IV. Government of the unites States

 

 The U.S. government is a representative democracy with two legislative bodies. These bodies are the Senate and House of Representatives. The Senate consists of 100 seats with two representatives from each of the 50 states. The House of Representatives consists of 435 seats and are elected by the people from the 50 states. The executive branch consists of the President who is also the head of government and chief of state. On November 4, 2008 Barack Obama was elected as the first African American U.S. president.

 

 The U.S. also has a judicial branch of government that is made up of the Supreme Court, the U.S. Court of Appeals, U.S. District Courts and State and County Courts.

 

Presidential Elections: president and vice president elected on the same ticket by a college of representatives who are elected directly from each state; president and vice president serve four-year terms; election last held November 2008 (next to be held November 2012)

 

Election Day takes place on the Tuesday after the first Monday in November.

 

The president and vice president are actually elected by the Electoral College. When casting a ballot for a particular candidate, voters are actually voting for a slate of electors. These electors in turn will vote for that candidate in the Electoral College.

The Electoral College is composed of 538 members — equivalent to 100 senators, 435 House members, and 3 representatives from the District of Columbia. Each state's number of electors equals their number of representatives and senators. Thus, California has the most electors with 54, followed by New York (33), Texas (32), Florida (25), and Pennsylvania (23). Except for Maine and Nebraska, the Electoral College is a winner-take-all system, meaning whoever carries the state — regardless of the margin — receives all of the state's Electoral College votes.

Calls to Reform

As we learned in 2000, regardless of the popular vote tally (President George W. Bush lost the popular vote by a half million votes), the magic number is 270 electoral votes.

How many times has a president been elected without winning the popular vote? This has occurred four times. The first was John Adams in 1824, followed by Rutherford B. Hayes in 1876, Benjamin Harrison in 1888, and George W. Bush in 2000. Adams, Hayes, and Harrison all were unable to win a second term.

 

Top 10 Things You Should Know About American Government

1. Only Congress can declare war.

2. The Bill of Rights is composed of the first ten amendments to the Constitution.

3. The Senate confirms presidential appointments.

4. The number of members of the House of Representatives is fixed at 435.

5. Only one president — James Garfield — was elected directly from the House of Representatives.

6. The vice president casts the tie-breaking vote in the Senate.

7. The Speaker of the House is the highest-ranking Congressional officer specified in the Constitution.

8. Congress can override a presidential veto with a two-thirds vote.

9. The attorney general is the highest-ranking law enforcement official in the United States.

10. The Supreme Court begins a new term on the first Monday in October.

 

 

V. THE MEDIA

 

An Emerging Influence

The Impact of the Internet

 

An Emerging Influence

The media's role in government dates back to the colonial era, when daily newspapers were the sole source of political as well as other news for the colonists. Newspaper publishing was an expensive and time-consuming process at that time. The fastest printing presses could only produce 250 newspapers an hour. The reporting of “breaking” news was a matter of weeks, not days. Sometimes it took months for information to travel through the colonies.

 

The mass media has undergone a serious transformation over the past 200 years. Much of that change has occurred since the mid-1990s, with the advent of the Internet and all-news cable television channels. As those and other communication technologies continue to evolve at lightning speed, the role of the media in government will also continue to change.

 

The period of 1880 to 1925 is considered the golden era of newspapers, as daily papers wielded enormous influence with politicians, business leaders, and the public. Publishers and editors used this power to influence public opinion, shape policy decisions, and highlight social injustices.

 

Radio and Television

 

In 1920 the Westinghouse Corporation's KDKA in Pittsburgh became the nation's first commercial radio station. By 1930 almost 40 percent of the households in America owned radios, and that number would double again before the end of the decade. President Roosevelt helped to popularize the new medium during the Great Depression with his weekly “fireside chats.” With its ability to deliver breaking news instantly, radio replaced newspapers as the primary source of news for most Americans. At the same time, advertising dollars began to move from newspapers to radio, and the newspaper industry resigned itself to competing with the new medium.

 

Television enjoyed an even faster rise to prominence. In 1939, fewer than 5 percent of the households in America owned a television. In 1950, that number had grown to 90 percent. One survey revealed that by the mid-1960s, a majority of Americans received their news information from television.

A 1994 poll revealed that 74 percent of Americans received their news from television — the high-water mark of the medium's dominance. Since that time, the Internet has begun to erode television's news monopoly.

 

The Impact of the Internet by Nick Ragone

 

In some sense, the Internet has become a check on the mass media — primarily the major networks and newspapers — because it communicates directly without the filter of editors, publishers, and corporate parents like Viacom, Disney, Time-Warner, and General Electric. Web sites such as Drudgereport.com, Andrewsullivan.com, thesmokinggun.com, and many others receive millions of hits a months from visitors seeking news, information, and opinions that aren't found in the mainstream media.

 

In 1998, it was controversial cyber journalist (some would call him cyber gossip columnist) Matt Drudge who broke the Monica Lewinsky scandal. Drudge didn't do the firsthand reporting on the story; he simply revealed that the magazine Newsweek had the story but was undecided about publishing it. Drudge's revelation forced Newsweek to print the story, setting off a chain of events that ultimately led to President Clinton's impeachment. Since then, dozens of political stories have originated in cyberspace, only to cross over to the “mainstream” media.

 

The Internet has been an invaluable tool for journalists to perform research, gather information, and report from distant parts of the globe. It has allowed the media to be more comprehensive and timely in its reporting, and has effectively reduced the news cycle from twelve hours to a matter of minutes.

 

 

VI. EDUCATION SYSTEM

School attendance is compulsory for all children.

 

About 85 per cent of American children attend public schools. The other 15 per cent choose to pay tuition to attend private schools. Most private schools are run by religious organizations and generally include religious instruction.

 

Americans start their education at the age of 3 when they start nursery school. Public education from kindergarten ( at the age of 5 ) through grade 12 is tax-supported; no tuition is required. Elementary education starts at the age of 6. Elementary school is over at the age of 13. The next stage is secondary education when children attend high school (junior and senior). They get a high school diploma at 17 and move on to the higher education stage where they have the choice of:

-a technical institute;

-a private career school;

- a junior college or

- undergraduate studies (a four-year period); they get their Bachelor’s degree (either B.A. or B.S.) and may continue their education (graduate studies, a two- or three-year period which involves getting their Master’s degree (e.g. M.A., M.S.). Some graduates go on to the next stage: postgraduate studies which last for about three years. Post-graduates get their Doctor’s Degree (e.g. Ph. D.)

 

Education system in the US is characterized by highly varied educational opportunities. High school students at the same grade level do not take the same courses. Students who do not plan to go to college may be enrolled in classes such as basic accounting, typing, or agricultural science, along with ‘core’ curriculum courses such as mathematics, social studies, science, and English. Those who plan to go to college may be enrolled in college-preparatory courses such as chemistry, political science, or advanced writing.

 

The courses students take depend not only on their abilities and future goals, but also on the particular courses offered by the school. Some elementary schools, e.g., offer computer and foreign language courses; courses in scuba diving are available at some high schools.

 

In higher education there is a remarkably wide variety of degree programmes. Besides colleges and universities which offer degrees in traditional fields, there also small arts colleges which grant degrees to students who concentrate in specialized fields such as ballet, film-making, and even circus performing.

 

Besides the diversity in the course offerings at all levels, variety also exists in schools’ academic standards and reputations. The standards students must meet to get a high school diploma are rigorous in some schools and lax in others. The same is true for college admission standards. Highly reputable colleges (Harvard and Yale) accept only students of exceptional ability. There are also less desirable institutions, sometimes negatively referred to as ‘degree factories’, which accept practically any high school graduate.

 

The main reason for such diversity in course offerings and standards is that there is no national education system in the US. Accordingly, education standards and requirements differ from state to state.

Although there is no national curriculum, certain subjects are generally taught in all public schools across the country. Almost every elementary school instructs children in penmanship, science, mathematics, music, art, physical education, language arts (reading, writing, and grammar) and social studies (geography, history, and citizenship).

 

Most secondary schools require students to take English, mathematics, science, social studies, and physical education. In addition to these ‘core’ subjects, students choose ‘elective’ courses in the areas of interest.