Chapter 3 Political System

I A Brief Introduction to the Political System

The United States is an indirect democracy — that is, the people rule through the representatives they elect. In the beginning, only white men with property could vote. Over time, the vote has been given to more and more people. Today any citizen who is at least 18 years old can vote.

The Constitution

The United States Constitution, written in 1787, established the country's political system and is the basis for its laws. Over the 200 years of its history, the United States has greatly grown and changed. Yet the Constitution works as well today as when it was written. One reason is that the Constitution can be amended（for example, the Fifteenth Amendment gave black Americans the right to vote and the Nineteenth Amendment gave women the right to vote）. Another reason is that the Constitution is flexible: its basic principles can be applied and interpreted differently at different times.

Federalism（联邦制）

The United States has a federalist system. It means that there are individual states, each with its own government, and there is a federal, or national, government. The US Constitution gives certain powers to the federal government, other powers to the state governments, and yet other powers to both. For example, only the national government can print money; the states establish their own school systems; and both the national and the state governments can collect taxes.

Three Branches of Government

Within the national government, power is divided among three branches: the legislative（立法的）branch, the executive（行政的）branch, and the judicial（司法的）branch.

The legislative branch is represented by Congress, which consists of two parts—the House of Representatives and the Senate. Congress's main function is to make laws. There are 100 senators（two from each state）and 435 representatives（the number from each state depends on the size of the state's population）.

The executive branch is headed by the President, who is also head of the country. The executive branch administers（执行）the laws. In addition to the President and the Vice-President, the executive branch consists of departments and agencies. The President appoints the department heads, or advisers, who together make up the President's Cabinet（内阁）. There are 15 major departments in the executive branch. They employ about 1.6 million civilian employees.

The judicial branch interprets the laws and makes sure that new laws are in keeping with the Constitution. The judicial branch is represented by several levels of federal courts. The Supreme Court is the most important body. It has nine members, who are appointed for life.

There is a system of checks and balances established by the Constitution, which is meant to prevent any of the three branches from having too much power. Each branch has certain controls over the other branches. For example, Congress makes the laws, but the President can veto（否决）a law, and the Supreme Court can decide that the law is unconstitutional.

State and Local Governments

Each state has its own constitution. Like the national government, state governments are divided into legislative, executive and judicial branches. In each state there are state senators and representatives, state court systems, and, like the President of the country, a governor of the state. Below the state level of government, there are county and city governments.

Two-Party System

The United States has two main political parties — the Democratic Party and the Republican Party. There are other much smaller parties, which play little, if any, role. There are no clear differences between the Republican and Democratic parties. In general, the Republicans tend to be more conservative and to have more support among the upper classes, while the Democrats tend to be more liberal and to have more support among the working class and the poor.