1. The American Political System

2. Background The Declaration of Independence 1776
The War of Independence
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.

3. 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.

4. 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

5. 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.

6. 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

7. 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.

8. 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

9. 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

10. 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 The state has 3 electoral votes, which means that each vote costs votes. In populous New York each electoral vote represents votes.

11. 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.

12. 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