COMPARATIVE

GOVERNMENTS

Politics in the United

States
 HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
• By the end of the 17th century, a large number of colonies were established in north
America. The English became the masters of the whole of north America.
• Many causes led to the revolt of the 13 colonies against England in 1776. the 13
colonies issued on the 4th July 1776, the declaration of independence.
• A confederation of the 13 states were created on 15th November 1777. however, its
working showed that there were certain defects in the confederation.
• The confederation lacked four things that every strong government must
possess: ability to raise revenues by taxation, to borrow money, to regulate
commerce, to provide the common defense by raising and supporting armies.
• The 13 colonies decided to frame a constitution which was to bind them into stronger
nation. The representatives of the colonies met at Philadelphia in 1787.
• The Constitutional Convention took place in Philadelphia from May 25 to
September 17, 1787. there were different visions regarding the legislature.
1. Virginia Plan :called for a legislature divided into two bodies with proportional
representation. That is, each state’s representation in Congress would be based on its
population.
2. New Jersey Plan: intended to give states equal representation in a one-bodied
legislature.
3. Connecticut Compromise: Adopted on July 16, 1787, the ―Connecticut
Compromise‖ utilized both forms of representation, providing proportional
representation in the House of Representatives and equal representation in the Senate.
 THE CONSTITUTION
• The American constitution is a written document,
and it is a rigid one.
• The Constitution provides that an amendment may be
proposed by the Congress with a two-thirds majority
vote in both the House of Representatives and the
Senate. The proposed amendment must then be
ratified by three-fourths of state legislatures.
• The American constitution is the briefest
constitution which any modern state has today.
• It consists of just 7 articles to which have been added 27
amendments made in more than 200 years.
• Of course, the Constitution of today differs from that of
1789 in a number of important ways. It has been
formally amended twenty-seven times, the most recent
being the 1992 amendment.
• The first ten amendments, known collectively as the Bill
of Rights, list the rights of individuals that the national
government is forbidden to abridge.
 FEDERALISM
• Federalism has been widely praised as one of the greatest American contributions
to the art of government. A number of nations have adopted it as a way of enabling
different regions with sharply different cultures and interests to join together as one
nation.
❑ The American federal system divides government power in the following
principal ways:
• Powers specifically assigned to the federal government, such as the power to
declare war, make treaties with foreign nations, coin money, and regulate commerce
between the states.
• Powers reserved to the states by the Tenth Amendment. The main powers in
this category are those over education, marriage and divorce, intrastate commerce.
• Powers that can be exercised by both the federal government and the
states, such as imposing taxes and defining and punishing crimes
 THE LEGISLATURE
• The American congress is a bicameral legislature, it is composed of two chambers,
the House of Representatives and the Senate.
• The members of both the houses are elected directly.
The Senate
• Senate, the upper house of American congress consists of 100 members
representing 50 states equally.
• The Senate is the upper House of the American congress.
• All states are equally represented in the senate. The senate members are directly
elected by the people.
• The Senate possesses equal power with the house of representatives, any bill may be
introduced in the senate except money bills. But the senate has the right to amend
any money bill. No bill can be passed without the consent of the senate. The senate is
the most powerful second chamber in the world.
• The senate has executive powers also, without the consent of the senate, no one can
be appointed by the president as ambassadors to represent the USA in foreign
countries.
• The senate enjoys equal powers with the house of representatives in amending the
constitution.
• The senate conducts the trial of impeachment of the president.
 THE LEGISLATURE
The House of Representatives
• The House of Representatives is the lower House of the American congress, there are
more than 400 members in this house.
• It Enjoys legislative, financial powers.
• Any bill can be introduced in this house, the money bill can be introduced only in this
house.
• The American lower house cannot override the upper house like the British lower
house.
• In Britain, the house of lords is only a delaying chamber, but the American senate
has equal powers in matters of legislation, no bill can became law without its consent,
it can amend even the money bills. So the house of representatives is not as powerful
as the British house of commons.
• The president has to get the consent of lower house before he declares war.
• It can initiate impeachment against president.
❑ N.B: Regarding the impeachment of the president:
- To Initiate the impeachment: The consent of the house of representatives.
- To Conduct the impeachment: The Senate.
 THE CONGRESS AND THE PRESIDENT
• USA has a presidential form of government, both the congress and the president
are independent of each other.
• The president has no power to dissolve the house of representatives or the
senate. The president is elected for four years, and he continues to remain in
office for the full time.
• The president and the members of his cabinet are not responsible to the
congress.
 THE EXECUTIVE

The President
• The political regime in the united states is presidential.
• The president is elected by an electoral college formed for the purpose. The
constitution says that the number of electors chosen in each state shall be equal to
the number of members of the house representatives and of the senate for
that state.
• Legally and constitutionally. The voters vote for the presidential electors of their
respective states, but actually they vote for the presidential candidate of the party
that they support, Presidential electors are nominated by the respective party
organizations.
• The president may be removed from office before his legal term is over on
impeachment and conviction for treason, bribery, or high crimes of misdemeanors.
• The president holds one of the strongest offices that anyone can aspire for in a
democratic state. The president has executive and legislative powers.
• As administrative head, The president appoints ambassadors and other officers of
the united states. with advice and consent of the senate.
• The US constitution based on the principle of separation of powers, vests all
legislative powers in the congress. Nevertheless, the president has been given a role
in the legislative sphere.
• The president is neither chosen by the legislature, nor can be removed by it.
president and his advisers do not have the right to be present in congress and take
part in deliberations.
• However the president has legislative powers such as He can recommend
legislation to congress.
 The Executive
The Vice- President
• The qualifications for The vice-president are the same
as for the president, the method for election of The vice-
president is the same as that of the president. The
electoral college which elects the president also elects
the vice-president.

The Electoral System

▪ Parliamentary and presidential elections in the united

states are held according to first past the post
system.
 THE POLITICAL PARTIES AND PARTY SYSTEM

• The Founders feared parties, thinking of them as ―factions‖ motivated by ambition

and self-interest.
• Their concerns were understandable, for the legitimacy and stability of the newly
created federal government were still very much in doubt.
• Scholars do not entirely agree as to why the two-party system should be so
permanent a feature of American political life, but two kinds of explanations are of
major importance: electoral laws and public opinion.
Electoral laws
• In several ways the laws governing elections make it hard for a third-party candidate
to win.
• First, members of the House of Representatives are elected from single- member
districts. Because the candidate of only one party can win a seat in a given district,
only two parties are likely to put up candidates. Third and fourth parties would have
no chance to win anything.
• Second, the winner in a race for the Senate or the House of Representatives is
determined by a candidate’s ability to win a plurality of votes cast. (Winning a
plurality means simply getting more votes than any other candidate, even if the
winner does not get a majority—more than half—of all the votes cast.)
 THE POLITICAL PARTIES AND PARTY SYSTEM

Public Opinion
• The other explanation for the persistence of the two-party
system is found in the opinions of the voters. Though there
have been periods of bitter dissent, most citizens have
agreed often enough to permit them to come together into
two broad coalitions.
• Americans have had other deep divisions—between black
and white or between North and South—and yet the two-
party system has endured.
• The minor (or ―third) parties that have had the greatest
influence on public policy were those formed as factional
offshoots of the major parties. The formation of all these
groups probably encouraged the major parties to pay more
attention to the issues the groups raised: civil-service
reform, business regulation.
• The threat of a factional split is a risk both major parties
must face. In their efforts to avoid such splits, each party
tends to accommodate the views of minority factions in
ways that usually keep these factions from forming third
parties.
 THE POLITICAL PARTIES AND PARTY SYSTEM

• There is a vast gap between the views of Democratic and Republican voters on issues
like health care reform, abortion rights, and foreign policy.
• In Congress, the Democrats have moved further and further to the left since 1970,
just as Republicans have become increasingly conservative.
• Democrats have greater support among women than men, among blacks than
whites, and among people with lower incomes and educations than upper-status
people.
• The parties differ more than ever in how religious their members are, with
Republican presidential candidates doing better among regular churchgoers than
Democrats.
 THE POLITICAL PARTIES AND PARTY SYSTEM

Minor Parties

Ideological Parties
• Parties professing a comprehensive view of American society and government
radically different from that of the established parties. Most have been Marxist in
outlook, but some are quite the opposite, such as Communist party (1920s to
present), Libertarian party (1972 to present), Green party (1984 to present).
One-Issue Parties
• Parties seeking a single policy, usually revealed by their names, and avoiding other
issues.
• Examples: Free Soil party—to prevent spread of slavery (1848– 1852), American and
Prohibition party—to ban the sale of liquor (1869 to present), Women’s party—to
obtain the right to vote for women (1913–1920).
Factional Parties
▪ Parties that are created by a split in a major party, usually over the identity and
philosophy of the major party’s presidential candidate.
▪ Examples: Progressive party. Reform party.