The Anatomy of the United States Government

[Farnan]

The American government's organisation is different than most nations, especially those of Europe. Many times people from both inside and outside of the United States are confuse about it. This is my humble attempt to explain the United States Government for those who need help in understanding it.

The United States government is basically divided into three levels: federal, state, and local.

I'm going to quickly summarize state and local government because their actions very rarely effect people outside their jurisdiction. State government powers include: Raising and organising the militia (Nationial Guard (though the Federal government provides a significant amount of the funding, thus has a great deal of influence in this factor)), internal trade within the state is controlled by the state, election law, marriage law, and education. State government organisation parallel's that of the Federal government with the governor as the chief executive, a bicameral legislature (for all states except Nebraska which is unicameral), and an independent judiciary.

Now the Federal government. The Federal government is divided into three branches: the Legislative Branch, the Executive Branch, and the Judiciary.

The Legislative Branch: The Legislative branch is made up of two houses, the House of Representatives and the Senate. The duties of the Legislative Branch is to pass laws, set the budget of the Federal government, and to regulate the other two branches through the use of impeachment or threat there of. All bills must pass both houses before they become law, and only Congress may declare war.

The House of Representatives: This is the lower house of Congress and is usually known simply as the House. There is a set limit of 435 members to this legislative body. Members of this body represent the populace, each Representative representing approxiametly 600,000 people. Each member of this body serves a term of two years, and has no term limit. All budgetary bills must start here.

The Senate: This is the upper house of Congress. These people represent the states, two being elected from each state. They serve a term of six years. All Presidential nominations and treaties must be ratified by this body.

Executive Branch: The Executive branch of the US government is led by the US Presidents and includes the President, the Cabinet, their subordinate departments, and other independent agencies (such as the CIA). There are three primary duties of the Executive Branch: conduct foreign policy, defend the Constitution and people of the United States, and enforce the laws of Congress.

The President: The President of the United States is the head of the Executive branch. He serves in terms of four years, and may serve up to two terms. His job is to fufill the duties of the Executive Branch. He signs treaties (though they must still be ratified by Congress), is the Commander-in-Chief of the United States Military, represents the United States in all ceremonies neccessary, and directs the departments and agencies of the Executive Branch. He also appoints the United States Federal Judiciary. Finally, he may pardon people who have been convicted of crimes.

The Cabinet: The Cabinet are the advisors of the President, and head of the departments that make up the Executive branch. They are appointed by the President and serve at his pleasure. Their appointments must be approved by the Senate.
Makeup of the Cabinet:http://www.whitehouse.gov/government/cabinet.html

The Departments and Agencies: These are the government employees who do the gruntwork of the Federal government. Examples are CIA agents, FBI investigators, post men, and soldiers.

The Federal Judiciary: The Federal Judiciary are the judges. The decide the guilt or innocence of someone accused of violating Federal Law. Then there is the Supreme Court that has additional power. There are three levels of the Federal Judiciary: District Court, Appeals Court, and the Supreme Court. A case usually goes up through the levels.

Supreme Court: The Supreme Court is a nine person body that is the highest court in the land. They also have the power of judicial review. Judicial Review is the power to decide if the actions of the other two branches are Constitutional.

The basis of this government: http://www.usconstitution.net/const.html


I'll update it to clarify sections if you need to, or if I forgot something I'll edit it if you tell me what I forgot...

[Sétanta]

I would also like to add that most states follow this system of government as well. Well, all do, but some have unicameral legislatures. And technically, any powers not given to the Federal Government in the Constitution are delegated to the States, although this practice has become somewhat more rare as of late (with the hugely powerful central government and all).

Very good post Farnan.

[Farnan]

I would also like to add that most states follow this system of government as well. Well, all do, but some have unicameral legislatures. And technically, any powers not given to the Federal Government in the Constitution are delegated to the States, although this practice has become somewhat more rare as of late (with the hugely powerful central government and all).

Very good post Farnan.

I already said that, I said that the State governments parallel the Federal government.

[Sétanta]

I already said that, I said that the State governments parallel the Federal government.

Umm....good job you passed the test.

I should really read posts more carefully.

[JP226]

the biggest problem with the federal gov is that they don't represent closley enough of the regular US citizen. Hence why our State government are much more important. You have on average one rep for tens of thousands versus one state rep for a fraction of that number

[VALIS]

man,america seems like one of the most beurocratic places on earth!
how does anything get done?

[Farnan]

man,america seems like one of the most beurocratic places on earth!
how does anything get done?

No one knows, its one of the great mysteries of life...

[JP226]

i have no idea, the biggest problem with the US is the joke the federal government has made out of the state govs

[JP226]

of course liberals will tell you how efficient the ov is, which is nonesense, and that is how things get done. Never understood that logic. To me it seems the more responsible the govermnet is the better it works.

[Caelius]

Supreme Court is a nine person body...

edit: You might also want to explain some of the differences that led to the rise of the Democratic and Republican parties and the separate agendas they have today.

[Farnan]

Remember the goal of this thread is to help inform those who have questions on how the US government works.

To Caelius: Ummm.... I knew that, wanted to see if anyone would notice...

The differences that led to the rise of the parties is extremely complicated, but I'll do my best, and do my best to remain non-partisian.

[Caelius]

Ah, nevermind.

[Erik]

The House of Representatives: This is the lower house of Congress and is usually known simply as the House. There is a set limit of 435 members to this legislative body. Members of this body represent the populace, each Representative representing approxiametly 600,000 people.

Every member of the house represents one voting district, correct?

I was wondering: are the district set in stone, or do they change over time?
For example: what happens if 1 million people move into a certain district, increasing the population to 1.6 million? will the district be split up in smaller ones?
And if so, who gets to decide the boarders of the districts?

[Caelius]

I was wondering: are the district set in stone, or do they change over time?

They change every ten years according to population figures and demographic shifts done by the US Census Bureau (the bean counters).

And if so, who gets to decide the boarders of the districts?

Now that I don't know.

[danzig]

Quote:
And if so, who gets to decide the boarders of the districts?

Now that I don't know.

The state legislature does though some states have taken steps to put remapping of districts on independent agencies to avoid the political nudging of the process. Its a big explanation on why alot of California is always blue and Texas is almost always red.

[Erik]

The state legislature does though some states have taken steps to put remapping of districts on independent agencies to avoid the political nudging of the process.

Yes, I can understand this.
Because if you know your stats well you can easily draw the boarders in such a way that your party gets a majority in as many districts as possible, while condensing you opponents votes into as few districts as possible.

I'm not sure if you can solve this problem by using independent agencies though.
What if the people working for the "independent" agency all happen to prefer one political party over the other?
I think this would give a lot of power to a very small group of people.

And why have districts at all?
The concept sounds strange to me.

[danzig]

Yes, I can understand this.
Because if you know your stats well you can easily draw the boarders in such a way that your party gets a majority in as many districts as possible, while condensing you opponents votes into as few districts as possible.

I'm not sure if you can solve this problem by using independent agencies though.
What if the people working for the "independent" agency all happen to prefer one political party over the other?
I think this would give a lot of power to a very small group of people.

The remapping would still have to be approved and you run into that risk no matter what country or agency possible when it comes to political issues. Besides, when the redrawings are especially bad they end up in the courts to decide.

And why have districts at all?
The concept sounds strange to me.

How else could assign representatives for X amount of the population? There is approx 1 member in the house per 700,000 Americans ensuring every large "community" in the US has someone to speak for them. Probably strange to you because you are from a relatively small country where such a system wouldnt make much sense. The concerns by people say here where I live (Staten Island, NY) might be different then people who live in Queens so districts allow relatively fair division of house members to represent the various people. Remember house members are 99.9% of the time 'local boys' (or girls) compared to the Senate where some blond from another state can waltz in and get elected in my state solely because her last name starts with letter C.

[Farnan]

Every member of the house represents one voting district, correct?

I was wondering: are the district set in stone, or do they change over time?
For example: what happens if 1 million people move into a certain district, increasing the population to 1.6 million? will the district be split up in smaller ones?
And if so, who gets to decide the boarders of the districts?

The districts change after every census (which happens every 10 years), in which they would give each state, according to its population, its share of 435 districts. Its easier to say through an example. Let's say 20% of the US population lives in California, thus California would get 87 districts.
The state legislatures determine the borders of the districts within their states, though each district must have approxiametly the same number of people. Let's state, for the sake of the example there is one state with 21 million people and 21 districts are assigned to it. Each district must then contain 1 million people.

Do you understand? The process is extremely complicated and political...


Note: I think the reason they stopped at 435 is that they were running out of room, and it was begginning to get unweildy...

If we kept as we originally had it with each representative representing 60,000 people, we would have 4,666 representatives. Besides being an extremely unweildy number of people, if we paid them about as much as Representatives make today (125,000 a year), it would cost the US government over 583 million dollars to pay them alone. That is larger than the budget of the US Department of Agriculture.

[JP226]

I was wondering: are the district set in stone, or do they change over time?
For example: what happens if 1 million people move into a certain district, increasing the population to 1.6 million? will the district be split up in smaller ones?
And if so, who gets to decide the boarders of the districts?

the only thing set in stone is 435 memebers of the house. The districts can be redrawn and they are redrawn on a fairly regualr basis

in the old days they use to add house memebrs as the pop grew, but once we hit over 400, they quit doing that and designated 435 the stopping point as far as numbers of house members go.

as far as who decides districts themselves, it's the governors/ government of each state, argualby the strongest tool they have

[Farnan]

Population-wise the Netherlands may be as big or bigger than many states, but area-wise there are many states that are much larger. Because of the difference in area, the issues of one part of a state is completely different from another. For example, the cost of heating your house probably isn't that big in Death Valley, California, but in the mountains of Northern California it could be a central issue that the whole community lives are centered around.