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Comparative Government and

Politics of the World:

THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

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INTRODUCTION
"We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect
Union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common
defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to
ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the
United States of America."
-Preamble

of

the

American

Constitution

As the earliest nation developed, it expanded westward from small

settlements along the Atlantic Coast, eventually including all the territory
between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans across the middle of the North
American continent, as well as two noncontiguous states and a number of
territories. At the same time, the population and the economy of the United
States grew and changed dramatically. The population diversified as
immigrants arrived from all countries of the world. From its beginnings as a
remote English colony, the United States has developed the largest
economy in the world. Throughout its history, the United States has faced
struggles, both within the countrybetween various ethnic, religious,

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political, and economic groupsand with other nations. The efforts to deal
with and resolve these struggles have shaped the United States of America
into the late 20th century.

The United States is a country located in North America bordering the

Atlantic Ocean and Pacific Ocean. Neighboring countries are Canada and
Mexico. The geography of the United States is varied with mountains in the
west, a broad central plain and low mountains in the east. The government
system is a constitution-based federal republic with a strong democratic
tradition. The chief of state and head of government is the President. United
States has an advanced mixed economy in which there is a variety of
private freedom, combined with centralized economic planning and
government regulation. United States is a member of the Asian Pacific
Economic Cooperation (APEC), North American Free Trade Agreement
(NAFTA), and the Dominican Republic-Central American Free Trade
Agreement (DR-CAFTA).

BASIC FACTS

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BASIC FACTS
Official Name: United States of America

Conventional short form/abbv.: U.S./U.S.A.

Term for Citizen: American

Independence Day: July 4, 1776

Etymology:
In 1507, German cartographer Martin Waldseemller produced a world map on which he named the lands of
the Western Hemisphere "America" after Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci.
The first documentary evidence of the phrase "United States of America" was in an anonymously written essay
published in The Virginia Gazette newspaper in Williamsburg, Virginia on April 6, 1776. In June 1776, Thomas
Jefferson included the phrase "UNITED STATES OF AMERICA" in all capitalized letters in the headline of his
"original Rough draught" of the Declaration of Independence. In the final Fourth of July version of the Declaration,
the pertinent section of the title was changed to read, "The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of
America".

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Flag:
50 small white five-pointed stars arranged in nine
offset horizontal rows of six stars (top and bottom)
alternating with rows of five stars.
o Represents the fifty States of America
o Stars are considered a symbol of the heavens
and the divine goal to which man has aspired

from time immemorial.

13 stripes of red and white
o 13 stripes represent the thirteen original colonies from Great Britain
o The stripe is symbolic of the rays of light emanating from the sun.
o White signifies purity and innocence.
o Red signifies hardiness & valor.
o Blue signifies vigilance, perseverance & justice.
Note: the design and colors have been the basis for a number of other flags, including Chile, Liberia,
Malaysia, and Puerto Rico
GEOGRAPHY
Location: North America, bordering the Atlantic Ocean on the East, the
Pacific Ocean on the west, between Canada on the North and Mexico on the
South.
total: 9,826,675 sq km

country comparison to the world: 3

land: 9,161,966 sq km
water: 664,709 sq km

note: includes only the 50 states and District of Columbia

territorial sea: 12 nm

Maritime claims:

contiguous zone: 24 nm

exclusive economic zone: 200 nm

Longest river: Missouri river
Largest state: Alaska

Smallest state: Rhode Island

Largest Cities: New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, Philadelphia, San Diego, Detroit, Dallas, Phoenix, San
Antonio
Administrative divisions: 50 states, 1 federal district
Elevation extremes: lowest point: Death Valley -86 m

highest point: Mount McKinley (Denali) 6,194 m (highest point in North America)
note: the peak of Mauna Kea (4,207 m above sea level) on the island of Hawaii rises
about 10,200 m above the Pacific Ocean floor; by this measurement, it is the
world's tallest mountain - higher than Mount Everest (8,850 m), which is
recognized as the tallest mountain above sea level
Death
Natural Resources:

coal, copper, lead, molybdenum, phosphates, rare earth elements, uranium,

bauxite, gold, iron, mercury, nickel, potash, silver, tungsten, zinc, petroleum,
natural gas, timber
note: the US has the world's largest coal reserves with 491 billion short tons
accounting for 27% of the world's total

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Mt.

Climate:

mostly temperate, but tropical in Hawaii and Florida, arctic in Alaska, semiarid in the great plains west of the
Mississippi River, and arid in the Great Basin of the southwest; low winter temperatures in the northwest are
ameliorated occasionally in January and February by warm chinook winds from the eastern slopes of the Rocky
Mountains
DEMOGRAPHY
Population: 316,017,000 (2013 est.)
Ethnicity: White 72.4%, Black 12.6%, Asian 4.8%, Amerindian and Alaska native 0.9%, Native Hawaiian and Other
Pacific islander 0.2%, Other: 6.2 %, mixed (multicultural) 2.9 % (2010)
Languages: English 229.7 million, Spanish 37 million, Chinese 2.8 million, French 2.1 million, Tagalog 1.6 million,
Vietnamese 1.4 million, Italian 1.1 million, Korean 1.1 million, German, 1.1 million (2010 est)
Life expectancy: Male 76.05 years, Female 81. 05 years (2011 est)
Literacy: Male 99 %, Female 99 %, Total 99 % (2011 est)
Religion: (as of March 31, 2013)

CURRENCY
USD(Dollar $)
Currency equivalence:
o 1 US $ = P 40.8300 (As of March 31, 2013)

CAPITAL

Washington D.C.

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NATIONAL SYMBOLS
National tree: Oak Tree
National bird/animal: Bald eagle

The Bald Eagle was adopted as the National Bird of United States in 1782. The Bald Eagle symbolizes strength, courage,
freedom and immortality.

National flower: Rose

National Anthem: The Star Spangled Banner

The lyrics of the National Anthem are taken from Defense of Fort McHenry, a poem written by Francis Scott Key in
1914 and music is given by John Stafford Smith. The Star-Spangled Banner was adopted as the National Anthem on
Mar 3, 1931. The lyrics were set to the tune of "The Anacreontic Song"; only the first verse is sung.

National Motto: In God we trust (In God we trust was adopted as the National Motto of United States of
America in 1956 and signed in law by President Dwight D. Eisenhower.)
National seal: The Great seal

National March: The Star and Stripes Forever

National Creed of USA
The Americans Creed is the National Creed of the United States of America.
Written in 1917 by William Tyler Page, National Creed was adopted by U.S. House of Representatives on April 3,
1918.
I believe in the United States of America, as a government of the people, by the people, for the people; whose
just powers are derived from the consent of the governed; a democracy in a republic; a sovereign Nation of many
sovereign States; a perfect union, one and inseparable; established upon those principles of freedom, equality, justice,
and humanity for which American patriots sacrificed their lives and fortunes.
I therefore believe it is my duty to my country to love it, to support its Constitution, to obey its laws, to respect
its flag, and to defend it against all enemies.

The Great Seal was adopted in June 20, 1782.

The center of the Seal has Bald Eagle, in the beak of the bird is a scroll
with E pluribus unum inscribed meaning out of many, one.

The two claws of Eagle hold a bundle of olive branch and thirteen
arrows respectively. They are symbols for the power of peace and war.

The front of the Eagle contains a shield of red and white stripes; it
symbolizes the Americas relying on their own virtue.

Above the Eagle is cloud with blue field having thirteen stars in it.
The 13 constellations signify that a new State is taking its place among
other nations.

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The United States lacks a formal coat of arms, which is unusual for a western nation (but increasingly less
unusual, globally). The "Great Seal of the United States" is most often used as an equivalent of a coat of
arms when necessary, such as on the cover of US passports.
ECONOMY
The economy of the United States is the world's largest single national economy. The United States'
nominal GDP was estimated to be $15.7 trillion in 2012, approximately a quarter of nominal global GDP. Its GDP
at purchasing power parity is also the largest of any single country in the
world, approximately a fifth of global GDP at purchasing power
parity. The United States has a capitalist mixed economy and has
maintained a stable overall GDP growth rate, a moderate unemployment
rate, and high levels of research and capital investment. Its five largest
trading partners are Canada, China, Mexico, Japan, and Germany. In
2010, oil was the largest import commodity, while transportation
equipment was the country's largest export. China is the largest foreign
holder of U.S. public debt. The U.S. dollar is the world's primary reserve
currency.
The US is the world's wealthiest nation, with abundant natural
resources, a well-developed infrastructure, and high productivity. It has the world's sixth-highest per capita GDP
(PPP). The U.S. is the world's third-largest producer of oil and second-largest producer of natural gas. It is the
second-largest trading nation in the world behind China. It has been the world's largest national economy (not
including colonial empires) since at least the 1890s. As of 2010, the country
remains
the center
world'sof largest
New York:
Financial
manufacturer, representing a fifth of the global manufacturing output. Of the world's 500 largest companies, 132 are
headquartered in the US, twice that of any other country. The country is one of the world's largest and most
influential financial markets. About 60% of the global currency reserves have been invested in the US dollar, while
24% have been invested in the euro. The New York Stock Exchange is the world's largest stock exchange by market
capitalization. Foreign investments made in the US total almost $2.4 trillion, which is more than twice that of any
other country. American investments in foreign countries total over $3.3 trillion, which is almost twice that of any
other country comprises 71% of the US economy in 2013. The labor market has attracted immigrants from
Consumer spending all over the world and its net migration rate is among the highest in the world. The US is
ranked first globally in the IT industry competitiveness index.
EDUCATION
American public education is operated by state and local governments, regulated by the United States
Department of Education through restrictions on federal grants. In most states, children are required to attend
school from the age of six or seven (generally, kindergarten or first grade) until they turn eighteen (generally
bringing them through twelfth grade, the end of high school); some states allow students to leave school at sixteen or
seventeen. About 12% of children are enrolled in parochial or nonsectarian private schools. Just over 2% of children
are homeschooled.
The United States has many competitive private and public institutions of higher education. According to
prominent international rankings, 13 or 15 American colleges and universities are ranked among the top 20 in the
world. There are also local community colleges with generally more open admission policies, shorter academic
programs, and lower tuition. Of Americans twenty-five and older, 84.6% graduated from high school, 52.6% attended
some college, 27.2% earned a bachelor's degree, and 9.6% earned graduate degrees. The basic literacy rate is

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approximately 99%.The United Nations assigns the United States an Education Index of 0.97, tying it for 12th in the
world.
AMERICAN DREAM

James Truslow Adams, in his book The Epic of America, which was written in 1931, stated that the
American dream is "that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with
opportunity for each according to ability or achievement. It is a difficult dream for the European upper classes to
interpret adequately, and too many of us ourselves have grown weary and mistrustful of it. It is not a dream of motor
cars and high wages merely, but a dream of social order in which each man and each woman shall be able to attain
to the fullest stature of which they are innately capable, and be recognized by others for what they are, regardless of
the fortuitous circumstances of birth or position."
STRIKING FEATURES OF THE U.S.A
The United States is divided into 50 states. However state each varies in size considerably. The smallest
state is Rhode Island with an area of just 1,545 square miles (4,002 sq km). By contrast the largest state by
area is Alaska with 663,268 square miles (1,717,854 sq km).
Bristlecone pine trees, believed to be some of the world's oldest living things, are found in the western United
States in California, Utah, Nevada, Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona. The oldest of these trees is in

California. The oldest living tree itself is found in Sweden.

The only royal palace used by a monarch in the U.S. is located in Honolulu, Hawaii. It is the Iolani Palace
and belonged to the monarchs King Kalakaua and Queen Lili'uokalani until the monarchy was overthrown
in 1893. The building then served as the capitol building until Hawaii became a state in 1959. Today the

Iolani Palace is a museum.

Although English is the most commonly spoken language used in the U.S. and is the language used in

government, the country has no official language.

The tallest mountain in the world is located in the United States Mauna Kea, located in Hawaii, is only
13,796 feet (4,205 m) in altitude above sea level, however, when measured from the seafloor it is over 32,000
feet (10,000 meters) high, making it taller than Mount Everest (Earth's tallest mountain above sea level at

29,028 feet or 8,848 meters).

The lowest temperature ever recorded in the United States was at Prospect Creek, Alaska on January 23,
1971. The temperature was -80F (-62C). The coldest temperature in the contiguous 48 states was at Rogers

Pass, Montana on January 20, 1954. The temperature there was -70F (-56C).
The hottest temperature recorded in the United States (and in North America) was in Death Valley,
California on July 10, 1913. The temperature measured 134F (56C).

The United States was the first country to use the title of "President" for its head of state. Now the majority
of the world's countries use the title. Indeed, every single republic in the world uses the name, even
dictatorships.
For a long time American currency was known for only appearing in one color- green. Most other countries
color-code different denominations, or simply use money that features multiple colors on individual bills. The
greenness of American money has its roots in the 19th Century. At the time green dye was rare, and thus
considered difficult for counterfeiters to obtain
The movies the world watches, the television shows they tune into, and the music they listen to are, for the
most part, produced in the United States. For instance, the U.S. exports more than 25 times the number of
movies and television shows than it consumes from abroad, a fact that causes Ben Wattenberg to observe
quite correctly that America is "the most culturally potent nation in the world." Even the virulent America-

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hater Saddam Hussein reportedly spends a good portion of his time watching American-made movies such
as The Godfather and Enemy of the State.
Nothing disproves the Leftist mantra that "all cultures are equal" more than technology does. Americans
have given the world motion pictures, the telephone, the television, the computer, the Internet, the airplane,
the VCR, and a host of other machines and devices that have vastly improved the quality of life on the planet.
America is the sun around which the world economy revolves. The typical creator of wealth in the world is an
American. Foreigners benefit from buying better products from American companies and working better jobs
manufacturing such products. Take America's $9 trillion dollar economy out of the picture, and the economic
well being of the rest of the world nose-dives.
Americans have stretched the bounds of the possible. The first transatlantic flight, putting a man on the
moon, breaking the speed of sound, constructing the Hoover Dam, and building the Panama Canal serve as
testimony to American courage and ingenuity.

Political History of the United States of America

Pre-Columbian era
It is not definitively known how or when the Native Americans first settled the Americas and the present-day
United States. The prevailing theory proposes that people migrated from Eurasia across Beringia, a land bridge that
connected Siberia to present-day Alaska, and then spread southward throughout the Americas. People from Asia
migrated to the North American continent approximately 12,000 or more years ago. This migration may have begun
as early as 30,000 years ago and continued through to about 10,000+ years ago, when the land bridge became
submerged by the rising sea level caused by the ending of the last glacial period. These early inhabitants, called
Paleoamericans or Paleo-Indian, soon diversified into many hundreds of culturally distinct nations and tribes.

Native American and European contact

Exploration of the area now included in the United States was spurred after Christopher Columbus, sailing
for the Spanish monarchy, made his voyage in 1492. England, Spain, and Francewere the chief nations to establish
colonies in the present United States.
CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS
Arawak men and women, naked, tawny, and full of wonder, emerged from their villages onto the island's
beaches and swam out to get a closer look at the strange big boat. When Columbus and his sailors came ashore,
carrying swords, speaking oddly, the Arawaks ran to greet them, brought them food, water, gifts. He later wrote of
this in his log:

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Christopher Columbus

They ... brought us parrots and balls of cotton and spears and many other
things, which they exchanged for the glass beads and hawks' bells. They willingly
traded everything they owned... They were well-built, with good bodies and
handsome features.... They do not bear arms, and do not know them, for I showed
them a sword, they took it by the edge and cut themselves out of ignorance. They
have no iron. Their spears
are made of cane.... They
would
make
fine
servants.... With fifty men
we could subjugate them
all and make them do

whatever we want.
The information that Columbus wanted most was:
Where is the gold? He had persuaded the king and queen of
Spain to finance an expedition to the lands, the wealth, he
expected would be on the other side of the Atlantic -the
Indies and Asia, gold and spices. For, like other informed
people of his time, he knew the world was round and he
could sail west in order to get to the Far East.
Spain was recently unified, one of the new modern nation-states, like France, England, and Portugal. Its
population, mostly poor peasants, worked for the nobility, who were 2 percent of the population and owned 95
percent of the land. Spain had tied itself to the Catholic Church, expelled all the Jews, driven out the Moors. Like
other states of the modern world, Spain sought gold, which was becoming the new mark of wealth, more useful than
land because it could buy anything.
In return for bringing back gold and spices, they promised Columbus 10 percent of the profits, governorship
over new-found lands, and the fame that would go with a new tide: Admiral of the Ocean Sea. He was a merchant's
clerk from the Italian city of Genoa, part-time weaver (the son of a skilled weaver), and expert sailor. He set out with
three sailing ships, the largest of which was the Santa Maria, perhaps 100 feet long, and thirty-nine crew members.
Columbus sailed home to Spain. On his way, he built a fort at Hispaniola, the first European military base in
the Western Hemisphere. He called it Natividad (Christmas) and left thirty-nine crewmembers there, with
instructions to find and store the gold. When he reached Madrid, he exaggeratedly reported about the golds and
spices to the Spanish royalty, so he was given seventeen ships on his way to Indies (America) for his second
expedition. In about two months he landed in the Caribbean on an island in the Bahamas, thinking he had reached
the East Indies. He looked for golds and silvers, he enslaved Indians and built mines. Columbus made three more
voyages. The cruel policy initiated by Columbus and pursued by his successors resulted in complete genocide. He
died in 1506, still believing that he had discovered a water route to Asia.

Colonial Period
After European explorers and traders made the first contacts, it is estimated that their population declined
due to various reasons, including diseases such as smallpox and measles, intermarriage, and violence.
Native Americans suffered heavily because of their isolation from the rest of the world. Europe, Africa, and
Asia had been trading knowledge and technologies for centuries. Societies on all three continents had learned to use
iron and kept herds of domestic animals. Europeans had acquired gunpowder, paper, and navigational equipment
from the Chinese. Native Americans, on the other hand, had none of these. They were often helpless against
European conquerors with horses, firearms, andespeciallyarmor and weapons.

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In the early days of colonization many settlers were subject

to shortages of food, disease and attacks from natives. At
the same time however many natives and settlers got along
and came to depend on each other, especially settlers during
the winter months. Natives also came to depend on settlers
for guns, ammunition, powder and other modern devices.
Because many tribes were frequently at war with one
another it became imperative to establish and secure good
relationships with at least one group of colonists. Natives
taught many settlers where, when and how to hunt and fish in the vast frontier that lay before them whose elements
were generally unknown to the Europeans. In order to survive settlers often depended on native Indians who taught
them how to adopt to the Indian's "hunting culture."

Spanish
Spain was the first European nation to colonize America. Corts invaded Mexico and (with the help of smallpox
and other Native Americans) defeated the Aztec Empire between 1519 and 1521. By 1533 Pizarro had conquered the
Incas of Peru. They sent expeditions under Hernando de Soto, Francisco Vsquez de Coronado, and lvar Nez
Cabeza de Vaca as far north as what is now Kansas and Colorado. They were looking for cities made of gold and did
not find them.
Shortly after the conquests, Catholic missionariesJesuits until 1571, Franciscans and Dominicans after that
attempted to convert Native Americans to Christianity. They established missions not only at the centers of the new
empire, but also in New Mexico and Florida. Spanish Jesuits even built a shortlived mission outpost in Virginia.
After defeating indigenous peoples, Spanish conquerors established the encomienda system which imposed forced
labor called polo y servicios. As time passed, Spanish settlers claimed land rather than labor, establishing large
estates called haciendas. The three colonies (Mexico, Carribean and Colombia) were a source of power for Spain, and
a source of jealousy from other European nations.

French
By the 1530s French explorers had scouted the coast of America from Newfoundland to the Carolinas. Samuel de
Champlain built the foundations of what would become French Canada (New France). From 1604 to 1606 he
established a settlement at Acadia in Nova Scotia, and in 1608 he established a French settlement at Qubec.
From the beginning, New France concentrated on two activities: fur trade and Catholic missions. While Jesuits
converted thousands of Native Americans, French traders roamed the forests. Both were among the first white
explorers of the interior of North America, and Frances ties with Native Americans would have important
implications for the next 150 years. French Canada was a strategically crucial brake on English settlement. But the
much smaller sugar islands in the CaribbeanSaint-Domingue (Haiti), Guadeloupe, and Martiniquewere
economically far more valuable to France.

Dutch

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Another contender for influence in North America was the Dutch, inhabitants of the leading commercial nation
in the early 17th century. Sailing for the Dutch in 1609, Henry Hudson explored the river that now bears his name.
The Dutch established a string of agricultural settlements between New Amsterdam (New York) and Fort Orange
(Albany) after 1614. They became the chief European traders with the Iroquois, supplying them with firearms,
blankets, metal tools, and other European trade goods in exchange for furs. The Iroquois used those goods to nearly
destroy the Huron and to push the Algonquins into Illinois and Michigan. As a result, the Iroquois gained control of
the Native American side of the fur trade.
The Dutch settlements, known as New Netherland, grew slowly at first and became more urban as trade with
the indigenous people outdistanced agriculture as a source of income. The colony was prosperous and tolerated

different religions. As a result, it attracted a steady and diverse stream of European immigrants. In 1640s the colony
had grown to a European population of 6,000 (double that of New France) on the eve of its takeover by England in
1664.

First English colony

The first successful English colony was established in 1607, on the James River at Jamestown which began
the American Frontier. It languished for decades until a new wave of settlers arrived in the late 17th century and
established commercial agriculture based on tobacco. Between the late 1610s and the Revolution, the British
shipped an estimated 50,000 convicts to their American colonies. A severe instance of conflict was the 1622
Powhatan uprising in Virginia, in which Native Americans killed hundreds of
English settlers. The largest conflict between Native Americans and English
settlers in the 17th century was King Philip's War in New England. The
Yamasee War in South Carolina was bloody.
New England was initially settled primarily by Puritans who
established the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1630, although there was a small
earlier settlement in 1620 by a similar group, the Pilgrims, at Plymouth
Colony. The Middle Colonies, consisting of the present-day states of New York,
New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware, were characterized by a large degree of diversity. The first attempted
English settlement south of Virginia was the Province of Carolina, with Georgia Colony the last of the Thirteen
Colonies
established
in 1733.
The massacre
of Jamestown
settlers
The colonies were characterized by religious diversity, with many Congregationalists in New England,
German and Dutch Reformed in the Middle Colonies, Catholics in Maryland, and Scotch Irish Presbyterians on the
frontier. Many royal officials and merchants were Anglicans.

The French-Indian War and British Colonization

The French and Indian War (17541763) was a watershed event in
the political development of the colonies. The influence of the main rivals of
the British Crown in the colonies and Canada, the French and North
American Indians, was significantly reduced. Moreover, the war effort
resulted in greater political integration of the colonies, as reflected in the
Albany Congress and symbolized by Benjamin Franklin's call for the colonies
to "Join or Die". Franklin was a man of many inventionsand his greatest invention was the concept of a United
artoon by Benjamin Franklin
States of America, which emerged after 1765 and was realized in July 1776.

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Following Britain's acquisition of French territory in North America, King George III issued the Royal
Proclamation of 1763 with the goal of organizing the new North American empire and protecting the native Indians
from colonial expansion into western lands. Each of the 13 American colonies had a slightly different governmental
structure. Typically a colony was ruled by a governor appointed from London who controlled the executive
administration and relied upon a locally elected legislature to vote taxes and make laws. By the 18th century, the
American colonies were growing very rapidly because of ample supplies of land and food, and low death rates. They
were richer than most parts of Britain, and attracted a steady flow of immigrants, especially teenagers who came as
indentured servants. The tobacco and rice plantations imported black slaves from the British colonies in the West
Indies, and by the 1770s they comprised a fifth of the American population. The question of independence from
Britain did not arise as long as the colonies needed British military support against French and Spanish power;
those threats were gone by 1765. London regarded the American colonies as existing merely for the benefit of the
mother country, a policy known as mercantilism.

The Boston Tea Party

In ensuing years, strains developed in the relations between the colonists and the Crown. The British
Parliament passed the Stamp Act of 1765, imposing a tax on the colonies without going through the colonial
legislatures. The issue was drawn: did Parliament have this right to tax Americans who were not represented in it?
Crying "No taxation without representation," the colonists refused to pay the
taxes as tensions escalated in the late 1760s and early 1770s.
The Boston Tea Party in 1773 was a direct action by activists in the
town of Boston to protest against the new tax on tea. Parliament quickly
responded the next year with the Coercive Acts, stripping Massachusetts of its
historic right of self-government and putting it under army rule, which
sparked outrage and resistance in all thirteen colonies. Patriot leaders from all
13 colonies convened the First Continental Congress to coordinate their resistance to the Coercive Acts. The
The Boston Tea Party: Bostonians
Congress called for a boycott of British trade, published a list of rights and grievances, and petitioned the king for
redress of those grievances. The appeal to the Crown had no effect, and so the Second Continental Congress was
convened in 1775 to organize the defense of the colonies against the British Army.
Ordinary folk became insurgents against the British even though they were unfamiliar with the ideological
rationales being offered. They held very strongly a sense of rights that they felt the British were deliberately
violating rights that stressed local autonomy, fair dealing, and government by consent. They were highly sensitive
to the issue of tyranny, which they saw manifested in the arrival in Boston of the British Army to punish the
Bostonians. This heightened their sense of violated rights, leading to rage
and demands for revenge. They had faith that God was on their side.

Independence and expansion

The American Revolution was the first successful colonial war of
independence against a European power. Americans had developed a
democratic system of local government and an ideology of "republicanism"
that held government rested on the will of the people (not the king), which strongly opposed corruption and
demanded civic virtue. They demanded their rights as Englishmen and rejected British efforts to impose taxes
without the approval of colonial legislatures. The British insisted and the conflict escalated to full-scale war in 1775,
the American Revolutionary War. On June 14, 1775, the Continental Congress, convening in Philadelphia,

U S A P a g e | 15

established a Continental Army under the command of George Washington. As a battlefield tactician Washington
was often outmaneuvered by his British counterparts. As a strategist, however, he had a better idea of how to win
the war than they did. The British sent four invasion armies. Washington's strategy forced the first army out of
Boston in 1776, and was responsible for the surrender of the second and third armies at Saratoga (1777) and
American Revolution led by George
Yorktown (1781). He limited the British control to New York and a few places while
keeping Patriot control of the
great majority of the population.
The Loyalists, whom the British counted upon too heavily,
comprised about 20% of the population but never were well organized. As
the war ended, Washington watched proudly as the final British army
quietly sailed out of New York City in November 1783, taking the Loyalist
leadership with them. Political scientist Seymour Martin Lipset observes,
"The United States was the first major colony successfully to revolt
against colonial rule. In this sense, it was the first 'new nation'.
"Proclaiming that "all men are created equal" and endowed with "certain
unalienable Rights", the Congress adopted the Declaration of
dependence, by John Trumbull
Independence, drafted largely by Thomas Jefferson, on July 4, 1776. That date is now celebrated annually as
America's Independence Day. In 1777, the Articles of Confederation established a weak government that operated
until 1789.

The thirteen original colonies from Great Britain

The original 13 states forming the "United States of America" were established by the Articles of Confederation,
ratified on March 1, 1781. The Articles created a loose confederation of sovereign states and a weak central
government, leaving most of the power with the state governments. The need for a stronger federal government soon
became apparent and eventually led to the Constitutional Convention in 1787. The present United States
Constitution replaced the Articles of Confederation on March 4, 1789.
The original 13 states recognized by the Articles of Confederation:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.

Delaware
Pennsylvania
New Jersey
Georgia
Connecticut
Massachusetts
Maryland
South Carolina
New Hampshire
Virginia
New York
North Carolina
Rhode Island

The American Republic and Westward Expansion

U S A P a g e | 16

After a naval victory followed by the British defeat at Yorktown by American forces assisted by the French,
the United States was independent. In the peace treaty of 1783 Britain recognized American sovereignty over most
territory east of the Mississippi River. Nationalists calling for a much stronger federal government with powers of
taxation led the constitutional convention in 1787. After intense debate in state conventions the United States
Constitution was ratified in 1788. The first Senate, House of Representatives, and presidentGeorge Washington
took office in 1789. The Bill of Rights, forbidding federal restriction of personal freedoms and guaranteeing a range
of legal protections, was adopted in 1791.
Attitudes toward slavery were shifting; nearly all states officially outlawed the international slave trade
before the federal government criminalized it in 1808. All the Northern states abolished slavery between 1780 and
1804, leaving the slave states of the South as defenders of the "peculiar institution". With cotton a highly profitable
plantation crop after 1820, slave interests in the Southern states maintained that slavery was a positive good for
everyone, including the slaves. The Second Great Awakening, beginning about 1800, converted millions to
evangelical Protestantism. In the North it energized multiple social reform movements, including abolitionism.

Americans' eagerness to expand westward prompted a long series of Indian Wars. The Louisiana Purchase of
French-claimed territory under President Thomas Jefferson in 1803 almost doubled the nation's size. The War of
1812 declared against Britain over various grievances and fought to a draw, strengthened U.S. nationalism. The
success of America in the 1812 war which was strategized by Jackson made him the most famous war hero. A series
of U.S. military incursions into Florida led Spain to cede it and other Gulf Coast territory in 1819.
President Andrew Jackson took office in 1829, and began a set of reforms which led to the era of Jacksonian
democracy, which is considered to have lasted from 1830 to 1850. This included many reforms, such as wider male
suffrage, and various adjustments to the power of the Federal government. This also led to the rise of the Second
Party System, which refers to the dominant parties which existed from 1828 to 1854.
The Trail of Tears in the 1830s exemplified the Indian removal policy that moved Indians to their own
reservations, sometimes by force, with small annual government subsidies. The United States annexed the Republic
of Texas in 1845, amid a period when the concept of Manifest Destiny was becoming popular. The 1846 Oregon
Treaty with Britain led to U.S. control of the present-day American Northwest. The U.S. victory in the MexicanAmerican War resulted in the 1848 secession of California and much of the present-day American Southwest.
The California Gold Rush of 184849 further spurred western migration. New railways made relocation
easier for settlers and increased conflicts with Native Americans. Over a half-century, up to 40 million American
bison, or buffalo, were slaughtered for skins and meat and to ease the railways' spread. The loss of the buffalo, a
primary resource for the plains Indians, was an existential blow to many native cultures. In 1869, President Ulysses
S. Grant's Peace policy reversed the previous costly policy of "wars of extermination" in order to civilize and give
Indians eventual United State citizenship having incorporated Indians as wards of the state, led by a philanthropic
Board of Indian Commissioners.

Slavery and civil war

Tensions between slave and free states mounted with arguments about the relationship between the state
and federal governments, as well as violent conflicts over the spread of slavery into new states. Abraham Lincoln,
candidate of the largely antislavery Republican Party, was elected president in 1860. Before he took office, seven
slave states declared their secessionwhich the federal government maintained was illegaland formed the
Confederate States of America.

U S A P a g e | 17

Civil war: Battle of the Gettysburg

With the Confederate attack upon Fort Sumter, the Civil War began
and four more slave states joined the Confederacy. Lincoln's Emancipation
Proclamation in 1863 declared slaves in the Confederacy to be free. Following
the Union victory in 1865, three amendments to the U.S. Constitution ensured
freedom for the nearly four million African Americans who had been slaves,
made them citizens, and gave them voting rights. The war and its resolution
led to a substantial increase in federal power. The war remains the deadliest
conflict in American history, resulting in the deaths of 620,000 soldiers.

After the war, the assassination of Abraham Lincoln radicalized Republican Reconstruction policies aimed at
reintegrating and rebuilding the Southern states while ensuring the rights of the newly freed slaves. President
Ulysses S. Grant implemented the Department of Justice and used the U.S. Military to enforce suffrage and civil
rights for African Americans in the South destroying the Ku Klux Klan in 1871 under the Force Acts. The resolution
of the disputed 1876 presidential election by the Compromise of 1877 ended Reconstruction; Jim Crow laws soon
disenfranchised many African Americans.
In the North, urbanization and an unprecedented influx of immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe
hastened the country's industrialization. The wave of immigration, lasting until 1924, provided labor and
transformed American culture. United States immigration policies were Eurocentric, which barred Asians from
naturalization, and restricted their immigration beginning with the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882. National
infrastructure development spurred economic growth. The end of the Civil War spurred greater settlement and
development of the American Old West. This was due to a variety of social and technological developments, including
the completion of the First Transcontinental Telegraph in 1861 and the First Transcontinental Railroad in 1869.
The 1867 Alaska Purchase from Russia completed the country's mainland expansion. The Wounded Knee
Massacre in 1890 was the last major armed conflict of the Indian Wars. In 1893, the indigenous monarchy of the
Pacific Kingdom of Hawaii was overthrown in a coup led by American residents; the United States annexed the
archipelago in 1898.

Imperialism
The United States emerged as a world economic and military power after 1890. The main episode was the
SpanishAmerican War, which began when Spain refused American demands to reform its oppressive policies in
Cuba. The "splendid little war", as one official called it, involved a series of quick American victories on land and at
sea. At the Treaty of Paris peace conference the United States acquired the Philippines, Puerto Rico, and Guam.
Cuba became an independent country, under close American tutelage. Although the war itself was widely
popular, the peace terms proved controversial. William Jennings Bryan led his Democratic Party in opposition to
control of the Philippines, which he denounced as imperialism unbecoming to American democracy. President
William McKinley defended the acquisition and was riding high as the nation had returned to prosperity and felt
triumphant in the war. McKinley easily defeated Bryan in a rematch in the 1900 presidential election. Victory in the
SpanishAmerican War the same year demonstrated that the United States was a world power and led to the
annexation of Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines. The Philippines gained independence a half-century later.

The Gilded Age or the American Industrialization

The emergence of many prominent industrialists at the end of the 19th century gave rise to the Gilded Age, a
period of growing affluence and power among the business class. This period eventually ended with the beginning of
the Progressive Era, a period of great reforms in many societal areas, including regulatory protection for the public,

U S A P a g e | 18

greater antitrust measures, and attention to living conditions for the working classes. President Theodore Roosevelt
was one leading proponent of progressive reforms.

World War I, Great Depression, and World War II

At the outbreak of World War I in 1914, the United States remained
neutral. Most Americans sympathized with the British and French, although
many opposed intervention. In 1917, the United States joined the Allies, and the
American Expeditionary Forces helped to turn the tide against the Central
Powers. President Woodrow Wilson took a leading diplomatic role at the Paris
Peace Conference of 1919 which helped to shape the post-war world. Wilson
advocated strongly for the U.S. to join the League of Nations. However, the
Senate refused to approve this, and did not ratify the Treaty of Versailles, which
established the League of Nations.

European invasion WWII

The country pursued a policy of unilateralism, verging on isolationism. In 1920, the women's rights
movement won passage of a constitutional amendment granting women's suffrage. The prosperity of the Roaring
Twenties ended with the Wall Street Crash of 1929 that triggered the Great Depression.
After his election as president in 1932, Franklin D. Roosevelt responded with the New Deal, a range of
policies increasing government intervention in the economy, including the establishment of the Social Security
system. The Dust Bowl of the mid-1930s impoverished many farming communities and spurred a new wave of
western migration.
The United States, effectively neutral during World War II's early stages after Nazi Germany's invasion of
Poland in September 1939, began supplying material to the Allies in March 1941 through the Lend-Lease program.
On December 7, 1941, the Empire of Japan launched a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, prompting the United States
to join the Allies against the Axis powers as well as the internment of Japanese Americans by the thousands.
Participation in the war spurred capital investment and industrial capacity. Among the major combatants, the
United States was the only nation to become richer because of the war.
Allied conferences at Bretton Woods and Yalta outlined a new system of international organizations that
placed the United States and Soviet Union at the center of world affairs. As victory was won in Europe, a 1945
international conference held in San Francisco produced the United Nations Charter, which became active after the
war. The United States, having developed the first nuclear weapons, used them on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima
and Nagasaki in August. Japan surrendered on September 2, ending the war.

Cold War and Civil Rights era

Following World War II, the United States emerged as one of the two dominant superpowers, the USSR
being the other. The U.S. Senate on a bipartisan vote approved U.S. participation in the United Nations (UN), which
marked a turn away from the traditional isolationism of the U.S. and toward increased international involvement.
While they engaged in proxy wars and developed powerful nuclear arsenals, the two countries avoided direct
military conflict. The U.S. often opposed Third World left-wing movements that it viewed as Soviet-sponsored.
American troops fought Communist Chinese and North Korean forces in the Korean War of 195053. The House UnAmerican Activities Committee pursued a series of investigations into suspected leftist subversion, while Senator
Joseph McCarthy became the figurehead of anticommunist sentiment.

U S A P a g e | 19

The 1961 Soviet launch of the first manned spaceflight prompted President John F. Kennedy's call for the
United States to be first to land "a man on the moon", achieved in 1969. Kennedy also faced a tense nuclear
showdown with Soviet forces in Cuba. Meanwhile, the United States experienced sustained economic expansion.
Amidst the presence of various white nationalist groups, particularly the Ku Klux Klan, a growing civil rights
movement used nonviolence to confront segregation and discrimination. This was symbolized and led by black
Americans such as Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King, Jr. On the other hand, some black nationalist groups such
as the Black Panther Party had a more militant scope.

Following Kennedy's assassination in 1963, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Voting Rights Act of 1965, and
Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 were passed under President Lyndon B. Johnson. He also signed into law
the Medicare and Medicaid programs. Johnson also expanded a proxy war in Southeast Asia into the unsuccessful
Vietnam War. A widespread countercultural movement grew, fueled by opposition to the war, black nationalism, and
the sexual revolution. Betty Friedan, Gloria Steinem, and others led a new wave of feminism that sought political,
social, and economic equality for women.
As president, Richard Nixon ended U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War, improved relations with China,
and oversaw the beginning of a period of dtente with the Soviet Union. As a result of the Watergate scandal, in 1974
Nixon became the first U.S. president to resign, to avoid being impeached on charges including obstruction of justice
and abuse of power. The Jimmy Carter administration of the late 1970s was marked by stagflation and the Iran
hostage crisis. The election of Ronald Reagan as president in 1980 heralded a rightward shift in American politics,
reflected in major changes in taxation and spending priorities. His second term in office brought both the Iran
Contra scandal and significant diplomatic progress with the Soviet Union. The subsequent Soviet collapse ended the
Cold War.

Contemporary era
Under President George H. W. Bush, the United States took a lead role in the UNsanctioned Gulf War. The
longest economic expansion in modern U.S. historyfrom March 1991 to March 2001encompassed the Bill Clinton
administration and the dot-com bubble. A civil lawsuit and sex
scandal led to Clinton's impeachment in 1998, but he remained
in
office.
The 2000 presidential election, one of the closest in American
history, was resolved by a U.S. Supreme Court decision
George W. Bush, son of George H. W. Bush, became president.
On September 11, 2001, al-Qaeda terrorists struck the World
Trade Center in New York City and The Pentagon near
Washington, D.C., killing nearly three thousand people. In
response, the Bush administration launched the global War on
Terror, invading Afghanistan and removing the Taliban
government and al-Qaeda training camps. Taliban insurgents continue to fight a guerrilla war. In 2003, the United
States and several allied forces invaded Iraq to engineer regime change there. In 2005, Hurricane Katrina caused
severe destruction along much of the Gulf Coast, devastating New Orleans.
In 2008, amid a global economic recession, the first African American president, Barack Obama, was elected.
Major health care and financial system reforms were enacted two years later.
In 2011, a raid by Navy SEALs in Pakistan killed al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. The Iraq War officially
ended with the pullout of the remaining U.S. troops from the country in December 2011.

United States of America as a superpower country

U S A P a g e | 20

A superpower is a state with a dominant position in the international system which has the ability
to influence events and its own interests and project power on a worldwide scale to protect those interests. A
superpower is traditionally considered to be a step higher than a great power.
Alice Lyman Miller (Professor of National Security Affairs at the Naval Postgraduate School), defines a
superpower as "a country that has the capacity to project dominating power and influence anywhere in the world,
and sometimes, in more than one region of the globe at a time, and so may plausibly attain the status of
global hegemony."
It was a term first applied to the British Empire, the Soviet Union and the United States of America in 1944.
Following World War II, as the British Empire transformed itself into the Commonwealth and its territories became
independent, the Soviet Union and the United States generally came to be regarded as the only two superpowers,
and confronted each other in the Cold War.
After the Cold War, only the United States appears to fulfill the criteria of being considered a world
superpower. The term "second superpower" has been applied by scholars to the possibility that the People's Republic
of China could soon emerge as a superpower on par with the United States. Additionally, it is widely believed that
the European Union, and India may too have the potential of achieving superpower status within the 21st century. A
few heads of states, politicians and news analysts have even suggested that Russia may have already reclaimed that
status. According to various academics, the European Union has revived a style of European imperialism, liking the
union to an Empire (or superpower) of sorts. The term commonly used is Eurosphere. However, currently the United
States is the only nation for which there is a broad consensus of its superpower status.
Some people doubt the existence of superpowers in the post Cold War era altogether, stating that today's
complex global marketplace and the rising interdependency between the world's nations has made the concept of a
superpower an idea of the past and that the world is now multipolar.

The fifty states of the united states of America

the
1. George Washington (1789-1793) and (1793-1797)

Presidents of
United States of America

Congress adopts the Bill of Rights in 1789 and establishes an

army. The Bill of Rights is ratified 1791. Congress passes the
11th Amendment, Whiskey Rebellion.

U S A P a g e | 21

2. John Adams (1797-1801)

The 11th Amendment is added to the Constitution in
1798. Washington D.C. becomes America's official
capitol in 1800. He was the second president of the
United States and a Federalist. He was responsible for passing the Alien and Sedition Acts. Prevented all
out war with France after the XYZ Affair. His passing of the Alien and Sedition Acts severely hurt the
popularity of the Federalist party and himself.
3. Thomas Jefferson (1801-1805) and (1805-1809)
Louisianna Purchase in 1803. In 1803 the 12th Amendment is approved by
Congress and added to the Constitution in 1804. Lewis and Clark begin exploring
the Lousianna Territory in 1804, returning in 1809. First secretary of state. Took
up the cause of strict constructionists and the Republican Party, advocating
limited federal government. Organized the national government by Thomas
Jefferson Republican ideals, doubled the size of the
nation, and struggled to maintain American
neutrality.
4. James Madison (1809-1813) and (1813-1817)
The War of 1812, the US declares war on Great Britain. In 1814, the British
(technically the Canadians) set fire to the Capitol. The Treaty of Ghent ends the
war in 1814. The fourth President of the United States (1809-1817). A member of
the Continental Congress (1780-1783) and the Constitutional Convention (1787),
he strongly supported ratification of the Constitution and was a contributor to The Federalist Papers (17871788), which argued the effectiveness of the proposed constitution. Favored strict interpretation of the
Constitution.
5. James Monroe (1817-1821) and (1821-1825)
The Missouri Compromise in 1821. The fifth President of the United States (18171825).His administration was marked by the acquisition of Florida (1819); the
Missouri Compromise (1820), in which Missouri was declared a slave state; and the
profession of the Monroe Doctrine (1823), declaring U.S.
opposition to European interference in the Americas.
Repealed the Gag Rule in 1845.
6. John Quincy Adams (1825-1829)
Democratic-Republican. Secretary of State under Monroe. Skilled diplomat as
evidenced by the Adams-Onis Treaty and the Treaty of Ghent. Wrote the Monroe
Doctrine for Monroe. Accused of winning the presidency with a "corrupt bargain"
with Clay. Repealed the Gag Rule in 1845.

U S A P a g e | 22

7.

Andrew Jackson (1829-1833) and (1833-1837)

Indian removal act, nullification crisis, Old Hickory," first
southern/ western president," President for the common
man," pet banks, spoils system, specie circular, trail of
tears, Henry Clay Flectural Process.

8. Martin Van Buren (1837-1841)

Advocated lower tariffs and free trade, and by doing so maintained support of the
south for the Democratic party. He succeeded in setting up a system of bonds for
the national debt.
9. William Henry Harrison (1841)

Was an American military leader, politician, the ninth President of the United
States, and the first President to die in office. His death created a brief
Constitutional crisis, but ultimately resolved many questions about presidential
succession left unanswered by the Constitution until passage of the 25th
Amendment. Led US forces in the Battle of Tippecanoe.
10. John Tyler (1841-1845)
His opinions on all the important issues had been forcefully
stated, and he had only been chosen to balance the Whig
ticket with no expectation he would ever have power. He was in favor of state's
rights, and a strict interpretation of the constitution, he opposed protective tariffs, a
national bank and internal improvements at national expense.
11. James Polk (1845-1849)
The Mexican War starts in 1846. The Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo ends the war in
1848. Wanted to settle Oregon boundary dispute with Great Britain. Wanted to
aquire California and to incorperate Texas into union, while reducing the tarriff and
re-establish an independent treasury system.
12. Zachary Taylor (1849-1850)
Whig president who was a Southern slave holder, and war
hero (Mexican-American War). Won the 1848 election.
Surprisingly did not address the issue of slavery at all on his platform. He died
during his term and his Vice President was Millard Fillmore.
13. Millard Fillmore (1850-1853)
The Fugitive Slave Act was passed in 1850. California
becomes a free state, territories chose popular sovereignty,
Uncle Tom's Cabin. He helped pass the Compromise of 1850 by gaining the support
of Northern Whigs for the compromise.

14. Franklin Pierce (1853-1857)

U S A P a g e | 23

Democrat. Candidate from the North who could please the

securing the Gadsden Purchase was overshadowed by the
surrounding the Ostend Manifesto, the Kansas Nebraska
Kansas." Passions over slavery had been further inflamed,
South were more irreconcilable than before. He succeeded
country further apart.

South. His success in

controversy
Act and "Bleeding
and the North and
only in splitting the

15. James Buchanan (1857-1861)

The Confederate States of America are formed in 1861. He tried to maintain a
balance between proslavery and antislavery factions, but his moderate views
angered radicals in both North and South, and he was unable to forestall the
secession of South Carolina on December 20, 1860. Lecompton Constitution
supporter.
16. Abraham Lincoln (1861-1865) and (1865)
Republican. The Emancipation Proclamation declared in
1862. The 13th Amendment is passed in 1865. Tried to
gain national exposure by debates with Stephen A. Douglas. The Lincoln-Douglas
debates attracted much attention. His attacks on slavery made him nationally
known. He felt slavery was morally wrong, but was not an abolitionist. He felt there
was not an alternative to slavery and blacks were not
prepared to live on equal terms as whites. Won presidency in November election.
First President assassinated.
17. Andrew Johnson (1865-1869)
The 13th Amendment is added to the Constitution in 1865 and the 14th Amendment
is passed by Congress and added to the Constitution in 1868. House of
Representatives impeaches the President in 1868 and the Senate acquits the
president of the 11 articles of impeachment. In 1868 the President issued an
unconditional pardon to those who participated in the southern rebellion. The 15th Amendment is passed in
1869.
18. Ulysses S. Grant (1869-1873) and (1873-1877)
The 15th Amendment is added to the Constitution Administrative
inaction and political scandal involving members of his cabinet, including the
Crdit Mobilier scandal and the Whiskey Ring conspiracy. He was more successful
in foreign affairs, where he was aided by his secretary of state, Hamilton Fish. He
supported amnesty for Confederate leaders and protection for the civil rights of
former slaves.
19. Rutherford B. Hayes (1877-1881)
His Fraudulency". President as a result of the
Compromise of 1877, he resumed gold payments, refused to expand currency, and
didn't overhaul civil service as promised. Complained about treatment of blacks but
did nothing to prevent it. He started an era of honesty. He played down the tariff
issue. He resumed assumption of hold payments and vetoed bills to expand the
currency. He was involved in the Customs House Dispute, where he dismissed
Chester Arthur and Alonzo Cornell from their positions as officials of the Customs
House when they refused to carry out civil service reform measures. He also passed
the Band Allison Act.

20. James A. Garfield (1881)

U S A P a g e | 24

Second president to ever be assassinated. He was

after his inauguration.

assassinated 6 months

21. Chester A. Arthur (1881-1885)

An honorable man.
Firmly
system but eventually demolished
Hayes place when he was
Pendelton Act.

believed in the spoils

it, took Rutherford B.
assassinated,

22. Grover Cleveland (1885-1889)

Democrat. His presidency represented no sharp break with
the conservative policies of his predecessors except in
opposing governmental favors to business but was noteworthy for railroad
regulation and tariff reform. He had a strictly limited view of the government's role
in both economic and social matters- limited government. Dawes Act and Pullman
Strike.
23. Benjamin Harrison (1889-1893)
Republican. His administration is best known for a series of legislation including
the McKinley Tariff and federal spending that reached one billion dollars.
Democrats attacked the "Billion Dollar Congress" and defeated the GOP in the 1890
mid-term elections, as well as defeating Harrison's bid for reelection in 1892. He is
to date the only president from Indiana.
24. Grover Cleveland (1893-1897)

25. William McKinley (1897-1901) and (1901)

The United States declares war on Spain in 1898, starting
the Spanish-American war, although it ends in the same
year with the Treaty of Paris. The United States annexes Guam, the Phillipines,
and Puerto Rico.
26. Theodore Roosevelt (1901-1905) and (1905-1909)
Republican. Conservationism, trust-busting, Hepburn Act,
safe food regulations, "Square Deal," Panama Canal, Great
White Fleet, Nobel Peace Prize for negotiation of peace in
Russo-Japanese War. "Walk Softly and Carry a Big Stick"
27. William Howard Taft (1909-1913)
The 16th Amendment is passed by Congress in 1909 and
added to the Constitution in 1912. The 17th Amendment is passed by Congress in
1912.

28. Woodrow Wilson (1913-1917) and (1917-1921)

U S A P a g e | 25

The 17th Amendment is added to the Constitution in 1913. The

Underwood Tariff Act and the Federal Reserve Act pass in 1913. The Clayton
Anti-Trust Act passes in 1914. In 1915 the US Marines are sent to Haiti. In 1916
the Workingmen's Compensation Act, the Federal Farm Loan Act, the Warehouse
Act, Adamson Act, and Jones Act are passed. In 1917 the US buys the Virgin
Islands from Denmark. The Zimmerman Note incident occurs in 1917. Also at this
time is the Espionage Act of 1917. The Fourteen Points are proposed in 1918 and
the Paris Peace Conference and the Treaty of Versaille occur in 1919. The 18th
Amendment is passed in 1919. In 1920 the Versaille Treaty is defeated by the Senate and the 19th
Amendment (WOMEN'S SUFFRAGE!!!) is passed.
29. Warren G. Harding (1921-1923)

Laissez-faire, little regard for gov't or presidency. "return to normalcy" after Wilson
+ his progressive ideals. Office became corrupt: allowed drinking in prohibition, had
an affair, surrounded himself w/ cronies (used office for private gain). Ex) Sec. of
Interior leased gov't land w/ oil for $500,000 and took money himself. Died after 3
years in office, VP: Coolidge took over.
30. Calvin Coolidge (1923-1925) and (1925-1929)
Taciturn; small gov't conservative; laissez faire ideology; in
favor of immigration restriction (Immigration Act); reduced
the tax burden; the Bonus Bill was passed over his veto; Revenue Act of 1924;
Kellogg-Briand Pact
31. Herbert Hoover (1929-1933)
The New York Stock Market Crashes October 29, 1929
"Black Tuesday". The 20th Amendment is passed and added and the 21st
Amendment is passed by 1933.
32. Franklin D. Roosevelt
(1933-1937) and (1937-1941) and (1941-1945) and (1945)
The 21st Amendment is added to the Constitution in 1933.
Guided US in the second World War.
33. Harry S. Truman (1945-1949) and (1949-1953)
Succeeded Franklin D. Roosevelt upon his death. Led the
country through the last few months of World War II, and
made the controversial decision to use two atomic bombs
against Japan in August 1945. After the war, Truman was crucial in the
implementation of the Marshall Plan, which greatly accelerated Western Europe's
economic recovery. Created the CIA
34. Dwight D. Eisenhower (1953-1957) and (1957-1961)
When elected President, he was the most popular American; "I like Ike!" button. Modern Republicanism--didn't undo the New Deal of the Democrats. Called "The Republican's Choice." He was the commander of the
allied forces in Europe, the army chief-of-staff after the war, and the director of NATO for two years. Dwight
displayed "grandfatherly good will". The night before the 1952 presidential elections, he declared that he
would personally go to Korea and end the war. This helped to win the majority in 41 of the lower 48 states.
Eisenhower reigned over a period of unstable peace and prosperity. At the time of the integration of Central
High he made the decision to send the 101st Airborne to Little Rock to protect the students

U S A P a g e | 26

35. John F. Kennedy (1961-1963)

Cold war and the superpower rivalry and
Crisis. Used the technology of the
public about the crisis and he allowed the
Union to withdraw their missiles.
Wall, the space race, and early events of
He was assassinated.

the Cuban Missile

television to tell the
leaders of the Soviet
Building of the Berlin
the Vietnamese war.

36. Lyndon B. Johnson (1963-1965) and (1965-1969)

The 24th Amendment is added in 1964. In 1965 the 25th Amendment is passed and
in 1967 it is added to the Constitution.
37. Richard Nixon (1969-1974)
Republican. In 1971 the 26th Amendment was passed and
added to the Constitution. Reduced troops in Vietnam and
signed a peace treaty, ending US involvement in Vietnam.
Normalized relations with China with detente. Watergate
Scandal. Resigned from office
38. Gerald Ford (1974-1977)
Solely elected by a vote from Congress. He pardoned Nixon
of all crimes that he may have committed. Evacuated nearly 500,000 Americans and
South Vietnamese from Vietnam, closing the war. We are heading toward rapid
inflation. He runs again and debates Jimmy Carter. At the debate he is asked how
he would handle the communists in eastern Europe and he said there were none and
this apparently sealed his fate.
39. Jimmy Carter (1977-1981)
Created the Department of Energy and the Depatment of Education. He was
criticized for his return of the Panama Canal Zone, and because of the Soviet war in
Afghanistan, he enacted an embargo on grain shipments to USSR and boycotted
the 1980 Olympics in Moscow and his last year in office was marked by the takeover
of the American embassy in Iran, fuel shortages, and the Soviet Invasion of
Afghanistan, which caused him to lose to Ronald Regan in the next election.
40. Ronald Reagan (1981-1985) and (1985-1989)
First elected president in 1980 and elected again in 1984.
He ran on a campaign based on the common man and "populist" ideas. He served
as governor of California from 1966-1974, and he participated in the McCarthy
Communist scare. Iran released hostages on his Inauguration Day in 1980. While
president, he developed Reagannomics, the trickle down effect of government
incentives. He cut out many welfare and public works programs. He used the
Strategic Defense Initiative to avoid conflict. His meetings with Gorbachev were
the first steps to ending the Cold War. He was also responsible for the Iran-contra
Affair which bought hostages with guns.
41. George H. W. Bush (1989-1993)

U S A P a g e | 27

Berlin wall comes down, Persian Gulf war against aggressive Saddam Hussein who
invaded Kuwait.
42. Bill Clinton (1993-2001)
Democrat. War in Bosnia; NAFTA, campaign that
emphasized broad economic issues instead of the racial and
cultural questions that had divided Democrats in the past.,
extended Palestinian self-rule and arranged timetables for
Israeli withdrawal from disputed lands, was impeached
due to the Monica Lewinski scandal and was later acquitted, cut spending; lowered
taxes; decreased national debt.

43. George W. Bush (2001-2005) and (2005-2009)

Republican, neo-conservative, foreign policy dominated by war on terror, No child
left behind, tax cuts, high deficits, major economic problems, proposed privatizing
social security, opposed stem cell research/pro-life/carbon
reductions/ international law, but wanted more domestic
drilling to alleviate oil dependence, major contributions to
HIV/AIDs
44. Barack H. Obama (2009-present)
First American-African president of the USA. Imposes policies addressing
continuing global financial crisis and made changes on tax system.

The Government and politics of the United States of America

Form of Government

Constitutional democracy, Federal

Republic, Presidential

Head of the State

Head of the Government
Legislature
Senate (Upper House)
House of Representatives (lower house)
Voting Qualifications
Constitution
Highest court

President
President
Bicameral
100 members
435 members
Universal at the age of 18
1788 Constitution
Supreme Court

The United States is a constitutional democracy, a type of government characterized by limitations on

government power spelled out in a written constitution. Written in 1787, the U.S. Constitution is both the oldest and
shortest written constitution in the world. It serves as the supreme law of the United States.

Branches of the Government

Legislative

U S A P a g e | 28

The Bicameral
Congress
The framers of the Constitution
intended Congress to be the preeminent
branch of government, sitting at the
center of national power. As a result,
Congress wields significant but limited power.
Powers Granted by the Constitution
Enumerated

The United States Capitol: The seat of gov`t

Enumerated powers, or the expressed powers, are powers the Constitution explicitly grants to Congress,
including the power to declare war and levy taxes.
Implied Powers
Article I, Section 8, of the Constitution also contains the necessary and proper clause, or the elastic
clause, which gives Congress extra powers. As interpreted by the Supreme Court in McCulloch v. Maryland(1819),
this clause means that Congress can assume other powers and pass laws in order to fulfill its duties. The powers
granted by the necessary and proper clause are called implied powers.
Limits on Congress
Article I, Section 9, of the Constitution places three important limits on Congress and its powers. Congress cannot

pass ex post facto laws, which outlaw acts after they have already been committed.

pass bills of attainder, which punish individuals outside of the court system.

suspend the writ of habeas corpus, a court order requiring the federal government to charge individuals
arrested for crimes. Congress can only suspend the writ of habeas corpus during times of national emergency.

Senate:
Composition:
The Senate is made up of two senators from each state, regardless of population.
There are all in all 100 senators (two from each of the 50 states).

The Vice President of the United States serves as President of the Senate and may cast the decisive vote in the
event of a tie in the Senate.

Qualifications:
must be 30 years of age
U.S. citizens for at least nine years

Residents of the state they represent.

U S A P a g e | 29

Term of office:
6 years
Manner of Election:
Senators are directly elected by their States people
One third of the Senate stands for election every two years. (November of even numbered years)
Manner of Removal:
Expulsion via two-thirds vote of the Senate
Powers and Duties:
Enact laws
Confirm those of the President's appointments that require consent
Ratify treaties (There are, however, two exceptions to this rule: the House must also approve
appointments to the Vice Presidency and any treaty that involves foreign trade.)
Settle impeachment cases for federal officials referred to it by the House.

House of Representatives:
Composition:
The House of Representatives is made up of 435 elected members, divided among the 50 states in
proportion to their total population.
There are 6 non-voting members, representing the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of
Puerto Rico, and four other territories of the United States.
The presiding officer of the chamber is the Speaker of the House, elected by the Representatives. He
or she is third in the line of succession to the Presidency.
Each state receives a minimum of one representative in the House.
Qualifications:
Must be at least 25 years of age
U.S. citizen for at least seven years

 Resident of the state (but not necessarily the district) they represent.

U S A P a g e | 30

Term of Office:
All 435 representatives serve a two-year term.
There is no limit on the number of terms a representative may serve.
Manner of Election:
Representatives are elected by their States people
Election is done every two years (November of even-numbered years)
Manner of Removal:
Expulsion via two-thirds vote of the House
Powers and Duties:
initiate revenue bills
impeach federal officials
elect the President in the case of an electoral college tie.

The Law-making Process

Most bills that Congress considers are public bills, meaning that they affect the public as a whole. A private
bill grants some relief or benefit to a single person, named in the bill. Many private bills help foreign nationals
obtain visas, but they can cover a variety of other matters.
The process through which a bill becomes law occurs in several stages in both houses:
1.

Introduction: Only a member of Congress may introduce a bill. After a bill is introduced, it is assigned a
designation number. Only members of the House of Representatives may introduce bills concerning taxes.

2.

Referral to committee: The leader of the house in which the bill was introduced then refers the bill to an
appropriate committee or committees.

3.

Committee action: The committees can refer the bill to subcommittees for action, hearings, markup
sessions, and votes. The committee can also kill the bill by doing nothing at all, a process known
as pigeonholing.

4.
5.

Referral to the full body: If a committee approves a bill, the bill is sent on to the full House or Senate.

Floor debate and vote: The full body debates the bill and then votes. The two houses differ significantly in
how they handle debate:

6.

U S A P a g e | 31

In the House, the Rules Committee has the power to limit debate and the number of amendments
offered during debate. A vote in which every members vote is recorded is called a roll-call vote.
In the Senate, members are allowed to speak as much as they wish and to propose as many
amendments as they wish. There is no Senate Rules Committee.

Conference committee: Often, the two houses produce different versions of a single bill. When this
happens, both houses appoint members to a conference committee, which works to combine the versions. After
the conference committees report, both houses must vote on the new bill.

7.

The President: The presidents only official legislative duty is to sign or veto bills passed by Congress. If the
president signs the bill, it becomes law. If the bill is vetoed, it goes back to Congress, which can override the
veto with a two-thirds vote in both houses. Veto overrides are rareit is extremely difficult to get two-thirds of
each house of Congress to agree to override. Instead, presidential vetoes usually kill bills.

Sometimes the president chooses to do nothing with bills that Congress sends. If the president still
has not signed or vetoed the bill after ten days, the bill becomes law if Congress is in session. If
Congress has since adjourned, the bill does not become law. This is called a pocket veto.

Executive
The executive power in the federal government is vested
in the President of the United States, although power is often
delegated

to

the

Cabinet members

officials. The President and Vice

as running

mates by

and

President are

the Electoral

College,

other
elected

for

which

each state, as well as the District of Columbia, is allocated a

number of seats based on its representation (or ostensible
representation, in the case of D.C.) in both houses of
Congress.
Composition:
The White House: the official residence of

President, Vice President, Cabinet, Executive agencies and departments

President
The President is both the head of state and head of government of the United States of America, and
Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces.
By tradition, the President and the First Family live in the White House in Washington, D.C., also the
location of the President's Oval Office and the offices of the his senior staff. When the President travels by plane,
his aircraft is designated Air Force One; he may also use a Marine Corps helicopter, known as Marine One while
the President is on board. For ground travel, the President uses an armored Presidential limousine.
Qualifications:

 At least thirty-five years old

U S A P a g e | 32

A resident of the United States for at least fourteen years

A natural-born citizen
Note: The last requirement has caused some confusion and controversy. According to U.S.
law, a child born abroad to parents who are American citizens is also a citizen, but it is not clear from the
Constitution whether such a person could be president. As of 2006, the courts have not ruled on whether an
American citizen born outside of the United States may be president. A variety of people have tried to amend the
Constitution to allow citizens born abroad to be president, but so far they have had no success.
Term of Office:
Four years
Manner of Election:
Indirectly elected by the people through the Electoral College
Manner of Removal:
The President may be impeached by a majority in the House and removed from office by a two-thirds
majority in the Senate for "treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors. (Article II,
Section 4)
Constitutional powers and functions of the President:
As a chief administrator: The president must implement policies and make sure that the laws are
faithfully executed. (Article II, Section 3)
Supervise Executive Branch of the government
Appoint and remove executive officials (Article II, Section 2)
Prepare executive budget for submission to Congress
As a chief legislator: Initiate policies by giving the Congress information of the State of the Union,
and recommend to their consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient. (Article II,
Section 3)
Approve or veto laws passed by the Congress, veto overriding is through two-third votes of both
houses.
Convene special session by Congress on extraordinary occasions (Article II, Section 3)
As a chief diplomat: Make treaties with the advice and consent of the Senate (Article II, Section 2)

U S A P a g e | 33

Exercise the power of diplomatic recognition: ``receive ambassadors`` (Article II, Section 3)
Make Executive agreements

As the Commander-in-chief: Command U.S. Armed forces. The president is the Commander-in-chief
of the Army and the Navy. (Article II, Section 2)
Appoint Military officers (subject to the approval of Congress)
As the chief of State: The Executive power shall be vested in the President (Article II, Section 1)
Grant reprieves and pardons. (Article II, Section 2)
Represent the nations as the Chief of State
Appoint federal court and Supreme court judges. (Article II, Section 2)
Americas Youngest President
Even though the Constitution allows anyone at least thirty-five years old to be president, every American
president thus far has been much older: The average age of presidents at inauguration is fifty-four. Most people
think that John F. Kennedy was the nations youngest presidenthe was forty-three when elected in 1960but
thats not accurate. In reality, Kennedy was the youngest person to be elected president. The youngest person to be
president, however, was Theodore Roosevelt, who was forty-two when he became president following the
assassination of William McKinley in 1901.
Demographics of the Presidents
The Constitution allows women and members of any ethnic, racial, or religious group to be president, but for
most of the countrys history all of the presidents have been Protestant white men. Barack Obama is the first nonwhite person to serve as president and John F. Kennedy, a Catholic, is the only non-Protestant to hold the office.
Presidential Term Limits
George Washington set a key precedent when he stepped down from office after serving only two terms. For
more than 100 years after Washington, presidents refused to run for office more than twice, until Franklin Roosevelt
was elected to four consecutive terms during the Great Depression and World War II. The Twenty-second
Amendment was ratified in 1951, making it illegal for presidents to be elected more than twice.

Presidential Succession

U S A P a g e | 34
1

Vice President

Speaker of the House

President Pro Tempore of the Senate

Secretary of State

Secretary of the Treasury

Secretary of Defense

Attorney General

Secretary of the Interior

Secretary of Agriculture

10

Secretary of Commerce

11

Secretary of Labor

12

Secretary of Health and Human Services

13

Secretary of Housing and Urban Development

14

Secretary of Transportation

15

Secretary of Energy

16

Secretary of Education

17

Secretary of Veterans Affairs

18

Secretary of Homeland Security

According to the Constitution, the vice presidents main job is to assume the office of the president if the
president dies, leaves office, or can no longer perform presidential duties. Congress has the power to determine
succession if both the president and vice president die, leave office, or cannot perform their jobs. The chart shows
how the Succession Act of 1947 sets the order of presidential succession.

The Current President (44th President of U.S.):

Full Name: Barrack Hussein Obama

Born: August 4, 1916 in Honolulu, Hawaii
Political party: Democrat
Marriage: Michelle Robinson-Obama, October 18, 1992
Education: Columbia University (B.A., 1983), Harvard (J.D., 1991)
President Barack Obama is the 44th President of the United States. He is,
however, only the 43rd person ever to serve as President; President Grover Cleveland served two nonconsecutive terms, and thus is recognized as both the 22nd and the 24th President. Today, the President is
limited to two four-year terms, but until the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution, ratified in 1951, a
President could serve an unlimited number of terms. Franklin Delano Roosevelt was elected President four
times, serving from 1932 until his death in 1945; he is the only President ever to have served more than two
terms.

Vice President

U S A P a g e | 35

The primary responsibility of the Vice President of the United States is to be ready at a
moment's notice to assume the Presidency if the President is unable to perform his duties.
This can be because of the President's death, resignation, or temporary incapacitation, or if
the Vice President and a majority of the Cabinet judge that the President is no longer able to
discharge the duties of the presidency.
Mark Hatfield wrote, vice presidency is "the least understood, most ridiculed, and
most often ignored constitutional office in the federal
government."
The Vice President also serves as the President of the United States Senate,
where he or she casts the deciding vote in the case of a tie. Except in the case of
tiebreaking votes, the Vice President rarely actually presides over the Senate.
Instead, the Senate selects one of their own members, usually junior members of the
majority party, to preside over the Senate each day. Joseph R. Biden is the 47th Vice
President of the United States. Of the 45 previous Vice Presidents, nine have
succeeded to the Presidency, and four have been elected to the Presidency in their
own right. The duties of the Vice President, outside of those enumerated in the Constitution, are at the discretion of
the current President. Each Vice President approaches the role differently some take
on a Joe
specific
policyThe
portfolio,
Joseph
R. Biden:
others serve simply as a top adviser to the President.
The Vice President has an office in the West Wing of the White House, as well as in the nearby Eisenhower
Executive Office Building. Like the President, he also maintains an official residence, at the United States Naval
Observatory in Northwest Washington, D.C. This peaceful mansion, has been the official home of the Vice President
since 1974 previously, Vice Presidents had lived in their own private residences. The Vice President also has his
own limousine, operated by the United States Secret Service, and flies on the same aircraft the President uses but
when the Vice President is aboard, the craft are referred to as Air Force Two and Marine Two.
Qualifications:
At least thirty-five years old
A resident of the United States for at least fourteen years
A natural-born citizen
Term of Office:
Four years
Manner of Election:
Elected indirectly by the people through the Electoral College
Manner of Removal:
The President may be impeached by a majority in the House and removed from office by a two-thirds
majority in the Senate for "treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors. (Article II, Section 4)

Powers and Duties:

U S A P a g e | 36

Preside the House of Senate and break a tie in the event that there is such
Serve as the nominal head of the State and the government

The Vice President succeeds the Presidency if the President dies, resigns, impeached and
permanently incapacitated

Executive Office of the President

Every day, the President of the United States is faced with scores of decisions, each with important
consequences for America's future. To provide the President with the support the he or she needs to govern
effectively, the Executive Office of the President (EOP) was created in 1939 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The
EOP has responsibility for tasks ranging from communicating the President's message to the American people to
promoting our trade interests abroad.
The EOP, overseen by the White House Chief of Staff, has traditionally been home to many of the President's
closest advisers. While Senate confirmation is required for some advisers, such as the Director of the Office of
Management and Budget, most are appointed with full Presidential discretion. The individual offices that these
advisors oversee have grown in size and number since the EOP was created. Some were formed by Congress, others
as the President has needed them they are constantly shifting as each President identifies his needs and
priorities, with the current EOP employing over 1,800 people.
Perhaps the most visible parts of the EOP are the White House Communications Office and Press
Secretary's Office. The Press Secretary provides daily briefings for the media on the President's activities and
agenda. Less visible to most Americans is the National Security Council, which advises the President on foreign
policy, intelligence, and national security.

The cabinet
The Cabinet is an advisory body made up of the heads of the 15 executive departments. Appointed by the
President and confirmed by the Senate, the members of the Cabinet are often the President's closest confidants. In
addition to running major federal agencies, they play an important role in the Presidential line of succession after
the Vice President, Speaker of the House, and Senate President pro tempore, the line of succession continues with
the Cabinet offices in the order in which the departments were created. All the members of the Cabinet take the title
Secretary, excepting the head of the Justice Department, who is styled Attorney General. The United States calls its
cabinet members "secretaries" unlike most nations which use the title of "minister."

Department of Agriculture
Department of Commerce

Department of Defense

Department of Education

Department of Energy

Department of Health and Human Services

Department of Housing and Urban Development

Department of the Interior

U S A P a g e | 37

Department of Justice

Department of Labor

Department of State

Department of Transportation

Department of the Treasury

Department of Veterans Affairs

Department of Homeland Security

Secretary of the State

Under the Constitution, the President of the United States determines U.S.
foreign policy. The Secretary of State, appointed by the President with the advice and
consent of the Senate, is the Presidents chief foreign affairs adviser. The Secretary
carries out the Presidents foreign policies through the State Department and the
Foreign Service of the United States.
Created in 1789 by the Congress as the successor to the Department of Foreign
Affairs, the Department of State is the senior executive Department of the U.S.
Government. The Secretary of States duties relating to foreign affairs have not changed
significantly since then, but they have become far more complex as international commitments multiplied. These
duties -- the activities and responsibilities of the State Department -- include the following:
John Kerry: State
Secretary,

-Serves as the President's principal adviser on U.S. foreign policy;

-Conducts negotiations relating to U.S. foreign affairs;
-Grants and issues passports to American citizens and exequaturs to foreign consuls in the United States;
-Advises the President on the appointment of U.S. ambassadors, ministers, consuls, and other diplomatic
representatives;
-Advises the President regarding the acceptance, recall, and dismissal of the representatives of foreign
governments;
-Personally participates in or directs U.S. representatives to international conferences, organizations, and
agencies;
-Negotiates, interprets, and terminates treaties and agreements;
-Ensures the protection of the U.S. Government to American citizens, property, and interests in foreign countries;
-Supervises the administration of U.S. immigration laws abroad;
-Provides information to American citizens regarding the political, economic, social, cultural, and humanitarian
conditions in foreign countries;
-Informs the Congress and American citizens on the conduct of U.S. foreign relations;
-Promotes beneficial economic intercourse between the United States and other countries;
-Administers the Department of State;
-Supervises the Foreign Service of the United States.
In addition, the Secretary of State retains domestic responsibilities that Congress entrusted to the State
Department in 1789. These include the custody of the Great Seal of the United States, the preparation of certain
presidential proclamations, the publication of treaties and international acts as well as the official record of the
foreign relations of the United States, and the custody of certain original treaties and international agreements. The
Secretary also serves as the channel of communication between the Federal Government and the States on the
extradition of fugitives to or from foreign countries.

U S A P a g e | 38

Judiciary

Where the Executive and Legislative branches are elected by the people, members of the Judicial Branch are
appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate.
Article

III

of

the

Constitution,

which

establishes the Judicial Branch, leaves Congress

significant discretion to determine the shape and
structure of the federal judiciary. Even the number
of Supreme Court Justices is left to Congress at
times there have been as few as six, w hile the
current number (nine, with one Chief Justice and eight Associate Justices)
has only been in place since 1869. The Constitution also grants Congress
the power to establish courts inferior to the Supreme Court, and to that end Congress has established the United
States district courts, which try most federal cases, and 13 United States courts of appeals, which review appealed
district court cases.

There are 94 District Courts where most of the cases begin.

There are 13 Courts of Appeal

The United States

Tenure and Removal:

Under the Constitution, federal judges can only be removed through impeachment by the House of
Representatives and conviction in the Senate. Judges and justices serve no fixed term they serve
until their death, retirement, or conviction by the Senate. What the Constitution says is that, they
shall hold office during good behavior, which means that they serve for the remainder of their life,
unless he/she resigns, retires or impeached.
Manner of Appointment:
The chief justice (and all other federal judges) is appointed by the President and approves by the
Senate.
Qualifications:
The Constitution is silent on the qualifications for judges. There are no requirements that judges be
lawyers, although in fact, all federal court judges and Supreme Court justices have been members of
the BAR. The president may nominate anyone to serve, subject to Senates confirmation.
Powers and Duties:
power to interpret the law
determine the constitutionality of the law apply it to individual cases

U S A P a g e | 39

The courts, like Congress, can compel the production of evidence and testimony through the use of a
subpoena.
Generally, Congress determines the jurisdiction of the federal courts. In some cases, however such as in

the example of a dispute between two or more U.S. states the Constitution grants the Supreme Court
original jurisdiction, an authority that cannot be stripped by Congress.

Electoral college
The United States Electoral College is the institution that officially elects the President and Vice President of
the United States every four years. The President and Vice President are not elected directly by the voters. Instead,
they are elected by "electors" who are chosen by popular vote on a state-by-state basis. Electors are apportioned to
each state and the District of Columbia, but not to territorial possessions of the United States, such as Puerto
Rico and Guam. The number of electors in each state is equal to the number of members of Congress to which the
state is entitled. The Twenty-third Amendment has always resulted in the District of Columbia having three
electors. There are 538 electors, based on there being 435 representatives and 100 senators, plus the three electors
from the District of Columbia.
The candidate that receives an absolute majority of electoral votes (currently 270) for the offices of President or
Vice President is elected to that office. The Twelfth Amendment provides for what happens if the Electoral College
fails to elect a President or Vice President. If no candidate receives a majority for President, then the House of
Representatives will select the President, with each state delegation (instead of each Representative) having only
one vote. If no candidate receives a majority for Vice President, then the Senate will select the Vice President, with
each Senator having one vote.
Critics argue that the Electoral College is inherently undemocratic and gives swing states disproportionate
influence in electing the President and Vice President. The Electoral College gives a numeric advantage in the
election of the president to the smaller states, as the minimum number of electors for the small states is three
compared to one for the election of representatives. On the other hand, the winner-take-all method of voting favors
the larger states. A number of constitutional amendments have been proposed seeking to alter the Electoral College
or replace it with a direct popular vote, but not one of them succeeded.

Modern U.S. political party system

The modern political party system in the U.S. is a two-party system dominated by the Democratic Party and
the Republican Party. These two parties have won every United States presidential election since 1852 and have
controlled the United States Congress to some extent since at least 1856.

Democratic Party
The Democratic Party is one of two major political parties in the U.S. It is the oldest political party in the
world. The Democratic Party, since the division of the Republican Party in the election of 1912, has positioned itself
as the party of labor on economic issues. The economic philosophy of Franklin D. Roosevelt, which has strongly
influenced American liberalism, has shaped much of the party's agenda since 1932. Roosevelt's New Deal coalition
had controlled the White House until 1968 with the exception of Eisenhower 1953-1961.

U S A P a g e | 40

In 2004, it was the largest political party, with 72 million voters (42.6% of 169 million registered) claiming
affiliation. The president of the United States, Barack Obama, is the 15th Democrat to hold the office, and since the
2006 midterm elections, the Democratic Party is the majority party for the United States Senate.

Republican Party
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States of America.
Since the 1880s it has been nicknamed (by the media) the "Grand Old Party" or GOP.
Founded in 1854 by Northern anti-slavery activists and modernizers, the Republican Party rose to
prominence in 1860 with the election of Abraham Lincoln, who used the party machinery to support victory in the
American Civil War. The GOP dominated national politics during the Third Party System, from 1854 to 1896, and
the Fourth Party System from 1896 to 1932. Today, the Republican Party supports an American conservative
platform, with further foundations in economic liberalism, fiscal conservatism, and social conservatism.
Former President George W. Bush is the 19th Republican to hold that office. The party's nominee for
President of the United States in the 2012 presidential election was Mitt Romney, former Governor of
Massachusetts. Since the 2010 midterm elections, the Republicans have held a majority in the United States House
of Representatives.

Major third parties

Constitution Party
The Constitution Party is a conservative United States political party. It was founded as the U.S. Taxpayers
Party in 1992. The party's official name was changed to the Constitution Party in 1999; however, some state affiliate
parties are known under different names.
According to ballot access expert Richard Winger, the editor of Ballot Access News, who periodically compiles
and analyzes voter registration statistics as reported by state voter agencies, it ranks third nationally amongst all
United States political parties in registered voters, with 438,222 registered members as of October 2008. This makes
it currently the largest third party in the United States.
The Constitution Party advocates a platform that they believe reflects the Founding Fathers' original intent
of the U.S. Constitution, principles found in the U.S. Declaration of Independence, and morals taken from the Bible.
Green Party
In the United States, the Green Party has been active as a third party since the 1980s. The party first gained
widespread public attention during Ralph Nader's second presidential run in 2000. Currently, the primary national
Green Party organization in the U.S. is the Green Party of the United States, which has eclipsed the earlier
Greens/Green Party USA.
The Green Party in the United States has won elected office mostly at the local level; most winners of public
office in the United States who are considered Greens have won nonpartisan-ballot elections (that is, elections in
which the candidates' party affiliations were not printed on the ballot). In 2005, the Party had 305,000 registered
members in the District of Columbia and 20 states that allow party registration. During the 2006 elections the party
had ballot access in 31 states.

U S A P a g e | 41

Greens emphasize environmentalism, non-hierarchical participatory democracy, social justice, respect for
diversity, peace and nonviolence.
Libertarian Party

The Libertarian Party was founded on December 11, 1971. It is one of the largest continuing third parties in
the United States, claiming more than 250,000 registered voters.

AMERICAN POLITICAL CULTURES:

American political culture contains a number of core ideals and values. Other countries may share some, or
even all, of these beliefs and values. However, the arrangement and subtleties of this core form an array that makes
every political culture a little different than all the others. The elements of the American political culture include
disagreement and debate. They include ideals, but they leave room for the reality of falling short of goals.
Famous events from American history the movement West, the Civil War, the Industrial Revolution,
involvement in World Wars I and II, the New Deal and the Great Society have been expressions of American
political culture. Many events have questioned and answered various interpretations of American values and beliefs.
But most of all, the political culture defines political attitudes, institutions, and activities that are most cherished in
American political life.
Not all Americans share the same views, of course, but the vast majority subscribes to these general ideals.
Liberty
Americans today tend to define liberty as the freedom for people to do what they want. We also tend to
believe liberty is essential to personal fulfillment and happiness. Nevertheless, liberty must be restrained on some
level in order to create a stable society. A widely accepted principle of freedom is that we are free to do whatever we
want as long as we do not impinge on other peoples freedom.
Equality
Although no two people are truly equal, they are considered equal under the law. Some Americans may be
poorer than others, and some may have cultural backgrounds different from the majority, but all Americans have the

U S A P a g e | 42

same fundamental rights. The term equality refers to a number of ways people are treated the same. Political
equality means that everyone is treated in the same way in the political sphere.

Democracy
Most Americans believe that democracy is the best form of government and therefore tend to support policies
that protect and expand democracy. The importance placed on democracy in American political culture usually
appears in domestic politics, but sometimes a desire to spread democracy to other countries drives American foreign
policy.
Majority Rules
It is the belief that the power to make decisions about government should reflect the will of most (the
majority) of the people, is another important principle of democracy. In fact, American political culture relies on
majority rule: The candidate who wins a majority of votes, for example, wins the race. Likewise, a bill that wins the
support of a majority of members of Congress passes. Without majority rule, a democracy could not function.
Minority Rights
The flipside of majority rule is that the majority does not have unlimited power. In a democracy, the rights of
the minority must also be protected, even at the expense of overriding the will of the majority. The minority always
has the right to speak out against the majority, for example. Similarly, the minority cannot be arrested or jailed for
disagreeing or voting against the majority. Without minority rights, majority rule would easily evolve into tyranny of
the majority, in which the majority would ignore the basic rights of the minority.
Individualism
According to the concept of individualism, humans are fundamentally individuals who have the freedom to
make choices and join (or not join) groups as they wish. An individuals life belongs to no one but that individual, so
people should make choices that are right for them regardless of what other people think. A true individual is unlike
anyone else. Americans value individualism and respect people who make independent choices.
Rugged Individualism
Rugged individualism is the quintessentially American view that we are responsible for our own lives and
ultimately must rely only on ourselves. People who ignore societys wishes and do as they choose are rugged
individuals. These people make their own way in the world at the risk of being ostracized by the rest of society.
Conformity
The opposite of individualism is conformism, a term used to describe the act of people trying to be the same.
Over the centuries, many observers have noted that even in democracies, conformism is common. Americans, for
example, frequently watch the same shows on television and read the same books. This seems to conflict with the
ideal of individualism but is nevertheless an important component of any civil society.
Unity and Diversity

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Two interconnected ideals in American political culture are unity and diversity. Unity refers to Americans
support of the republic and democracy, even if they disagree with one another about policies. Politicians and other
leaders frequently appeal to this sense of unity, especially during times of national crisis. The name of our country
the United Statesemphasizes the importance of unity to our national political culture.
Multiculturalism
Multiculturalism is the view that we should embrace our diversity and learn about one anothers cultures.
Much of American culture derives from western European cultures (the British Isles in particular), which makes
some other groups feel excluded. Learning about new cultures and respecting diversity have taken on new force in
recent years. For many people, being American is about adhering to ideas and principles, not to a particular
religious or ethnic identity. So one can be a patriot while still honoring ones ancestral traditions.
The Rule of Law

Government is based on a body of law applied equally and fairly, not on the whims of a ruler.

Nationalism

Despite some current negative attitudes toward the government, most Americans are proud of their past and
tend to de-emphasize problems, such as intolerance or military setbacks. This value includes the belief that
Americans are stronger and more virtuous than other nations.

Capitalism/ Economic Liberty/Socialism

At the heart of the American Dream are beliefs in the rights to own private property and compete freely in
open markets with as little government involvement as possible.

Exceptionalism

America makes remarkable distinction among other countries due to its laudable economic stability, military
strength and is the leading nation around the globe.

Pragmatism

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A philosophical movement that has had a major impact on American culture from the late 19th century to
the present. Pragmatism calls for ideas and theories to be tested in practice, by assessing whether acting upon the
idea or theory produces desirable or undesirable results. According to pragmatists, all claims about truth,
knowledge, morality, and politics must be tested in this way. Pragmatism has been critical of traditional Western
philosophy, especially the notion that there are absolute truths and absolute values. Although pragmatism was
popular for a time in France, England, and Italy, most observers believe that it encapsulates an American faith in
know-how and practicality and an equally American distrust of abstract theories and ideologies.
Internationalism
The belief in the importance of full global participation to the security and prosperity of one's own nation
and all nations. Internationalists favor active diplomacy and vigorous international trade and cooperation.

CURRENT EVENTS
UNIQUE FEATURES
CONCLUSION
THE REPORTERS