Essay outline
The United States government is a model federal government composed of fifty states and one capitol.
The first United States government was composed in 1789 making it one of the earliest governments in a constitutional country.
The legislature
The people have the right to elect the leaders that they want to legislative offices.
House of Representatives
This house is made up of 435 members with voting rights. Each member represents a congressional district.
The judiciary
This is an important department that interprets the law and applies it.
The executive
The executive is comprised of the president and cabinet secretaries.
Challenges
The resistance to changes that are brought about by democracy
Onset of international bodies that have contradicting policies
The American Government
The United States government is a model federal government composed of fifty states and one capitol. The government has three different branches which are; the legislature, judiciary and the executive. All the branches of the government derive their powers from the supreme law of the United States which is the constitution. In addition, the abilities of these branches of the government are further regulated by the congress through special amendments and creation of some departments in the executives to serve this course
The first United States government was composed in 1789 making it one of the earliest governments in a constitutional country. The outline used in the formation of the government is clearly documented in the constitution. The outline indicates that the United States Government is a federal system where power is divided among various levels of authority. However, there have been a lot of debates on how much power should be devolved to the states
The governments’ functions are delegated to governors that are elected in each state. The governors are responsible in executing the policies of the federal government and also the state government where he is president or chief executive officer. The powers of the state governments are limited and controlled by the constitution and other amendments made by the congress through legislation.
The laws made by the national government are supposed to be followed by all citizens or people living in the country, however, the state laws apply to people who live in the state or people visiting the state. Schmidt asserts that ‘the national government possesses sovereignty over all external affairs such that it is only the federal government that is supposed to engage with other governments as opposed to state governments’ (136). Nevertheless, the federal government can also control domestic affairs through laws meant to provide for the interests of the government. However, this has been as source of controversy where national laws conflict with states laws. The citizens may be subject to two sets of law and might be damaging since the public might lose faith in their government.
Branches of the United States government
The legislature
The people have the right to elect the leaders that they want to legislative offices. A person must get the approval of the people through a democratic process.
Congress
The congress has the powers to make laws that; the power to impose taxes on the people, regulation of money value, the establishment of roads and post offices, enhancing science development through giving patents and also the creation of sub-courts that are subject to scrutiny by the supreme court. Congress has also the powers to; declare war on an enemy, enacting laws to combat piracy and other hostile actions
House of Representatives
This house is made up of 435 members with voting rights. Each member represents a congressional district. The members of this house serve a term of two years and the members can be reelected into office after expiry of their term. Free and fair elections must be held to elect the members of this house as provided for in the constitution. This is one of the reasons why the government of the United States has massive support from the citizens. It is a clear case where democracy triumphs.
Senate
Each state is represented by two senators, withal factors aside. The house has 100 members duly elected by the people. The senate has powers to advice on appointments made by the president. The officers approved include cabinet secretaries, military officers, and the diplomatic teams like ambassadors. For a law to pass, it must be discussed and approved by both houses (Janda 160). Moreover, the houses can re-pass the bill that has been vetoed by the president to make it a law without the presidential approval.
The congress possesses powers to impeach a non performing president. The other persons at the mercy of congress are the judges and the federal officers who can be removed from office by the congress. The last steps in the impeachment process are done in a trial at the senate such that to provide a clear reason as to why the impeachment is necessary. To determine the outcome of a trial, the senate takes the opinion shared by the majority.
The judiciary
This is an important department that interprets the law and applies it. The operation of the judiciary involves listening and determining cases as provided by the law. The members of the judiciary in the USA are appointed by the president with the approval of the congress and the senate. The judiciary is instrumental in the democracy since it is the courts that determine the disputes arising from elections. Moreover, the election rules and regulations are enforced by the judiciary. This is the reason why the United States has such a stable democracy.
The executive
The executive is comprised of the president and cabinet secretaries. The president is elected by universal suffrage where voters engage in a democratic process to choose their commander in chief. The American government is democratic since all the members are chose by the people or the representatives of the people.
Despite this triumph of democracy in the United States, there have been several factors that hinder full implementation of democracy.
Challenges to democracy in the United States
The federalism government through the constitution advocates for democracy in that the rule and governance must be defined by the will of people. The American government has actually tried to implement this mostly through delegating power to the state governments alongside many other ways. Ensuring that democracy prevails is a process that has to take time some first to start and later requires a lot of efforts to maintain it. When loopholes are allowed into the democratic system the result is always worse and might term the whole system as non-democratic. Therefore, any government that wishes to practice democracy has to maintain a public agreement with the citizens as these offers the government authenticity to rule. Despite the much efforts made to enhance democracy by the US government, unite states of America has not yet been fully democratic as several challenges have been encountered in several stages of developing and implementing it.
During the first stages of developing democracy, that involves getting the skills necessary for democracy and implementing them, challenges come out. Many countries, including the US have the tendency to resist change. Due to this any new system implemented takes an extraordinary long time. Moreover the states of the United States of America although termed as a developed country still show some unsatisfactory development. The inclusion of women representatives in the governing body has remained inadequate (Pitney 56). Mostly in the political part of government where leaders are elected by majority votes the number of women is always the minority an issue that retards the level of democracy as women will always feel less represented. The main cause of these small numbers is actually the culture that terms man as the head while ladies are less involved in decision making with the society taking time to adopt any changes.
Globalizing the world has made nations to be fully interactive and they enjoy the benefits accruing from it mutually. International bodies such as UN have been formed to enhance relations among countries. This has caused a great problem to the democracy as most of the international aid s come up with some principles that contradict democracy. Opting to be self-reliant is the only way to curb this challenge but no country is willing to o so due to the many shortcomings accompanied. Therefore any country that joins hands with others and allows the intervention of international bodies has to prepare to accommodate any unfriendly policies that retard democracy. Mostly these organizations tend to advocate on economic issues and mostly make it hard for the democratic countries while paving ways for the autocrats who have maintained a high economic positions and stable prices.
Bessette urges that choosing to be democratic might seem to be a very easy decision, however there comes a problem in implementing it, (254). Inculcating the views of every citizen and giving them from to react to government made decisions might contradict the policies of improving the welfare of citizens. Good governance attracts foreigners to invest in that country and thus efforts are made countries to maintain democracy in these countries. The largest challenge occurs when there are conflicting countries in the neighborhood. It’s actually impossible to control the neighbor’s action and thus introduces flaws in democracy.
Changes in the international framework that occur on daily basis retard democracy. According to Jerry Goldman, Scarce resources like oil that are only found in certain countries harden democracy as the government aims at market more than the welfare of the country (234). In the US these resources are not available but the desire for power gives a similar effect on the democracy. Technological forces together with the improvement of private enterprise pose a great challenge to democracy as new ways a discovered to improve productivity.
Economic status has termed democracy to be of less importance. Poverty and unemployment encourages violence as citizens sometimes feel that violence will make things work better. In most countries this is the cause of government overthrow a situation that automatically leads to autocracy. In America these has not been witnessed but several instances show some sort of inadequacy of the government especially in the aspect of sharing power. The US government, despite the fact that there are several state governments maintained most decision making in the federal government.
References
Janda Kenneth, Jeffrey M. Berry, Jerry Goldman, Hula W. Challenge of Democracy Essentials: American Government in Global Politics, 8th Edition. Cengage Learning, 2011. Print
Schmidt Steffen W. Mack C. Shelley, II, Barbara A. Bardes American Government and Politics Today. Cengage Learning, 2010. Print
Bessette M., Pitney John, Jr. American Government and Politics: Deliberation, Democracy and Citizenship, Election Update. Cengage Learning, 2011. Print.
