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Political system of the USA

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Political system of the USA

Three branches

Legislative	Executive	Judicial
makes laws	carries out laws	interprets laws
Congress: House of Representatives: 435 members 2 year term direct vote Senate: 100 members 6 year term	• President Vice President Cabinet: secretaries indirect vote	• Supreme Court: 9 justices life term

Two party system:

Democrats	Republicans
want more government control	more conservative, the grand old party, want private enterprises, have more money
Mascot: donkey	Mascot: elephant

The American Constitution

The USA has a written constitution, which grants and limits the power of the Federal and State Department. The constitution expresses the liberties of the people and it establishes a federal government.

Checks and balances: Ways of making sure that one branch of government doesn’t become too strong.

An addition or a change in the constitution is called an amendment.

Presidential elections

How are the presidential elections held?

In the primary elections the parties choose their candidates for the general elections.

For the general elections there is a so called “Electoral college system”, what means that the people vote the members of electoral college and this members vote the new president (= indirect vote).

Who can become president?

• he/she must be resident of the USA for at least 14 years or a natural born American
• he/she must be at least 35 years old
• he/she must live by moral standard, must believe in god and must have “normal” opinions
• he/she must not have previous convictions

The role of the president:

The president is: the head of the state
the chief of his party
the chief executive
the chief legislator
the chief diplomat
the chief commander of the Army
the chief crisis decision maker

The president has the right to refuse to sign a bill (= veto).

If a president is found guilty in a case (i.e. for committing a crime) he/she has to leave his/her office (= impeachment).