Essay Example on the US: Federal System and Shared Sovereignty

Introduction

The United State of America uses the federal system of administration whereby there is sharing of powers between the president and the federal courts. These shared powers are reserved for the national government under the American constitution. The state governments share sovereignty with: the executive, the legislature and the judiciary. The executive arm of the government s headed by the president and s fully independent of the other two arms of the government. The cabinet s the one which serves as the advisory body to the president. The cabinet comprises of the president the vice president and the heads of the various executive departments (Bendor, 2013). The legislative arm of the government has its powers vested in two chambers: the House of Representatives and the Senate. The Judiciary comprises of the Supreme Court and the lower courts. The main function of the judiciary is to interpret both the federal laws and the United States Constitution. The functions of the judiciary extend to resolving disputes between the other two arms of the government: the legislature and the executive. The structure of the federal government is fully codified in the American constitution

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For the last several decades two main political parties (Democrats and Republicans) have dominated the politics in the United States of America. Although other small political parties exist such as the Green party and the Libertarian Party, since the end of the American Civil War, the Republican and the Democratic parties have dominated the political arena. The Democratic Party is commonly referred to as the center-left liberal in the United States. The Republican is referred to as the center-right conservative party. Both parties tend to have opposing views on a number of issues including the foreign policy and the economy. There are significant differences between the political system in America and other developed countries. For instance, in the United States, the upper house has a lot of powers which is not the case in some other developed democracies. Other differences which do not exist in other democracies include the politics being dominated by only two political parties and the scope of powers which the Supreme Court has. In the United States, the third parties are they are commonly referred to have very little influence unlike in other countries where there are no particular political parties which dominate the politics for a long time (Coggburn, and Saundra, 2003). The insignificance of the smaller parties has its roots in the robust historical controls. The controls of the smaller parties come in the form of federal and state laws, the winner-take it all policy in elections and the prohibitions of the free media. Other restrictions include the access of the ballots and the exclusive debate rules. Since independence in the United States, there have been five presidential elections where the winner lost the popular vote.

American ideology

The dominant ideology of the Republican is the classical liberalism. The central documents in this form of ideology include the constitution, the declaration of independence, the bill of rights, the federalism, the Gettysburg Address, and Abraham Lincoln. According to the political scientist Louis Hartz, the south broke away from its central ideology in 1820. This happened is it tried to construct a fantasy with the aim of supporting the feudal and hierarchical.

The core tenets of the American ideology include:

• The Civic Duty. According to this ideology, the citizens have the duty and responsibility to support and understand the government. They also have an obligation to participate in democratic elections, pay taxes to the government and be ready to offer military service when called upon. They are also expected to oppose any form of political corruption.
• Democracy. This ideology states that the citizens have the responsibility and duty to decide the kind of leaders they want to govern them. They also must change their representatives through a democratic election.
• The equality of the citizens before American law. The laws of America should be applied equally to all the citizens irrespective of their status in society. The government officials, as well as the politicians, should be subjected to the same law as the rest of the citizens.
• Everybody has the freedom of worship, and the government will support or suppress any religion.
• The government should not restrict the personal rights to freedom of speech. Therefore the government cannot use any law to restrict one from such freedom.

The United States political culture is structured in such a way that it excludes different populations from accessing full citizenship. This form of ideological tradition has been termed as being inscriptive inegalitarianism. Some political scientists have argued that the relevance of this tradition is anchored on the nativity, racist and sexist beliefs that existed and which were borrowed from the early colonial period and following the political debates which existed during the progressive era.

Usage of "left-right" politics

The political spectrum which exists in the United States of America, as well as the use of the term left-right politics conservative and liberalism, is so different from what happens in the rest of the developed democracies. The word liberalism in the American context is very different from the way it is used in other European countries with the exception of Britain. The American liberalism does not recognize classical liberalism's commitment to the certain limits of the government, economics, and laissez-faire.This is because the two are supported the Americans who are conservatives. What the Americans call conservative in other jurisdictions is called liberalism or neoliberalism. Politicians and other Americans know the Democratic Party as the dominant center-left liberal party. However the small parties such as the GREEN Party which are known to be closer to the progressive left-wing which is against capitalism form of politics (Lynch, And Anthony, 2013). The Republican Party which is mainly known as the right-wing nationalist party. The Libertarian Party is the attraction of the voters who are independent-leaning who are more inclined to social liberalism more especially the social issues, and it is conservative on matters of economic policy.

Suffrage

All the citizens who are eighteen years and above are expected to participate in the election process through voting. All the states in the United States of America together with the District of Columbia contribute towards the Electoral College for the president. The District of Columbia, as well as other holdings such as Guan and Puerto Rico, do not have the federal representation in the Congress. They, therefore, do not have the rights to choose any politician outside their areas. All the commonwealth territories or districts have the right to elect a member who does not have the rights to vote or even serve in the House of Representatives.

After the American Civil War, the women suffrage became a very important issue to the extent that United States Constitution was amended which is commonly referred to as the fifteenth amendment and then ratified in 1870 the African-American people more especially men were given the right to vote. Different women also began fighting for the rights to vote. Two main interest groups were formed (O'Toole,). The group which was formed first was the National Suffrage Association which was formed by Susan Anthony together with Elizabeth Stanton. The group wanted to work at the federal level and force the government to make more changes so that the women can be given rights such as the rights of the women to own property.

The second group was the American Woman Suffrage Association under the leadership of Lucy Stone. The aim of this group was to give women the rights to vote. After pushing for the rights, the two groups decided to merge so that they can have more powers. The new outfit they formed was called the National American Women Suffrage Association (NAWSA). The new outfit was very focal through engaging each state individually, and by 1920 an amendment was made to the American constitution which gave women more rights. This is commonly referred to as the nineteenth amendment. Several pushes by students and such organizations forced the government to introduce some changes to the constitution. For instance, the government made amendments to the constitution after students staged demonstrations to oppose the Vietnam War. The amendment was referred to as the twenty-sixth amendment of the United States Constitution. The amendments made the changes to the constitution so that the voting age would change from 21 to 18.

State government

The state governments are mandated to make laws which are not granted by the federal government or the ones that have been denied to the states through the American government. The laws that the states can make include the ones regarding education, law, family, crimes and the contract law. The federal government has only the powers as granted in the constitution; the state government has powers within itself to act and make laws that it deems necessary unless it is limited by the American constitution. The state government has three branches as the federal government: the legislature, the judiciary, and the executive. The chief executive officer of the state government is the governor who holds office for four years after a successful election. However, in some states, the governors stay in office for two years.

The only exception is in Nebraska whose legislature is unicameral. All the other states have a bicameral legislature whereby there are the upper house and the House of Representatives. Some states call the two assemblies the house of assembly or the house of de; estates. In most of the states, the senators serve for four years while the members of the lower house serve for two years. The constitutions of the different states in the United States are not the same; they differ in some details though they must follow a particular pattern which is similar to the one used by the federal government. The sim8ilarities include the statement of rights of the people as well as the plan on how the government should be organized. The other difference is that the constitutions at the state level are more detailed than the one at the federal level.

Local government

`The whole of the United States there are 89500 local governments. This figure includes the 3033 counties, 16500 townships, and 19492 municipalities. There are also 37000 special districts and 1300 school districts. The local governments are organized in such a way that they directly serve the needs of the citizens/The local governments provide services such as the fire protection, police services, the codes of sanitary, education, regulating the health sector, housing, and the public transport. The members of the local government are usually non-partisan because immediately after the elections they are expected to suspend their political parties.

An average of 28% of the Americans stays in cities which have 10000 people or more. The governments in the city are chartered by the states, and the charters have the details and objectives of the municipal governments. According to the United States Constitution, the territories and the states are the subdivisions of the country. The Supreme Court affirmed the supreme nature of the different states over the municipalities. The big states have the responsibility of creating a collaboration between them and the federal government so that the needs of the populations can be met. There are variations on the differ...