Lecture 4The political System And Culture,

leisure, Entertainment, Sports.

The United States is an indirect democracy that is, the people rule through representatives they elect. Over time, the vote has been given to more and more people. In the beginning, only white men with property could vote. Today any citizen who is at least 18 years old can vote.

The political System

The United States Constitution, written in 1787, established the country’s political system and is the basis for its laws. In 200 years, the United States has experienced enormous growth and change. Yet the Constitution works as well today as when it was written. One reason is that the Constitution can be amended, or changed.

The constitution

( for example, the fifteenth Amendment gave black Americans the right to vote and Nineteenth Amendment gave women the right to vote.)

Another reason is that the Constitution is flexible: its basic principles can be applied and interpreted differently at different times.

The United States has a federalism system. This means that there are individual states, each with its own government, and there is a federal, or national government. The constitution gives certain powers to the federal government, other powers to both. for example, only the national government can print money, the states establish their own school systems, and both the national and the state governments can collect taxes.

Federalism

Within the national government, power is divided among three branches;

Legislative Executive Judicial

Three Branches of Government

The legislative branch consists of Congress, which has two parts:

The house of Representatives the Senate .Congress’s main function is to make

laws. There are 100 senators ( two from each state) and 435 representatives ( the number from each state depends on the size of the state’s population).

The President is the head of the executive branch and the country. The executive branch administers the laws ( decides how the laws should be carried out). In addition to the President, the Vice – President and their staffs, the executive branch consists of departments and agencies.

There are now 14 departments, including Treasury, State, Defense, and Health and Human Services. Each department has different responsibilities. for ex. The Treasury Department manages the nation’s money, while the State Department helps make foreign policy. The President appoints the department heads, who together make up president’s Cabinet or advisers.

The judicial branch interprets the laws and makes sure that new laws are in keeping with the Constitution. There are several levels of federal courts. The Supreme Court is the most important. It has nine members, who are appointed for life.

Each state has its own constitution. Like the national government, state governments are divided into legislative, executive, and judicial branches. There are senators and representatives and state court systems. Just as the President is as the leader of the national government, each state has a governor as its leader.

State and Local Government

The United States has two main political parties. The Democratic and Republican parties. Many other smaller parties play little if any role. Voters elect the president,

as well as senators, representatives, governor etc. A voter can choose candidates from different parties. In recent years, in fact, voters have tended to choose Republican presidents and Democratic congress people.

Two-Party System

There are not clear differences between the Republican and Democratic parties.

In general, the Republican tend to be more conservative and to have more support among the upper classes, while the Democrats tend to be more liberal and to have more support among the working classes and the poor.

The United States is an international center of culture. Its major cities (like New York, Boston, Washington, Chicago, San Francisco, and Los Angeles) regularly host many concerts, and art exhibitions, lectures, and theatrical performances, and concert halls are located in the United States. Performances and exhibitions are usually very well attended. Tickets can be hard to get,despite their high prices.

Culture

Most Americans enjoy sports- both playing sports themselves and watching their favorite sports and teams. Major professional sports events-baseball, football, basketball, and hockey, as well as golf and tennis –are witnessed by tens of thousands of fans, and by millions more on TV. Americans also love to travel. Weekend automobile trips are a tradition for many families, as are longer summer vacation trips.

Many people spend New Year’s Day resting. That’s because they are stayed up most of the night , greeting the new year! Some went to parties at friends’ homes or nightclubs. Others were out on the streets, throwing confetti and blowing noisemakers.

Holidays

in the 1950s and 1960s, Martin Luther King, led the civil rights movement- the struggle for equal for black Americans. King was assassinated in1968. Martin

Luther King Day which falls in January, around King’s birthday is a time to

celebrate the life and achievements of this great American.

Two other great Americans honored on Presidents’ Day. George Washington was the country’s the first President. Abraham Lincoln brought the country through the Civil War. Their birthdays were both in February and are celebrated together.

The most important American holiday is the Fourth of July, or Independence Day. On 4 , 1776 the American colonies declare their independence from Britain. many families celebrate the Fourth of July by having picnics and at night, watching fireworks.

Columbus Day celebrates Christopher Columbus’s arrival in the Americas in 1492. As Columbus was Italian, working for Spain, Columbus Day is an especially important holidays for many Italian-American and Hispanic-Americans.