GOVERNMENT
THE NATIONAL GOVERNMENT
The U.S. Constitution defines a federal system of government in
which certain powers are delegated to the national government;
other powers fall to the states. The national government consists
of executive, legislative, and judicial branches that are
designed to check and balance one another; all are interrelated
and overlapping yet each is quite distinct.
Since the Constitution was ratified in 1788, there have been 27
amendments to it. The first 10, known as the Bill of Rights,
established a number of individual liberties. Notable among the
other amendments are the 13th, 14th, and 15th, which abolished
slavery and declared former slaves citizens with the right to
vote; the 17th, which provided for the direct election of U.S.
senators; and the 19th, which effected women's suffrage. The
last, 27th amendment to the United States Constitution was
adopted in 1992. Amending the Constitution requires a proposal by
a two-thirds vote of both houses of Congress or by a national
convention, followed by ratification by three-fourths of the
state legislatures or state conventions.
THE EXECUTIVE BRANCH
The executive branch of the government is headed by the
president, who must be a natural-born citizen of the United
States, at least 35 years old, and a resident of the country for
at least 14 years. The formal responsibilities of the president
include those of chief executive, treaty maker, commander in
chief of the army, and head of state. In practice, they have
grown to include drafting legislation, formulating foreign
policy, personal diplomacy, and leadership of his political
party. The members of the president's Cabinet - the secretaries
of State, Treasury, Defense, Interior, Agriculture, Commerce,
Labor, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development,
Transportation, Education, Energy, and Veterans Affairs and the
attorney general - are appointed by the president with the
approval of the Senate; they are described in the Twenty-fifth
Amendment as "the principal officers of the executive
departments," but much power has come to be exercised by
presidential aides who are not in the Cabinet. Thus, the
president's Executive Office includes the Office of Management
and Budget, the Council of Economic Advisers, and the National
Security Council.
THE LEGISLATIVE BRANCH
The legislative branch of the government is the Congress, which
has two houses: the Senate and the House of Representatives.
Powers granted Congress under the Constitution include the power
to levy taxes, borrow money, regulate interstate commerce,
declare war, seat members, discipline its own membership, and
determine its rules of procedure.
With the exception of revenue bills, which must originate in the
House of Representatives, legislative bills may be introduced in
and amended by either house; a bill - with its amendments - must
pass both houses and be signed by the president before it becomes
law. The president may veto a bill, but a veto can be overridden
by a two-thirds vote of both houses.
The House of Representatives is chosen by the direct vote of the
electorate in single-member districts in each state, the number
of representatives allotted to each state being based on
population and the overall total never exceeding 435. Members
must be 25 years old, residents of the states from which they are
elected, and previously citizens of the United States for at
least seven years. It has become practically imperative, though
not constitutionally required, that they be inhabitants of the
districts that elect them. They serve for a two-year period. The
speaker of the House, who is chosen by the majority party,
presides over debate, appoints members of select and conference
committees, and performs other important duties. The
parliamentary leaders of the two parties are the majority floor
leader and the minority floor leader; they are helped by party
whips who maintain contact between the leadership and the members
of the House. Bills introduced by members in the House of
Representatives are received by the standing committees, which
meet in private executive session and can amend, expedite, delay,
or kill the bills. The committee chairmen traditionally have
attained their positions on the basis of seniority, but this
practice has been challenged. Among the most important committees
are those on Appropriations, Ways and Means, and Rules. The Rules
Committee, traditionally conservative, has great power to
determine which bills will be brought to the floor of the House
for consideration.
Each state elects two senators at large. Senators must be at
least 30 years old, residents of the state from which they are
elected, and previously citizens of the United States for at
least nine years. Each term of service is for six years, and
terms are so arranged that one-third of the members are elected
every two years.
The Senate has 16 standing committees, among which the most
prominent are those on Foreign Relations, Finance,
Appropriations, and Governmental Affairs. Debate is almost
unlimited and may be used to delay the vote on a bill
indefinitely. Such a delay is known as a filibuster and in most
instances can be brought to an end if three-fifths of the Senate
agree. Treaties made by the president with other governments must
be ratified by a two-thirds vote of the Senate.
THE JUDICIAL BRANCH
The judicial branch of the federal government is headed by the
U.S. Supreme Court, which interprets the meaning of the
Constitution and of federal laws. It consists of nine justices
(including the chief justice) appointed for life by the president
with the consent of the Senate. It has appellate jurisdiction for
the lower federal courts and from state courts of last resort if
a federal question is involved. The court has original
jurisdiction over cases involving foreign ambassadors, ministers,
consuls, and cases to which a state is a party.
Three types of cases commonly reach the Supreme Court: cases
involving litigants of different states, cases involving the
interpretation of federal law, and cases involving the
interpretation of the Constitution. The court can take official
action with as few as six judges joining in deliberation, and a
majority vote of the entire court is decisive; a tie vote
sustains a lower-court decision. Often the minority judges write
a dissenting report.
The Supreme Court has often been criticized for its decisions. In
the 1930s, for example, a conservative court overturned much of
President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal legislation. In the
area of civil rights it has received criticism from various
groups at different times. After a 1954 ruling against school
segregation, Southern political leaders attacked it harshly.
Later, they were joined by Northern conservatives. A number of
decisions involving the pretrial rights of prisoners also came
under attack on the ground that the court had made it difficult
to convict criminals.
Below the Supreme Court are the U.S. courts of appeals. Special
courts handle property and contract damage suits against the
United States (U.S. Claims Court), review customs rulings (U.S.
Court of International Trade), and apply the Uniform Code of
Military Justice (U.S. Court of Military Appeals). Each state has
at least one federal district court and at least one federal
judge. District judges are appointed for life by the president
with Senate consent. Appeals from district-court decisions are
carried to the courts of appeals.
REVENUE
The great majority of the federal government's revenues come from
taxes. The most important source is the personal income tax,
administered by the Internal Revenue Service. The receipts from
corporate income taxes yield a much smaller percentage of total
federal receipts. Another small percentage comes from federal
excise taxes, but this is offset by the fact that most of the
individual states levy their own excise and sales taxes. Federal
excise revenues come primarily from taxes on alcohol, gasoline,
and tobacco. Social-insurance taxes and contributions constitute
another important source of revenue; estate and gift taxes
account for only a tiny fraction of the total.
STATE AND MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENTS
The governments of the 50 states have structures closely
paralleling those of the federal government. Each state has a
governor, a legislature, and a judiciary. Each state has its own
constitution.
All state legislatures but one have two houses, Nebraska's being
unicameral. Traditionally, state legislatures have been dominated
by rural representatives who may not always be sympathetic to the
needs of growing urban areas. Most state judicial systems are
based upon elected justices of the peace (although in many states
this term is not used), above whom come major trial courts, often
called district courts, and appellate courts. In addition, there
are probate courts concerned with wills, estates, and
guardianships. Most state judges are elected.
State governments have a wide array of functions, encompassing
agriculture and conservation, highway and motor- vehicle
supervision, public safety and corrections, professional
licensing, regulation of intrastate business and industry, and
certain aspects of education, public health, and welfare. These
activities require a large administrative organization, headed by
the governor. In most states there is also a lieutenant governor,
not always of the same party as the governor, who serves as the
presiding officer of the Senate. Other elected officials commonly
include a secretary of state, state treasurer, state auditor,
attorney general, and superintendent of public instruction.
Municipal governments are more diverse in structure than state
governments. There are three basic types: mayor-council
governments, commission governments, and council-manager
governments. In the first type, the mayor and the council are
elected; although the council is nominally responsible for
formulating city ordinances, which the mayor enforces, the mayor
often controls the actions of the council. Boston, New York City,
Philadelphia, Chicago, and Seattle, Wash., are among those cities
having the mayor-council type of government. In the commission
type, voters elect a number of commissioners, each of whom serves
as head of a city department; the presiding commissioner is
generally the mayor. Tulsa, Okla., and Salt Lake City, Utah, are
included among the cities with commission governments. In the
council-manager type, an elected council hires a city manager to
administer the city departments. The mayor, elected by the
council, simply chairs it and officiates at important functions.
Des Moines, Iowa, and Cincinnati, Ohio, have council-manager
governments.
POLITICAL PARTIES
The United States has operated under a two-party system for most
of its history. Since the general election of 1856, the major parties have been the
Democratic Party, founded in 1824, and the Republican Party, founded in 1854.
The most common mascot symbol for the Democratic Party is the donkey.
The traditional mascot of the Republican Party is the elephant.
Other parties have occasionally challenged
these two but without permanent success.
Since the Civil War, only one third-party presidential candidate - former president
Theodore Roosevelt, running as a Progressive in 1912 - has won as much as 20% of the popular vote.
One reason for their
failure is that in order to win a national election, a party must
appeal to a broad base of voters and a wide spectrum of
interests. The two major parties thus tend to be moderate in
their programs, and there may often be little difference between
them on some issues. Each has a conservative wing, and each has a
wing that is considered liberal. The conservative Democrats tend
to be more conservative on racial issues, for example, than their
Republican counterparts; the liberal Democrats are more radical
on economic issues than the liberal Republicans. The national
parties contest presidential elections every four years, but,
between their quadrennial national conventions, they are often
little more than loose alliances of state and local party
organizations.
....
At the state level, political parties reflect the diversity of
the population. Large urban centers are more likely to support a
Democratic ticket, whereas rural areas, small cities, and
suburban areas tend more often to vote Republican. In many states
rural areas and smaller towns control the state legislatures,
even though the more populous city areas provide the greater
proportion of tax revenue. A Supreme Court ruling in 1964 sought
to remedy this situation by ordering states to reapportion their
legislatures more closely by population. Some states have
traditionally given majorities to one particular party. The states of the Northeast (e.g., Massachusetts and Connecticut) and
West Coast (e.g., California and Oregon) and some of the Great Lakes states (e.g., New York and Illinois), known as "blue states", are
relatively liberal; Democrats are
more likely to win there. The "red states" of the South (e.g., Texas and Oklahoma) and parts of the Great Plains and
Rocky Mountains (e.g., Kansas, Wyoming, and Utah) are relatively conservative; Republicans are
more likely to win there. Alaska is traditionally a "red state"; Hawaii is traditionally a "blue state".
NOTE: 2008 presidential election results map.
Blue denotes states/districts won by Obama/Biden, and Red denotes those won by McCain/Palin.
Numbers indicate the number of electoral votes allotted to the winner of each state. Obama
won one electoral vote (from Nebraska's 2nd congressional district) of Nebraska's five.
In elections for president and vice president, voters actually
choose among electors committed to the support of a particular
candidate, a system called the electoral college. Each state is
allotted one electoral vote for each senator and representative
in Congress.
The winner of the 2008 presidential election, Democrat Barack Obama, is the 44th U.S.
president and the first African American to hold the office. All previous presidents
were men of solely European descent. The 2008 elections also saw the Democratic Party
strengthen its control of both the House and the Senate. In the 111th United States Congress,
the Senate comprises 58 Democrats, two independents who caucus with the Democrats, and 40
Republicans; the House comprises 256 Democrats and 178 Republicans (one seat is vacant).
FOREIGN RELATIONS
The United States has large economic, political, and military
influence on a global scale, which makes its foreign policy a
subject of great interest and discussion around the world. Almost
all countries have embassies in Washington, D.C., and consulates
around the country. However, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, and Sudan
do not have formal diplomatic relations with the United States.
The U.S. is a founding member of the United Nations (with a
permanent seat on the Security Council), among many other
international organizations.
In 1949, in an effort to contain communism during the Cold War,
the U.S., Canada, and ten Western European nations formed the
North Atlantic Treaty Organization, a mutual-defense alliance in
which they have since been joined by 14 other European states -
including Turkey, which straddles the Eurasian border, and some
former Soviet states. In an example of realpolitik, the U.S. also
established diplomatic relations with Communist countries that
were antagonistic to the Soviet Union, like the People's Republic
of China during the Sino-Soviet split.
Recently, the foreign policy of the United States has focused on
combating terrorism as well as the proliferation of weapons of
mass destruction. Calls by a majority of American citizens
continue for increased border security against illegal
immigration and the shipment of illegal narcotics, with their
primary goal the protection of American interests and the safety
of U.S. citizens around the world, against such threats as
terrorist infiltration at the border with Mexico.
ARMED FORCES AND SECURITY
The military forces consist of the U.S. Army, Navy (including the
Marine Corps), and Air Force, under the umbrella of the
Department of Defense (DOD) with its headquarters in the Pentagon
building in Arlington county, Va. A related force, the Coast
Guard falls under the jurisdiction of the Department of Homeland
Security in peacetime, but is placed under the Department of the
Navy (a component of the DOD) in times of war. The United States
Department of Homeland Security (DHS), commonly known as Homeland
Security, is a Cabinet department of the Federal Government of
the United States with the responsibility of protecting the
territory of the United States from terrorist attack and
responding to natural disasters. The department was was
established on November 25, 2002, by the Homeland Security Act of
2002 from 22 existing federal agencies in response to the
terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.
The military of the United States comprises 1.4 million personnel
on active duty, along with additional 860,000 personnel in the
seven reserve components (456,000 of which are in the Army and
Air National Guard). With a strength of 2.26 million personnel
(including reserves), the United States armed forces are the 2nd
largest in the world. Conscription was ended in 1973, and since
that time the United States has had volunteer military forces,
though conscription may occur in times of war through the
Selective Service System. The U.S. is considered to have the most
powerful military in the world, in part due to the size of its
defense budget. The United States military budget is larger than
the military budgets of the next twenty largest spenders
combined, and six times larger than China's, which places second
(although it is widely believed that China significantly
understates its actual military expenditures). The United States
and its closest allies are responsible for approximately
two-thirds of global military spending (of which, in turn, the
U.S. is responsible for two-thirds). Military spending accounts
for more than half of the United States' federal discretionary
spending, which comprises all of the U.S. government's money not
accounted for by pre-existing obligations. However, in terms of
per capita spending, the U.S. ranks third behind Israel and
Singapore. As a percentage of its GDP, the United states spends
3.7% on military ($441.6 Billion in the fiscal year 2006). This
compares higher than France's 2.6%, and lower than Saudi
Arabia's 10%. This is historically fairly low for the United
States. However it must be remembered that the figure presented
for United States Military spending has dramatically increased
since the attacks of September 11th, 2001 and ensuing military
operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. In peace time U.S. military
spending will gradually decrease. The U.S. military maintains
over 700 bases and facilities in more than 130 different
countries on every continent except Antarctica.
The United States military is a hierarchical military
organization, with a system of military ranks to denote levels of
authority within the organization. The military service is
divided into a professional officer corps along with a greater
number of enlisted personnel who perform day-to-day military
operations. The United States officer corps is not restricted by
social class or nobility. United States military officers are
appointed from a variety of sources, including the service
academies, ROTC, and direct appointment from both civilian status
and the enlisted ranks.
The U.S. military also maintains a number of military awards and
badges to denote the qualifications and accomplishments of
military personnel.
On July 26, 1948 U.S. President Harry S. Truman signed Executive
Order 9981 which radically desegregated the military of the
United States. Open homosexuals, however, are still barred from
serving openly. By law, women may not be put into direct combat;
however, asymmetrical warfare has put women into situations which
are direct combat operations in all but name.