{"id":1830,"date":"2023-12-04T13:23:28","date_gmt":"2023-12-04T13:23:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/japjm.com\/?page_id=1830"},"modified":"2024-04-17T16:42:29","modified_gmt":"2024-04-17T16:42:29","slug":"fyi-american-political-system","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/japjm.com\/index.php\/fyi-american-political-system\/","title":{"rendered":"FYI &#8211; American Political System"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t<div data-elementor-type=\"wp-page\" data-elementor-id=\"1830\" class=\"elementor elementor-1830\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-a75d533 e-flex e-con-boxed e-con e-parent\" data-id=\"a75d533\" data-element_type=\"container\" data-core-v316-plus=\"true\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"e-con-inner\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-eeb70ee elementor-widget elementor-widget-heading\" data-id=\"eeb70ee\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"heading.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t<style>\/*! elementor - v3.20.0 - 10-04-2024 *\/\n.elementor-heading-title{padding:0;margin:0;line-height:1}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title[class*=elementor-size-]>a{color:inherit;font-size:inherit;line-height:inherit}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-small{font-size:15px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-medium{font-size:19px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-large{font-size:29px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-xl{font-size:39px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-xxl{font-size:59px}<\/style><h2 class=\"elementor-heading-title elementor-size-default\">AMERICAN POLITICAL SYSTEM<\/h2>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-c604b55 e-flex e-con-boxed e-con e-parent\" data-id=\"c604b55\" data-element_type=\"container\" data-core-v316-plus=\"true\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"e-con-inner\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-66d4d99 elementor-widget__width-initial elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"66d4d99\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t<style>\/*! elementor - v3.20.0 - 10-04-2024 *\/\n.elementor-widget-text-editor.elementor-drop-cap-view-stacked .elementor-drop-cap{background-color:#69727d;color:#fff}.elementor-widget-text-editor.elementor-drop-cap-view-framed .elementor-drop-cap{color:#69727d;border:3px solid;background-color:transparent}.elementor-widget-text-editor:not(.elementor-drop-cap-view-default) .elementor-drop-cap{margin-top:8px}.elementor-widget-text-editor:not(.elementor-drop-cap-view-default) .elementor-drop-cap-letter{width:1em;height:1em}.elementor-widget-text-editor .elementor-drop-cap{float:left;text-align:center;line-height:1;font-size:50px}.elementor-widget-text-editor .elementor-drop-cap-letter{display:inline-block}<\/style>\t\t\t\t<p>The United States of America (USA) consist of fifty (50) separate&nbsp;states united under a Federal System of Government. Each state&nbsp;operates independent of each other with its own government&nbsp;legislative, executive and the judicial.&nbsp;The legislative branch which makes the laws is called the congress&nbsp;and consists of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The&nbsp;Senate consists of one hundred (100) members, two being from&nbsp;each state, while the house of representative has four hundred and&nbsp;thirty five members. The members of the senate are called senators&nbsp;and serve for six year terms. Roughly a third of the senate, thirty&nbsp;three (33) members, is elected every two years on a revolving basis&nbsp;so at no time are all the members new. The party with the greater&nbsp;number of senators will elect the Senate Majority Leader from&nbsp;among the group, while the other party will elect the Senate&nbsp;Minority Leader from their group. A member of the senate is called&nbsp;a senator while a member of the house of representative is called a<br>congressman or congresswoman. They represents &#8216;Districts&#8217;, serve&nbsp;for a term of two years and they are all elected at the same time.&nbsp;The number of congressman from each state is dependent on it\u2019s&nbsp;percentage of the total USA population and will vary as the&nbsp;population shift. All members of the congress are elected directly&nbsp;by the members of their constituents.&nbsp;The executive branch consists of the president, the cabinet and the&nbsp;departments under the cabinet members. The president is elected&nbsp;by the Electoral College. Each state, depending on &nbsp;it\u2019s population,&nbsp;has a certain number of electoral votes and these votes usually&nbsp;goes to the person who receive the most votes from the electorates&nbsp;in that state. The person with the most Electoral College votes&nbsp;becomes the president and serves for a four year term and can&nbsp;serve for a maximum of two terms. The cabinet members are&nbsp;nominated from member of the public by the president and must be&nbsp;approved by a majority in the senate. The cabinet members are&nbsp;called Secretary, an example being the Secretary of Agriculture,&nbsp;and serve for the same term as the president.&nbsp;&nbsp;The judicial branch consists of the Trial Courts, Appellate Courts&nbsp;and the Supreme Court which &nbsp;is the highest and final court in the&nbsp;United States of America. There are nine judges sitting on the&nbsp;bench of the Supreme Court. Each is nominated by the president&nbsp;whenever a vacancy occurs and must be approved by the senate&nbsp;after a hearing during which the prospective judge is questioned as&nbsp;to their views on various topics and any allegation made against&nbsp;them. Once appointed, these judges serve for life unless they retire&nbsp;or are removed due to mis-conduct. There are federal courts in&nbsp;each of the state in which federal offences such as mail fraud and&nbsp;kidnapping are tried. Persons tried for federal offences are tried&nbsp;under federal laws and if convicted they face federal penalties and&nbsp;will serve the time in federal prisons. Persons who commit an<br>offence against the laws of a state are tried under the state&#8217;s laws,&nbsp;&nbsp;faces state penalties and serve their time in state prison.&nbsp;The state governments is structured similarly to the Federal&nbsp;Government. Like the federal government, the state governments&nbsp;consists of the legislative, the executive and the judicial arm. It is&nbsp;lead by a governor with his deputy being the lieutenant governor.&nbsp;Each state organized its own affair and therefore the political&nbsp;arrangements and laws will vary from one state to another state. As&nbsp;an example, some states have the death penalty and others do not,&nbsp;while some states do not allow persons with a felony conviction to&nbsp;vote. &nbsp;The legislative branch of the government in each state&nbsp;consists of the state senators and the assembly members. All the&nbsp;laws of the state must conform to those made by the federal&nbsp;government otherwise they are not valid. For example California&nbsp;State has legalized the use of ganja for medical purposes but&nbsp;someone can still be charge by the federal government as this is&nbsp;against federal laws. The executive branch of the state government&nbsp;is lead by the governor who is elected by voters in the state. The&nbsp;members of the executive are directly elected or appointed into their&nbsp;post depending on the post and laws of the state. The judicial&nbsp;branch in each state is headed by the State Supreme Court. The&nbsp;state courts will deal with all matters which are not of a federal&nbsp;nature. In some states certain judges, prosecutors and the police&nbsp;commissioner are directly elected by the voters.<br>The state is divided into counties which are subdivided into cities.&nbsp;Each city raises its own revenue from taxes, looks after its own&nbsp;municipal affairs and makes its own local laws. For example, in New&nbsp;York, the Mount Vernon police and Fire Department operates only&nbsp;in Mount Vernon city. This contrasts with the State Police which&nbsp;operates throughout the entire state of New York. The head of the&nbsp;local or city government is called the mayor who along with the&nbsp;council members is directly elected by the constituents.<br>The issue of term limits in both federal and state government is not universal and applies only&nbsp;to certain positions. For example, the president is limited to serve no more than two terms while&nbsp;a senator or a congressman have no limits on the number of terms that can be served. Each&nbsp;state set its own term limits with regards to the various positions and as such they will vary&nbsp;from state to state for similar positions.<br>When a voter is enumerated, the voter can register as a member of the Democratic Party,<br>Republican Party or as an independent voter though they are free to vote for the party of their&nbsp;choice during an election. The candidates of the parties are selected during what are called the&nbsp;primaries. All positions within the parties at the state and federal level are open to all the&nbsp;members of the party. During the primary election, the persons hoping to represent the various&nbsp;parties will compete to win the nomination of their party. &nbsp;The persons registered as member of&nbsp;that party will vote in closed primary, or anyone in open primary, and the candidate getting the&nbsp;most votes will represent the party in the election. Persons can run as &nbsp;independent candidates&nbsp;if they meet the requirements to run. The election cycle is two years consisting of The&nbsp;Presidential Election which is held every four years and midway between the Presidential&nbsp;Election, the Mid-Term Elections are held at the end of the second year. During the Presidential&nbsp;Election, the President, a third of the senators and the entire house of representative are elected.&nbsp;<br>At the state level, elections are also held to fill various positions depending on the state. Two&nbsp;year after the Presidential Election the Mid-Term elections are held during which a third of the&nbsp;senate and the entire House of Representatives are elected. Elections are also held at the state&nbsp;level to fill various positions. The positions, example governor or mayor, filled in each state&nbsp;also held during the presidential and mid term elections and also at the end of the first and third&nbsp;year. &#8216;Special Elections&#8217; to fill a vacant post can be held at any time. All election are held on&nbsp;the Tuesday after the first Monday in &nbsp;November.<\/p>\n<p><strong><br><\/strong><\/p><p><strong>SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCE WITH THE JAMAICAN SYSTEM<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The system of government in the United States can be considered to be roughly similar to that&nbsp;which existed in the West Indies during the late nineteen fifties and early nineteen sixties when&nbsp;a number of Caribbean countries were grouped to form the West Indies Federation. The federal&nbsp;government of the US would be similar to that of the federal government that was established&nbsp;&nbsp;to oversee the affairs of the West Indies Federation. The individual states such as New York or&nbsp;Texas can be equated to individual countries such as Jamaica or Barbados. The only difference&nbsp;is that most of the United States (forty eight states) is on the same land mass adjoining each&nbsp;other while the West Indies consists of separate islands. The government in, for example, New&nbsp;York would be equivalent to that in Jamaica.&nbsp;The Governor of a state is directly elected and can be equated to our Prime Minister, the state&nbsp;senate to our senate and the assembly members to our members of parliament. The local&nbsp;representatives consist of the mayor and the council members as it is in Jamaica. The main&nbsp;difference is that the mayors in the US are directly elected and does not run for a council seat.&nbsp;&nbsp;In the United States, councils are divided by cities while in Jamaica it is done by parishes. The&nbsp;council in the US is more autonomous and can, for example, raise or lower sales and property&nbsp;tax within the guidelines set by the state.&nbsp;In the United States a lot of the seats are &#8216;safe seats&#8217; and in many cases the outcome of the&nbsp;election is determined by what is known as swing seats as they have been won by both parties.&nbsp;The political climate is not as divisive as it is in Jamaica and you will find that a republican&nbsp;mayor might endorse a democratic governor or the other way around and also members from&nbsp;the opposing party are at times made a part of the government. &nbsp;Unlike in Jamaica, the elected&nbsp;representatives are very much available to their constituents and do not always toe the party&nbsp;line, at times voting against bills or legislation which they consider not to be in the best interest&nbsp;of their constituents regardless of which party proposes it. The constituents in the United States&nbsp;are also more active and will lobby their representatives on how they would like them to vote&nbsp;on various issues.&nbsp;There is a veto system by which the president or the governor can block the passage of any bill&nbsp;or legislation which is not passed by more than two thirds of the senate. When a bill is&nbsp;approved by more than two thirds of the members, the veto power is said to be overridden.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>AMERICAN POLITICAL SYSTEM The United States of America (USA) consist of fifty (50) separate&nbsp;states united under a Federal System of Government. Each state&nbsp;operates independent of each other with its own government&nbsp;legislative, executive and the judicial.&nbsp;The legislative branch which makes the laws is called the congress&nbsp;and consists of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The&nbsp;Senate &hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"> <a class=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/japjm.com\/index.php\/fyi-american-political-system\/\"> <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">FYI &#8211; American Political System<\/span> Read More &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"no-sidebar","site-content-layout":"page-builder","ast-site-content-layout":"full-width-container","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"disabled","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"disabled","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1830","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/japjm.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1830","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/japjm.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/japjm.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/japjm.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/japjm.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1830"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/japjm.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1830\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2435,"href":"https:\/\/japjm.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1830\/revisions\/2435"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/japjm.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}