Текст Лекции (изначальный) (1157953), страница 26
Текст из файла (страница 26)
The candidate with the largest number of theseelectoral votes wins the election. The «Electoral College» formally reports each state’s electoralvotes, a procedure established by the constitution.In recent years there has been discussion about eliminating the Electoral College procedure.Many people think it is awkward and undemocratic. Opponents of the Electoral College favorthe direct election of the president and vice-president. Others believe that in a close popularelection only the Electoral College can clearly establish the winner.In January of the following year, in a joint session of Congress, the new President and Vice –President are officially announced.
The ceremony of inauguration always takes place at noon onJanuary 20. The president’s Inauguration speech is regarded as a declaration of principlesproclaimed by the new Administration.The Administration or the Executive Power.The President and the vice – president of the United States are electedevery four years to a four –year term of office, with no more than two fullterms allowedThe President chooses the fourteen cabinet members who head departments, such as Justice,Defense, or Education; chooses who will run as vice president; appoints federal judges;chooses heads of agencies such as the FBI and CIA; proposes laws, and approves federal lawsafter Congress has approved them; appoints US ambassadors to foreign countries; bears theresponsibilities of relations with foreign countries and commander- in chief of armed forces.Since the time the very first American President so – called “father of the nation” GeorgeWashington was elected there have been 42 presidents in the USA.
Nine presidents wereelected for two terms. Four American presidents were assassinated: Abraham Lincoln (1865),James Garfield (1881), William McKinley (1901) and John Kennedy (1963).The Vice President leads the Senate and combined meetings of both houses of Congress, .serveson special government committees and. becomes president if the president must leave office.The Cabinet together with the president, the cabinet members (13) form the government.
Theyadvise on issues related to their departments.The USA Congress, the legislative branch of the federal government, is made up of theSenate and the House of Representatives.There are 100 Senators, two from each state. One third of the Senators are elected every twoyears for six – year terms of office. The Senators represent all of the people in a state and theirinterests.The House of Representatives has 435 representatives. They are elected every two years fortwo – year terms. They represent the population of “congressional districts” into which each stateis divided. The number of Representatives from each state is based upon its population. Forinstance, California, the state with the largest population, has 45 Representatives, whileDelaware has only one.
There is no limit to the number of terms a Senator or a Representativemay serve.Congress proposes and approves federal laws; can declare war; decides upon taxes andmoney budget; approves the choice of federal judges; regulates commerce among the states andwith foreign countries; sets rules for the naturalization of foreign citizens.A new Congress session begins on the 3 rd of January each odd – numbered year andPPcontinues for two years.
The most of congressmen’s work is done in committee meetings. Thereare 16 “standing”, or permanent, committees in the Senate and 22 in the House ofRepresentatives. Here the bills (offered by either house) are studied, experts are consulted, andrecommendations are made. Because the Congressmen on a committee are experts in that field,they accept and improve some bills, but reject most of them. The committee responsible for aparticular bill holds hearings on it. Experts appear before the committee and offer suggestionsand opinions about the bill.
After the hearings, the committee reports its recommendations to theHouse. These recommendations may include suggested changes in the bill, or the committee maypropose an entirely new ones. Generally Congress goes along with the decisions of itscommittees. For a bill to become a law it must be passed by both the House and the Senate andsigned by President. If President disapproves, he vetoes the bill by refusing to sign it and sends itback to Congress. To overcome President’s veto the bill must get a two-thirds majority in eachchamber.Americans, always concerned that their politicians represent their interests, often form“pressure” groups, political lobbies, public action committees (PACs), or special interestgroups.
Such groups influence politicians on almost any imaginable subject. One group mightcampaign for a nationwide, federal gun-control law, while another group opposes it.In the previous centuries people who wanted to hand in petition or to discuss someproject went to Washington, to the Capitol and there met the Congressmen from their states. Thetradition is still alive, only today it is big corporations, social organizations, foreign diplomats,etc. who try to influence law – making in their favor. This is done with the help of lobbyists whoarrange meetings with Congressmen, and through bribery and persuasion make them vote formeasures favorable to the group they represent.
Practically lobbyist (backstage influencing oflegislation) has become legal, it means, that the passing of a bill can be prevented if it does notsuit the interests of a definite group of Big Business.The delicate art of influencing legislation has moved a great distance from the dayswhen votes were bought with black cases full of money. Today’s successful lobbyists are morelikely to be smooth professionals. But if lobbying techniques have grown complicated, the nameof the phenomenon is still the same: special interest. Lobbyists may call themselves legislativecounsels or Washington representatives, but they are still hired to sell their client’s specialinterests.Although a 1946 law requires all lobbyists to register with the clerks of both chambersof Congress, and to give annual reports of the money used for this or that bill, the most effectivelobbyists seldom do.
They try to remain, if possible, invisible. They do not even like to callthemselves lobbyists. But more and more people realize that legislation is shaped as much byboth the hidden influences and by the public debates.The third branch of government is the Judiciary branch. The judiciary, especiallythe Supreme Court, makes sure that laws are constitutional. Nine Supreme Court judges areappointed for life.In addition to the Supreme Court, there are also twelve courts of appeal and ninetyone district courts.
Congress has the power to fix the number of judges sitting on the Court, butit cannot change the powers given to the Supreme Court by the Constitution itself. The SupremeCourt consists of a chief justice and eight associate justices. They are nominated by the Presidentbut must be approved by the Senate. Once approved, they hold office as Supreme Court Justicesfor life. A decision of the Supreme Court cannot be appealed to any other court. Neither thePresident nor Congress can change their decisions.The Supreme Court has direct jurisdiction in only two kinds of cases: those involvingforeign diplomats and those in which a state is a party. All other cases, which reach the Court,are appeals from lower courts. Most of the cases involve the interpretation of the Constitution.The Supreme Court also has the “power of judicial review”, that is, it has the right to declarelaws and actions of the federal, state, and local governments unconstitutional.
While not stated inthe Constitution, this power was established over time.Federalism: State and Local Governments.Although Federal Laws apply to all citizens wherever they live, each of the fifty USA statesalso has its own Constitution and three branches of the Government: Executive, with a governor,a legislative assembly, and a judiciary.Each state has its own state police and its own criminal laws. The same is true with marriageand divorce laws, driving laws and licenses, alcohol laws, voting procedures. In turn, each cityhas its own police force that it hires, trains, controls, and organizes. Neither the President nor thegovernor of a state has direct power over it. Police departments of counties are often called“sheriffs’ departments”.
Sheriffs are usually elected, but state and city police officials are not.All education at any level is the concern of the states. The local communities have the realcontrol at the public school level. They control administration of the schools, the school boardofficials, and their local community taxes largely support the schools.A great many of the most hotly debated questions, which in other countries are decided at thenational level, are in America settled by the individual states and communities.
Among these are,for example, laws about drug use, capital punishment, abortion, and homosexuality.Most states and some cities have their own income taxes. Many cities and counties alsohave their own laws saying who may not own a gun. Many airports, some of them international,are owned and controlled by cities or counties and have their own airport police.Among the areas under the local concern there are also the opening and closing hours forstores, street and road repair, or architectural laws and other regulations. E.g., some localcommunity or a school board might determine that a certain novel should not be in their schoollibrary. The same is true of films But another village, a few miles down the road, might acceptboth.A connecting thread that runs all the way through governments in the U.S.
is the“accountability” of politicians, officials, agencies, and governmental groups. This means thatinformation and records on crimes, fires, marriages and divorces, court cases, property taxes, etc.are public information. It means, for example, that when a small town needs to build a school orbuy a new police car, how much it will cost will be in the local newspaper. In some cities,meetings of the city council are carried live on radio. As a rule, politicians in the U.S. at anylevel pay considerable attention to public opinion.
![](https://s.studizba.com/z.php?f=/templates/si/i/noavatar.png&w=100&h=100&t=1"){kind=avatar}
