The government of the United States is based on the framework that is detailed in the Constitution of the United States. The founding fathers of the United States used a fascinating and illuminating process in mapping out the US government (Hyde 2008). The US Constitution creates a system of checks and balances as well as the separation of powers. The constitution also identifies the three major branches of the national government that include the executive, legislative and judicial. The function of the legislative body is to create the legislation that guides the country. The executive body functions in implementing and executing the legislation. The judiciary's function is to review the legislation for legality and constitutionality. Interacting with the federal government constitutes various actors and political processes like political parties, states, interest groups as well as federal elections. These features lead to the establishment of a healthy and vibrant democracy.
The Constitution
The political system of the United States is defined by the basic documents. The foundation of the US federal government is formed by the 1776 declaration of independence and the 1789 constitution (Cohen 2012). The US is established as an independent political entity by the declaration of independence. The Constitution provides the basic structure of the US federal government.
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The US Constitution is the world's shortest written constitution. It comprises of seven articles and twenty-seven amendments (Cohen 2012). Due to its brevity, this constitution is recognized as a stable document. The constitution's first ten amendments were carried in the year 1789 which was the same year when the constitution was formed. These amendments are also known as the bill of rights. It is worth noting that it is not easy to change the constitution. If there is an amendment that should be made, two-thirds of the Congress members present in the houses must support the motion. After securing the Congress votes, then the proposed amendment must be ratified by three-quarters of the US state legislatures. The US constitution has a principle called ‘separation of powers.' This implies that the power is spread between the state's three institutions namely; the executive, the legislature and the judiciary. Out the three institutions, none has too much power over the others and an individual can only be a member of one institution. The constitution also has a principle known as ‘checks and balances.' This implies that each of the state's three institutions has some authority of regulating the other two institutions, some authority of acting on its own as well as other institutions regulating some of its authority in turn.
The constitution deliberately grants various terms of office to the members of the government branches. For instance, the president serves for a term of four years, members of the Senate have a term of six tears while members of the House of Representatives have a term of only two years. The Supreme Court's members effectively serve for life.
One of the strengths of the US constitution is that it ensures power is spread as well as being counter-balanced. American founding fathers who drafted the Constitution wished to create a much more democratic political system than a monarchical political system that was enforced in Britain. To maintain this strength, the US government should emphasize on democracy in social and political environments. The greatest weakness of the US constitution it makes the government operations to be more complicated, legalistic and slow. This hinders the political and economic development of the United States. To correct the weakness, the US government should amend some technical sections of the constitution.
Federalism
Refers to the government's compound mode, combining a general government with regional governments. In the US federalism involves combining the federal government with the state governments. Understanding the US federal nature enables one to appreciate the complexities observed in the American political system.
Political systems are formed top-down. This involves the construction of a national system of government and releasing a certain amount of power to lower levels of government. The United States' unique history implies that, in this case, its political system was formed bottom-up (Strausser, 2013). This resulted from the thirteen autonomous states that attained independence from the British. They formed a system of government in which every individual state would reluctantly cede power to the federal government. There was a bloody conflict between the federal and state governments over who power of determining the permissibility of slavery in the United States. In the present day, the Constitution strictly limits the powers of the federal government. The 1791 critical Tenth Amendment makes the individual states have a great deal of authority.
One of the advantages of the national policy that must be implemented by one agency of federal bureaucracy is that every state gets to honor laws of other states. This helps to eliminate articles of confederation where every individual state may become independent. To maintain the disadvantage, the individual states should incorporate various laws of other states into their system of law. The disadvantage is that Implementing the policy may have various negative impacts such as increased crime rates in some states compared to others. To improve the did vantage, individual states should adhere to the federal authority.
Branches of Government
The US government comprises of three branches namely; the executive, the legislative and the judicial. Each of the three branches is tasked to perform a specific function. However, they together in ensuring a smooth run of the government. Starting with the legislative body, it functions in making laws. It constitutes the House of Representatives as well as the Senate. The Senate consists of 100 senators who are elected to serve for six years. The House of Representatives has 435 members who are elected to serve for a two-year term (Griffith,2009). The executive branch consists of the cabinet members, the president, and vice president. The president serves as the head of state and the commander-in-chief of the of the US military. The vice president supports the president as well as acting as the presiding officer of the Senate. The cabinet members serve as the head of various departments and agencies as well as acting as government advisors. The president nominates the cabinet members, and the Senate approves them. The judicial work in evaluating laws. It is comprised of the court system that consists of the Supreme Court and various federal courts. The Supreme Court has nine Justices who effectively serve for life.
Focusing on the judicial branch, it has one major advantage. It has a court system that is systematically organized. From the district courts to the Supreme Court. This increases the effectiveness in reviewing cases. To continue with this advantage, every court should handle cases that are relevant to their level. One major weakness of the judicial branch is that the judges serve for life unless they deliberately retire. This may lead to some problem such as having too old people in the court system who are not conversant to the modern things. To improve this disadvantage, the judicial should set the retiring age of judges to provide room for upcoming judges.
Political Parties, Interest Groups, and Elections
The political system of the United States is dominated by two political parties:
The Republican party and the Democratic party. These parties are very old and stable. The Republican party was founded in 1854 while the Democratic party was founded in 1824 (Schwartz,2010). In promotional and illustrational material, the Republican party is often represented as an elephant while the Democratic party is featured as a donkey. Thomas Nast, who was a political cartoonist, came up with these symbols. These parties continue to dominate due to various restrictions put in place that hinders the emergence of other parties.
US demonstrate democratic rights through voting. People are allowed to vote for leaders whom they see as effective in performing leadership roles. However, among the modern democratic system the United States has one of the lowest rates of voter turnout. One of the studies conducted ranks the US position 120 out 169 countries compared to voter turnout (Underhill 2011). Efforts to improve voter turnout have been established for the last decade. The increase in voter turnout threatens some political interests among some traditionally low-turnout ethnic minorities. Various states have passed legislation that imposes identification requirements and new registration. This has created a concern on whether these tactics intend to prevent fraud or suppress turnout. The positive impact of the federal election is that it gives the American citizens an opportunity to demonstrate their democratic rights in choosing the leaders they like. To keep this on track, the government should ensure free and fair elections. The negative impact is that it leads to the alienation of people's ideas because people from different parties cannot share ideas. This can be eliminated through alerting people om the importance of unity.
Conclusion
To conclude, The U.S. national government depends on the system nitty gritty in the U.S. Constitution. The procedure that the Founding Fathers used to outline our national government is entrancing and lighting up. The Constitution makes an arrangement of governing rules and partition of forces that have been central focuses for class discourses. What's more, the Constitution distinguishes three fundamental branches of the national government: the authoritative, official, and legal, which are tasked, separately, with the formation of the enactment to control the nation, the usage and execution of that enactment, and the audit of that enactment for defense and lawfulness. Communicating with the central government incorporates an assortment of various performers and political procedures, for example, the states, political gatherings, vested parties, and elected races. All these elements make a lively and solid majority rules system.
References
Ashford University Library (n.d.). POL201 research guide . Retrieved from
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Cohen, A. (2012, March 16). How voter ID laws are being used to disenfranchise minorities and the poor. The Atlantic . Retrieved from http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2012/03/how-voterid-laws-are-being-used-to-disenfranchise-minorities-and-the-poor/254572/
Griffith, E. (2009). The American system of government . New York: Praeger.
Hyde, K. (2008, October 13). Fraught with fraud. The New American, 24 (22), 18-20. Retrieved from http://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/politics/item/2442-fraught-with-fraud
Levin-Waldman, O. M. (2012). American government [Electronic version]. San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education, Inc.
Schwartz, V. (2010). Congressional quarterly's desk reference on American government. Journal Of Government Information , 22 (5), 484-485. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/1352-0237(95)90027-6
Strausser, J. (2013). Painless American government . Hauppauge, N.Y.: Barron's.
Underhill, W. (2011, July). Proof at the polls. State Legislatures, 37 (7), 58-60. Retrieved from
http://www.ncsl.org/research/elections-and-campaigns/proof-at-the-polls.aspx
