Political System in The USA

The United States of America are a sovereign, united and democratic state. Their Federal Government is divided into three branches – the legislative, represented by the Congress, the executive, represented mainly by the President and the Executive office, and the judicial, represented by courts at various levels.

The Congress consists of two chambers – the House of Representatives and the Senate. The 435 Representatives and 100 Senators have the exclusive duty of making laws. These two groups of members of the Congress differ in the way in which they are elected and in the length of the terms they serve. The elections to the House of Representatives take place every two years while every Senator is elected to six-year term, but every two years one third of the Senators is renewed. When these times come, every citizen from the age of 21 can exercise the universal, equal, direct and secret right to vote. The Congress’s main task is to pass laws, ratify international treaties and decide on sending troops abroad.

The Congress is a law-making body. A new law-to-be, a bill, can be proposed by a representative, a group of representatives, the Senate, or higher-level authorities. The bill first goes to the House of Represenatives which debates and ultimately votes on it. A bill that has been passed by the House of Represenatives is then submitted to the Senate where the process begins anew. The law must be signed by the President.

The President is elected every four years by the all electors but no one can serve more than two terms in office in a row. The President represents the state abroad and concludes foreign treaties. He has also many duties in relation to the other bodies of government: appointment of all judges, generals of the army, ambassadors and other officials. The President is also the Commander-in-chief of the army. In the law-making process he can exercise the power of veto which means not signing a bill within the assigned 15 days and returning it to the Congress. In relation to the judicial power he can grant a pardon to a convicted person or declare an amnesty.

The Executive branch comprises the President’s personal stuff – called the Executive Office of the President – and the employees of all 14 cabinet departments (Departments of State, Treasury, Defense, Justice, Interior, Agriculture, Commerce, Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, Energy and Veteran Affairs). The ”secretary”, of head, of each cabinet department, advises the President on setting national policy. The Executive Office includes a number of independence agencies (such as the Central Intelligence Agency, the National Security Agency, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration) and various Federal regulatory agencies.

The judicial power is divided into a system of courts, starting with the Federal district courts and, US courts of appeal, and the US Supreme Court. The courts check the constitutionality of existing laws. They apply the law in practice in individual cases. They can nullify a law except for a constitutional one. Judges serve for an unlimited period of time, must have a good reputation, and must be professional lawyers.

The model of Federal Government is also applied to the governments of the individual states. On the state level, all three branches (legislative, executive and judicial) deal with the state laws distinct from the federal ones.
In the elections the citizen can choose from two political parties: Democratic and Republican.