Lecture 3. The political system

Conclusion

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The United States is an indirect democracy — that is, the people rule through the representatives they elect. In the beginning, only white men with property could vote. Over time, the vote has been givento more and more people. Today any citizen who is at least 18 years old can vote. The capital of the country is the City of Washington, situated in the Columbia District — a territory not included in any of the states.

The Constitution.

The United States Constitution, written in 1787, established the country’s political system and is the basis for its laws. In the 200 years of its history, the United States has greatly grown and changed. Yet the Constitution works as well today as when it was written. One reason is that the Constitution can be amended (for example, the Fifteenth Amend­ment gave black Americans the right to vote and the Nineteenth Amendment gave women the right to vote). Another reason is that the Constitution is flexible: its basic principles can be applied and in­terpreted differently at different times.

Federalism. The USA has a federalist system. It means that there are inidvidual states, each with its own government, and ther is a federal, or national, government. The US constitution gives certain powers to federal government, other powers to the state governments, and yet other powers to both. For ex., only the national government can print money; the states establish their own school system; and both the national and the state gevernments can collect taxes.

Three branches of government. Within the national government, power is idvided amng three branches: the legislative branch, the executive branch, and the judicial branch.

The legislative branch is represented by Cogress which cocnsists of two parts: the House of Representatives and the Senate. Congress’s main function is to make laws. There are 100 senators (two form each state) and 435 representatives (the number from each state depends on the size of the state’s population).

The executive branch is headed by the President who is also the head of the country. The executive barnch administers the laws (sees to it that the laws are carried out, actually rules the country). In addition to the President and the Vice-President, the executive barnch consists of department and agencies. The President appoints the department heads, or advisers, who together make up the President’s Cabinet.

The judicial branch interprets the laws and makes that new laws are in keeping with the Constitution. The judicial branch is represented by several levels of federal courts. The Supreme Court is the most important body. It has nine memebers, who are appointed for life.

There is a system of checks established by the Constitution, which is meant to prevent any of the three brahches from having too much power. Each branch has certain controls over other brahcnes. For ex., Congress makes the laws, but the President can veto a law, and the Supreme Court can decide that the law is unconstitutional.

State and local governments

Each state has its own constitution. Like the national government, state governments are divided into legislative, executive and judicial branches. In each state there are state senators and representatives, state court systems and like the President of the country, a governor of the state. Below the state level of government, there are country and city governments.

Two party system. The Usa has two main political perties – the Democratic party and the Republican party. There are other, much smaller, parties, which play a little role. There are no clear differences between the Reoublicans and Democratic parties. In general, the Republicans tend to be moreconservative and to have more support among the upper classes while the Democrates tend to be more liberal and to have more support among thr working class and the poor.

A PERIOD OF EXPLORATION

Imagine a time many thousand years ago. A group of hunters came to a huge, unexplored land. They were the first people in America. For many thousands of years the descendants of those hunters moved farther into the new territory. Finally they settled in all parts of the land. Different groups developed different languages and customs. These people were American Indians, or Red Indians. The Indians’ way of life depended on the geography of the area they lived in. Those who settled near the ocean – fished. Ton the territory of Great Plains they were hunters. In places with rich soil the Indians farmed. In general, the American Indians can be divided into 5 groups according to the area they lived: the northwest Indians, the California Indians, the Plians Indians, the Southwest Indians, and the Eastern Woodlands Indians.

Then, one day, a new group of travellers came to the land. They had new customs, new languages and a very different way of life. They were Europeans. From the very beginning, the Europeans who explored North America were looking for riches. It took a lot of courage to be an explorer a thousand years ago. But slowly explorers began to learn more about the world. With each voyage they could draw maps more accurately and made travelling easier for those who came later.

Viking voyages. In the late 900’s the Vikings, who lived in Scandinavia, were the best sailors and shipbuilders in Europe. Each year they left their homes and sailed to foreign lands in search of food and riches. They discovered Iceland and Greenland. In 1001 a Viking called Leif Ericsson sailed west of Greenland and came to the shone of Newfoundland. Most of what we know about Ericsson’s voyage comes from stories that the Vikings told. These stories, called sagas, were histories of Viking leaders and their adventures. The sagas of Ericsson’s trip describe a land in which Ericsson found grapes, wheat and trees. He called this place Vinland. The sagas also describe a house that Ericsson built there. But his settlement did not last long. Because of problems with the American Indians the Vikings sailed away from Vinland.

Christopher Columbus. In the late 1400’s Spain began searching for another water route to the East. Instead of it, Spanish explorers found a new continent. A mapmaker called it the New World — the land across the Atlantic that was not part of Asia. The great explorer, Christopher Columbus, was born in Italy and grew up near the sea. He decided to try to find a quick route to the East by sailing west. On October 12, 1492, Columbus stepped ashore, holding the Spanish flag. He thought that he had reached a group of islands near the coasts of China and India which were called the Indies. That’s why he called the people he saw Indians. But in fact it was an island – Saint Salvador (one of the Bahama islands). Columbus made three more voyages to the New World. But he never knew that he had discovered a new continent. He was sure that he had approached China and India from the east.

Amerigo Vespucci was born in 1454 to a prominent family in Florence, Italy. As a young man he read widely, collected books and maps, and even studied under Michaelangelo. While in Spain, Amerigo Vespucci began working on ships and ultimately went on his first expedition as a navigator in 1499. This expedition reached the mouth of the Amazon River and explored the coast of South America. On his second voyage in 1501, Amerigo Vespucci sailed under the Portuguese flag. His ships followed the South American coast to within 400 miles of the southern tip, Tierra del Fuego. While on this voyage, Vespucci wrote two letters to a friend in Europe. He described his travels and was the first to identify the New World of North and South America as separate from Asia. (Until he died, Columbus thought he had reached Asia.) Amerigo Vespucci also described the culture of the indigenous people, and focused on their diet, religion, and what made these letters very popular - their sexual, marriage, and childbirth practices. The letters were published in many languages and were distributed across Europe (they were a much better seller than Columbus' own diaries). Amerigo Vespucci was named Pilot Major of Spain in 1508. Vespucci's third voyage to the New World was his last for he contracted malaria and died in Spain in 1512 at the age of 58.

Cortes in Mexico. In the early 1500’s a number of Spanish soldiers and adventurers went to Hispaniola and Cuba, islands in the West Indies. From these islands they were planning to explore other parts of the New World. These adventurers called themselves conquistadors, which meant conquerors. One of the conquistadors was Hernando Cortes. He sailed to Mexico and then he found out about the Aztec Indians who lived in Central Mexico. After a long trip and battles the spaniards defeated the Aztecs and declared themselves masters of Mexico and sent gold ans silver of the Azctecs to their king Carlos I.

Another sailor who found a passage around South America to the Pacific Ocean was a Spaniard Ferdinand Magellan. He made 4 journeys but was killed by the natives in the 5th in the Phillippine Islands.

The other european explorers were: John Cabot form Italy who reached Indonesia (it was called “the Spice Islands” at that time) and North America, but got lost in the sea; Jacques Cartier form France who explored the present day Montreal, Canada; Henry Hudson from England who reached North America, explored the Atlantic shore and sailed up the river that was later named afdter him – the Hudson, then he explored Canada and found what is now known as Hudson Bay and claimed all as England’s lands.

In 1512 Magelan made sure that Columbus discovered the New Continent. Since that time within 100 years the population of Iamerica decreased form 25mln to 1mln people.

The first permanent English settlement was in 1607. 100 people under captain John Smith sailed from London reached a place and called it Jamestowm (in honour of King James I). 73 people died during the 1st winter. The 1st English colony was called Virginia.

The religion in England at that time was Catholic. Some people separated form it and advocated simpler forms of worship. They were called “the Protestants”, or “pilgrims”. On the board of the ship “Mayflower” 102 pilgrims left Plymouth in England and on the 21st od December 1620 they settled in America and founded a town – New Plymouth and later on a colony – Plymouth grew around it. The Indians first helped the English with their good harvest of maise. To thank them the English celebrated the day – Thanksgiving Day on November, 21st.

Another group of people who disagreed with the teachings of the Church of England was the Puritans. They wanted to make the church more modest, i.e. to “purify” it. They were richer than the pilgrims. In 1630 one thousand very rich and influential people headed by John Winthrop set sail to North America. They came to a place near Plymouth and called the new colony Massachussets and founded a city – nowaday’s Boston.

In 1636 Harvard University was founded as “Harvard Theological Colledge” named after the minister John Harvard.

1634 – the colony of Maryland and then Baltimore were founded; 1682 – Pennsylvania; 1732 – Georgia. By 1732 13 English colonies were founded on the American continent along the Atlantic coast.

The 2 main conditions of coexistence were: 1. the people living in colonies were not supposed to develop industires; 2. the colonies were supposed to supply the mother-country with raw materials.

The main causes for formation of English colonies were: 1. religious prosecutions; 2. economic ooportunities; 3. people who were in prison were promised liberty.

English kings sent governments to each colony but colonies had their own elective bodies – assemblies consisted of the colonists.

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