Fifty states, 9,833,520 square kilometers of area, over 32 crores of people and gazillion of ethnicities – understanding anything about the United states of America, can be a daunting task. This article is going to break down the political structure of the mammoth country, into simple, understandable parts.
USA is the second largest democracy in the world(the largest being India), in terms of the size of electorate. The government consists of 3 branches, the legislature, the executive and the judiciary. Power is distributed between the three branches, so that there is no concentration of power in an individual’s hand.
A. The US Congress
The term for the legislative body, is ‘Congress’ (like the British Parliament). The country has a bicameral legislature, which means there are 2 houses. The upper house is called the Senate and the lower house, the House of Representatives. The primary duty of the legislature is to make laws that govern the country. Law making is the primary duty of the US Congress.
The Senate
The upper chamber, known as the Senate, is presided by the Vice-President of the state. In order to be able to become a member of the Senate, the eligibility criteria is : one has to (a) be at least 30 years of age (b) have been a US citizen for at least nine years (c) live in the state he/she wishes to be elected from.
The house consists of 100 senators (2 from each of the 50 states), voted directly by voters from every state. Each state has equal representation in the Senate, irrespective of population size or area. Elected members serve for a term of 6 years and there is no limit on the number of terms a person can serve as a Senator.
Some of the major powers of the Senate are:
♣ Key role in impeachment proceedings against the President/Vice-President
♣ Power to declare war
♣ Power to choose the Vice-President in case of a tied electoral college
The House of the Representatives
Eligibility criteria for membership in the lower house includes (a) minimum 25 years of age (b) 7 years of US citizenship (c) residency in the state from which one wishes to contest. An elected member known as delegate, serves for a term of 2 years.
Unlike the Senate, the allocation of seats is based on the size of the population within the states and the distribution is reapportioned every 10 years. However, each state is given at least one seat. The number of seats in the lower chamber is 435. In addition, the house has 5 non voting delegates from District of Columbia, Guam, the Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Northern Mariana Islands and a resident commissioner for Puerto Rico, bringing the formal number to 441.
It functions hand-in-hand with the Senate, as for a Bill to be passed, it requires the approval of both the chambers.
B. The Executive
The term for the executive branch is ‘cabinet’. It is headed by the elected President. The cabinet members are nominated by the President and presented to the Senate for confirmation/rejection. After confirmation, members are sworn in and take charge. The role of the cabinet is to advise the President on various matters. The current cabinet includes vice-president Mike Pence along with heads of 15 executive departments (commerce,defence,education……etc…), the White House Chief of Staff and heads of the Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Management and Budget, United States Trade Representative, United States Mission to the United Nations, and Small Business Administration.
C. The Judiciary
There exist 3 levels of courts in the country, with the Supreme Court being the highest court. Under the Supreme Court come the Courts of Appeal and then, the district courts.
The members of the court are appointed for lifetime and are removed only through impeachment or resignation.
The Constitution
Created on September 17, 1787 and effective from June 21, 1788, the US constitution is the longest standing in the world. With 7 articles and just 27 amendments, it is also one of the shortest constitutions in the world. The very few number of amendments in almost over two decades, stems from the fact that it is very difficult to introduce/amend an article in the constitution. This is because of the distribution of power among the three branches. No individual can be a part of more than one branch. The varying term lengths of members of different branches further makes it difficult to make amendments to the constitution.
The President
The US is a presidential democracy. The president, also known as the POTUS (President of the United States), is the head of the state and the government. He/she is also the commander-in-chief of the military. The eligibility criteria to contest for president include (a) minimum 35 years of age (b) natural-born citizen of the US (c) must have lived in the US for a minimum of 14 years.
An elected president serves for a term of 4 years. The number of terms one can serve as president, is limited to 2. America is perhaps one of the very few countries where the head of state is not directly elected by the people. The president is elected by an electoral college consisting of a combination of Senators and delegates. People vote their ‘electors’, who in turn cast their votes for President and Vice-President.
The total number of electors in the electoral college is 538. So, in order to win, a candidate must win a minimum of 270 seats. What might sound strange to a non-American is, it is possible that a candidate wins majority of votes nationwide but still not become the President, owing to failure in garnering majority of votes in electoral college. the most recent occurrence of this, was in the 2016 Presidential elections, where Hillary Clinton lost.
Some noteworthy facts about the US President are –
(a) The US has never had a woman President since their first election in 1788. (a little over 2 centuries!)
(b) Barack Obama was the first and only black President of the US
(c) John F Kennedy was the only Catholic President.
The Major Political Parties
Although there are several minor parties, the 2 major parties in the US are – the Democrat and the Republican parties. The Republican party, is known for its conservative, right leaning ideologies whereas the Democrat party is known as the party of the ‘liberals’. The current president, Donald J Trump, is from the Republican party. The previous president, Barack Obama was a democrat. Some states like Texas and Tennessee are firmly Republican while some others, like California or New York are firmly Democrat. The other states, known as swing states are concentrated upon, during the elections, in order to get a majority.
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