Federal Structure of the US Goverment
Uploaded by Nategrey on Aug 05, 2005
Structure of US Government
The United States of America is a Federation of fifty states plus six territories. A Federation is a country that is comprised of more than one self-governing regions that are united by a central, or ‘federal,’ government. The term Federation comes from the Latin word foedus, meaning ‘covenant,’ and the term implies a basic relationship between the Central government and its member-states. Certain powers and duties are expressly given to parts of the Federal Government because, for reasons of security and stability, there can be but one system. Certain other powers are left to the states themselves chiefly because various problems are best dealt with by those closest to them, and it would be counter the spirit of limited government and diversity to create a “one-size-fits-all” policy for addressing complex issues. Likewise the states do not micromanage every problem that crops up within their borders; they send power to counties and municipalities who work together to form local policy and implement statewide statues.
Government in the US is very decentralized, while authority is split between the federal and state governments; the federal government itself consists of three coequal branches. Congress, addressed in the first article of the Constitution, governs the Republic and is responsible for passing all laws as well as controlling the nation’s currency, levying taxes, borrowing money, establishing courts and distributing funding to every government organization, plus other duties. The House of Representatives represents the people of the various states and seats in the House are given in proportion to state population. Each house of Congress has the power to introduce legislation on any subject except revenue bills, which must originate in the House of Representatives. A bill must pass a majority in both chambers before it can be sent to the President. Additionally, both bills must be worded identically, for this purpose joint-committees are formed to streamline both chamber’s versions. The smaller of the two houses of Congress is the Senate, which is made up of two Senators from each state. The Senate has certain powers reserved to it specifically, including the right to confirm presidential appointments of judges, officials and ambassadors as well as authority to ratify all treaties. The House has the sole right to bring charges of misconduct, Impeachment, against an official, but the Senate is granted sole...