57 Text 2 Politics in the USA The United States of America may not have the oldest political system in the world, but it does have one of the most famous. In this representative democracy, authority is shared between three different bodies: the President (the executive branch), Congress (the legislative branch) and the Supreme Court (the judicial branch). This system is designed to ensure ‘checks and balances’ so that no single entity has too much power. A presidential election is held every four years and, once elected, each president can only keep the role for a maximum of two terms. The political parties, the main ones being the Democrats and the Republicans, each select a nominee to unite behind, and to win the election, a candidate must receive a majority of electoral votes. Presidents are decided by the electoral college system, whereby every vote for a particular presidential nominee actually goes to a group of people known as ‘electors’, each of whom belongs to a particular party and pledges to vote for that party’s candidate. Each state is represented by a different number of electors, depending on the size of that state’s population. In the event no candidate receives a majority, the House of Representatives chooses the President and the Senate chooses the Vice President. The President ensures that laws and policies are put into action and forms a cabinet to assist with this. The Cabinet includes the Vice President and the heads of 15 executive departments, such as education, health and human services and transportation. The President appoints new judges to the Supreme Court, is in control of the armed forces and can approve or refuse (‘veto’) new laws. Congress consists of members elected from each state and is divided into two groups: the House of Representatives (or ‘House’ for short, consisting of congressmen and congresswomen) and the Senate (consisting of senators), totalling 535 people altogether. The job of Congress is to debate, make suggestions for new laws and send these to the President for approval. The House sets up new tax legislation or changes old tax laws. The Senate has to approve the people the President puts in Cabinet and makes agreements with other countries. The Supreme Court is led by a judge called the Chief Justice who works with up to eight Associate Justices. These nine people keep a check on things and decide whether new laws are in line with the Constitution or not and have the authority to overturn decisions made by courts across the US. The Constitution was originally signed in 1787, after which a number of amendments were made such as the First Amendment, which protects freedom of speech, and the Second Amendment, which gives citizens the right to bear arms. The system of sharing the power between many organisations and politicians in the US has helped to prevent abuses of power over the years, but it can sometimes make it difficult to get laws passed if groups cannot agree. Food is forbidden inside the Senate Chamber, but in the 1960s, one Californian senator started to fill his desk with candy. His colleagues would catch him sneaking a snack from his drawer, so he began to share his candy in exchange for their silence. Since 1968, the now-famous ‘candy drawer’ in the United States Senate has always been stocked full of candy and sweets. Nur zu Prüfzwecken – Eigentum des Verlags öbv
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy ODE3MDE=