The American Political System

Background The Declaration of Independence 1776 The War of Independence 1776-1783 The American Constitution 1789 Federal government and state govmts. Division of power Checks and balances The Founding Fathers were not about to create a strong executive power like the British king whom they had just fought and whom they considered as a dangerous despot. They looked for ways to reduce the power of the executive as much as would be consistent with good government.

State and Federal System Historically state and local government came first. The states have their own legislative, executive and judicial institutions State and local government control important areas like: Highways State income tax Public schools and universities Police and fire departments Regulate business and supervise commercial affairs The Federal system of government controls: Foreign policy, defense and monetary policy Areas that cannot be regulated locally and statewise: interstate commerce, interstate crime, interstate environmental problems etc.

The Legislative Branch: Congress Passes legislation and appropriates money The House of Representatives 435 members –according to the size of the state 2-year term The Senate 100 members -two from each state 6-year term

The Executive Branch: The Presidency 4-year term - max two 4-year terms Protects the Constitution Proposes legislation Enforces the laws made by Congress Commander in Chief of the armed forces Appoints judges to Supreme Court (with the consent of the Senate) Notice that unlike in a parliamentarian system the legislative and the executive branches are separated. The president does not automatically command a majority of the votes in Congress. During Clinton’s presidency there was a majority of Republicans in both the House of Representatives and the Senate. Even given a majority in each chamber the president, however, has no assurance of support from fellow party members as they often vote with regional interests in mind.The development of electronic communication, esp. television has improved the president’s possibilities of exerting power. He can communicate directly with the entire electorate and in this way gain popular support for certain vital issues.

The Executive Branch: The Cabinet No mention of it in the Constitution Subordinate to the President Cabinet members recruited broadly, not necessarily party insiders Cabinet Departments: State, Treasury, Defense, Interior, Agriculture, Justice, Commerce, Labor, Transportation, Heallth and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, Education, Energy, Veterans

The Supreme Court 9 members Life term appointment Interprets and guards the Constitution Interprets the law Decisions of the Supreme Court are final In general it plays a conservative role, maintaining legal tradition Supreme Court may however play a crucil political role as we saw in the late 1950s, 1960s and 1970s when an activist court made a series of decisions that fundamentally changed America. In 1954 Supreme Court declared segregation in the schools unconstitutional (Brown vs. The Board of Education). In 1962 (Engel vs. Vitale) the court outlawed Bible reading in public schools. In 1973 the Court declared abortion to be a legal right protected under the Bill of Rights. The new president will most likely appoint a number of Supreme Court Judges as the present court is aging. Two of the judges are over 80 and 3 are in their seventies. In the election of 2000 it was the US Supreme Court that paved the road to Bush’s presidency when called a halt to the vote counting in Florida and declared Bush the winner.

Checks and Balances Congress: Supreme Court: Power of the purse Can override presidential veto (2/3 majority) Power of impeachment Senate approves treaties and the president’s appointments Supreme Court: Power to declare laws and presidential actions unconstitutional The President: Power to veto Issues executive orders Commander-in-chief Appoints Federal Judges Grants Pardons for offenses against the US

Elections and Political Parties Winner-take-all-election system The Electoral College Two party system- both appealing to the middle of the political spectrum Balancing the ticket (President and Vice president) Voting patterns: splitting the ticket Voting for individuals rather than party slate

The Electoral College Representatives of the people in presidential elections 534 electors, corresponding to the numbers of Representatives and Senators 270 electoral votes guarantee the Presidency Each state votes as a single block (minus Nebraska and Maine) winner takes all Importance of Swing States and the big states In the election of 2000 Al Gore received 500,000 votes more than Bush, who won the election in the Electoral College. In Florida the vote was so close (a little over 5oo) and there were so many irregularities that a recount could easily have changed the outcome. After one month of legal hassling The Supreme Court determined by a 5 to 4 vote that the recounting the court in Florida had ordered should be halted and Bush won the Forida vote (27 electoral votes) and consequently became president. The system assures that small states will not be overlooked because they have slightly more influence this way than the size of their population warrants. For instance the state of South Dakota has a population of 750.000. The state has 3 electoral votes, which means that each vote costs 250.000 votes. In populous New York each electoral vote represents 500.000 votes.

Democrats and Republicans And Their Voters Democrats supported by majority of black voters (Clinton 83%) Urban ethnics Blue collar workers Catholics More women voters Northeast, upper midwest, northwest, Hawaii Protestant voters Business community White collar workers Religious fundamentalists It used to be that the American South was solidly Democratic. This changed, however, in the course of the 1960s where the Democratic party supported civil rights legislation. This also helps explain why blacks today vote for Democrats. For Democrats it is a problem though that the percentage of blacks that actually vote is not very high.

Democrats and Republicans and Their Policies Support welfare programs Keynesian economics and job creating programs Social security, Medicare and Medicaid Civil Rights legislation Women’s right to abortion Rebublicans Limiting federal regulation of business Reduction in welfare spending Anti-abortion