The system of government in the USA

Ø 1) Look at the phrases from the text: to vote for, a representative democracy, a branch of government, to abide by the constitution, the legislative branch, the Congress, the House of Representatives, the Senate, a bill becomes a law, the executive branch, the President, the Vice-president, the judicial branch, political parties, the Democratic party, the Republican party. What do they mean?

The Form of the Government of the USA. The United States is a representative democracy. It means that people, who vote for government representatives, direct the country policy and have all the governmental power.

The constitution of the US describes the powers of national and state governments, the functions and framework of each branch of the government, and the rights of the individual citizens.

All public officials of the national and state governments must swear to abide by the Constitution, which was written to protect the democratic interests of the people and the government.

The Legislative Branch of the USA. The function of the legislative branch is to make laws. The legislative branch consists of the representatives who are elected to Congress.

Congress consists of two groups which are called houses: the House of Representatives (the House, for short) and the Senate.

Lawmakers from all of the states are elected to work in the House of Representatives. It is important to know that each state has a different number of districts; the number of districts in each state depends on the population. So, each district elects only one representative to the House of Representatives. The representatives are elected for a two-year term. There are 435 representatives in the House currently.

The Senate is smaller than the House. Each state, regardless of the population, has two senators. The senatorial term is six years.

How a Bill Becomes a Law. Each house of Congress (the Senate and the House of Representatives) makes laws.

A law first begins as a ‘bill’. When a bill is introduced, it is sent to the appropriate committee. Each house of Congress has committees which specialize in a particular area of legislation, for example foreign affairs, defense, banking and agriculture. The committee members study the bill and then send it to the Senate or House chamber where it was first introduced. After a debate, the bill is voted on. If the bill passes, it is sent to the other house where it goes through a similar process.

The Senate may reject a bill proposed in the House of Representatives, or add amendments. If this happens, “a conference committee” is organized. The members of the Senate and the House of Representatives take part in the work of this committee, and they try to work out a compromise. If both sides agree on the new version, the bill is sent to the president for his signature. At this point, the bill becomes a law.

The Executive Branch of the USA. The executive branch of government administrates the laws passed by Congress. The President of the US presides over the executive branch. He is elected to a four-year term and he can be re-elected to a second term.

The vice-president, who is elected with the president, has only two constitutional duties. The first duty is to preside over the Senate, but the vice-president may vote only in the event of a tie. The second duty is to take the presidency if the president dies, becomes disabled, or is removed from the office.

The Judicial Branch of the USA. The third branch of the government is the judicial branch, which is headed by the Supreme Court. Under the Supreme Court, there are many state and federal courts. An important function of the judicial branch is to check whether the laws of Congress or the actions of the president violate the Constitution. So, the Court can declare presidential acts and Congress laws unconstitutional.

The President appoints judges to the Supreme Court. The Congress can impeach and remove judges from the offices.

Chief Justice (the chief judge) presides over impeachment of the president.

The Political Parties of the US. The US has had only two major parties throughout its history. When the nation was founded, there were two political groupings – the Federalists and Anti-Federalists. Since then, two major parties have changed in power.

For over one hundred years, America’s two-party system has been dominated by the Democratic and Republican parties. Neither party, however, has ever completely dominated American politics. On the national level, the majority party in Congress has not always been the same as the party of the president.

Even in years, when one party dominated national politics, the other party still had much support at state or local levels. So, the balance changes between the Democrats and Republicans.

There are also minor or “third” parties in the US but they cannot attract enough voters to get power. Some minor parties of the US at present are the American Independent Party, the Libertarian Party, and the Peace and Freedom Party.

Ø 2) Write a summary of the text.