Organization of the United States Government

Three Branches of Government. Within the national government, power is divided among three branches: the legislative branch, the executive branch,and the judicial branch.

The legislative branch is represented by Congress, which consists of two parts — the House of Representatives and the Senate. Congress's main function is to make laws. There are 100 senators (two from 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 head of the country. The executive branch 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 branch consists of departments 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 sure 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 members, who are appointed for life. The Supreme Court building Constitution, which is meant to prevent any of the three branches from having too much power. Each branch has certain controls over the other branches. For example, Congress makes the laws, but the President can veto a law, and the Supreme Court can decide that the law is unconstitutional.

Branch	Members	How chosen	Term	Powers
Legisla-tive (Cong-ress)	Senate Two Senators from each state	state election	6 years	Writes new laws Sets federal taxes Approves Presidential appointments Overrules Presidential vetoes Approves treaties Declares war Impeaches a President
	House of Represen-tatives Number of Represen-tatives varies according to state population	state election	2 years
Executi-ve	President	national election	4 years	Enforces federal laws Appoints and removes high federal officials Commands the armed forces Conducts foreign affairs Recommends laws to Congress Approves or vetoes new laws
	Executive Depart-ments	Presidential appointment	no set term	Conducts the administration of the national government
	Indepen-dent Agencies	Presidential appointment	no set term	Oversees government regulations
Judi-cial	Supreme Court Nine justices	Presidential appointment	life	Interprets laws according to the Constitution May declare actions of the Executive and Legislative branches unconstitutional
	Lower Federal Courts	Presidential appointment	life	Decides cases that involve the Constitution and federal laws

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 county and city governments.

Two-party system. The United States has two main political parties - the Democratic Party and the Republican Party. There are other, much smaller, parties, which play little, if any, role. There are no clear differences between the Republican and Democratic parties. In general, the Republicans tend to be more conservative and to have more support among the upper classes, while the Democrats tend to be more liberal and to have more support among the working class and the poor.

Дата добавления: 2014-01-11