2015-09-06
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I
The former colonies, now “the United States of America”, first operated under an agreement called the Articles of Confederation (1781). It was soon
clear that this loose agreement among the states was not working well. The central, federal government was too weak, with too few powers of defenсe, trade, and taxation. In 1787, therefore, delegates from the states met in
Philadelphia. They wanted to revise the Articles, but they did much more than that. They wrote a completely new document, the Constitution, which after much argument, debate, and compromise was finished in the same year and
officially adopted by the thirteen states by 790.
The Constitution of the USA has now been in force for more than 200 years. It is a fairly brief document. The Constitution consists of the Preamble, seven articles and twenty six amendments, the first ten of them called collectively the Bill of Rights.
The Constitution sets out the basic principles on which the government of
the United States was built and on which it is maintained. It lays out the basic framework and procedures by which and the limits within which that government must operate.
According to the US Constitution all political power belongs to the people. The people are sovereign1. They are the only source of any and all governmental power. Government can govern only with the consent of the governed. This principle, the principle of popular sovereignty is declared in the opening words in the preamble.
The principle of limited government holds that government is not all- powerful that is may do only, certain things – those things that the people have empowered it to do. The concept of the limited power is also described as the rule of law – that is, government and its officers in all that they do are always subject to, never above the law. The Constitution distributes the powers of the National Government among the Congress (the legislative branch), the President (the executive branch) and the courts (the judicial branch). Thus, the Congress is the law-making branch of the National Government. The President is given the law-executing, law-enforcing and law-administering powers of the National Government. The Federal Courts, and most importantly Supreme Court, interpret and apply the laws of the United States in cases brought before them.
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The National Government is organized around three separate branches. But these three branches are neither entirely separated, nor completely independent of one another. Rather they are tied together by a complex system of checks and balances. Each branch is subject to a number of constitutional checks (restraints) by either or both of the others. In other words, each branch has certain powers with which it can check the operations of the other two.
Courts have the power of judicial review – the power to decide whether what the government does is in accord with what the Constitution provides.
More exactly, the judicial review may be defined in the following terms: It is the power of a court to determine the constitutionality of a government action. The power of judicial review is held by all federal courts and by most State courts.
American governmental system is federal in form. The powers held by government are distributed on territorial basis. Some of those powers are held by the National Government and others belong to the 50 states.
The powers of the federal (national) government include the right to declare war; the right to tax; the right to borrow and coin money, and to regulate its value; the right to regulate commerce between the states; the right to maintain a postal system.
Every state has its own constitution. It also has the three-branches-of- government structure. State chief executives are called governors, and state legislators are usually known as representatives and senators.
The powers of the state are to control education, regulate corporations and business within the state, determine most election procedures, and regulate local governments. The states also make and administer civil (citizens’ private rights) and criminal laws.
II
The fundamental rights of the American people are stated in the first ten Constitutional Amendments. Among these rights are the freedom of religion, speech, and the press, the right of peaceful assembly, and the right to petition the
government to correct wrongs. Other rights guarded the citizens against unreasonable searches, arrests, and seizures of property, and established a system of justice guaranteeing orderly legal procedures. This included the right
of trial by jury, that is, being judged by one’s fellow citizens.
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The great pride Americans have in their Constitution, their almost religious respect for it, comes from the knowledge that these ideals, freedoms, and rights were not given to them by a small ruling class. Rather, they are seen as the natural “unalienable” rights of every American, which had been fought for and won. They cannot be taken away by any government, court, official, or law.
The federal and state governments formed under the Constitution, therefore, were designed to serve the people and to carry out their majority
wishes (and not the other way around). One thing they did not want their government to do is to rule them. Americans expect their governments to serve them and tend to think of politicians and governmental officials as their
servants. This attitude remains very strong among Americans today.
Over the past two centuries, the Constitution has also had considerable influence outside the United States. Several other nations have based their own forms of government on it. It is interesting note that Lafayette, a hero of the American Revolution, drafted the French declaration of rights when he returned to France. And the United Nations Charter also has clear echoes of what once was considered a revolutionary document.
Notes:
1. the people are sovereign – народ обладает высшей (верховной)
властью
2. popular sovereignty – верховенство (главенство) народа, т.е.
принадлежность верховной власти народу
3. the principle of limited government – принцип ограничения власти
(полномочий)
4. law-executing, law-enforcing and law administering powers –
полномочия в сфере (области) исполнения законов, охраны правопорядка и поддержания законности
5. the power and judicial review – право судебного контроля
6. administer civil (…) and criminal law – осуществляют (отправляют)
гражданское и уголовное правосудия
