coming from three levels: federal, state, and local.

 Each state in America is divided into School Districts governed by an elected School Board. School Boards have a relatively high degree of freedom, and set educational policy  within their district. Typically education is compulsory from first grade (usually age 6) to tenth grade (age 16), although in many states children must remain in education until twelfth grade (age 18).

Preschool

There are no mandatory preschool education programs in the U S, and state funded preschool institutions are few.

Elementary School

 For most American children, the first five or six years of education is spent in Elementary School. The first year of ES (optional in most states) is spent in Kindergarten, which is designed to prepare young children for First Grade. In ES children are given basic grounding in English, Mathematics, History, Science, Art  and Music.

Middle School

The age at which children move on to MS, or “Junior High”, varies greatly among states, but is usually around grades 4 or 5 (ages 10 or 11). Here students can usually choose which subjects they study, and their school day is structured around moving from room to room for different lessons.

High School

The vast  majority of students move on to HS after 8^th grade (age 13). The curriculum for American HS students remains extremely diverse, and students have only a very limited ability to specialise in particular subjects. In the final year of HS most students will sit SAT exams (Scholastic Assessment Tests), which are made up of two main elements: an SAT Reasoning Test, which tests general skills in critical reading and maths & SAT Subject Tests in different subjects varying from languages, sciences and history.

College /Higher Education

Many students go on to higher education, with Colleges usually admitting  students on the basis of their SAT scores and their extra-circular activities. After four years of study, students can expect to receive a Bachelor of Arts or Bachelor of Science (BS) degree. Undergraduate study is the first opportunity for many students to specialize in particular subject areas. Students can then, if they wish, move on to post-graduate study, and be awarded a range of Masters degrees. Both state and private  universities are very common in the USA. The Private Universities tend to be the more prestigious, and most of the “Ivy League” schools (Harvard, Princeton and Yale.

Private schools:

 Although 85% of students in America attend free state-funded public schools, private schools do exist at every educational level (including preschool in the United States.