Politics in the USA

Places and Forms of power: Politics in the USA

Introduction

So, I'm going to talk about the notion of places and forms of power and more particularly about the politics in the USA. This country is indeed considered as one of the first modern democracy on the world and today, it's still regarded as one of the most powerful countries by way of its economic, cultural and political influence. Thus, we will see how does the American political system work? In this way, we will look at this legislative system and how to become the next US president and finally, we will consider the limits of this system.

A system Checks & Balance

As in any democracy, the US political system includes several mechanisms to prevent unbalance between the three branches of government: the executive branch, the legislative branch, and the judicial branch. This system is called Check & Balances and each section is subjected to the control of the other two because the power had to be limited soon maintain liberty because a man had a propensity for abusing power. This system was carved in stone by the seventeen eighty-seven Constitution wrote by men like G. Washington, James Madison and B. Franklin who wanted to free their country from the former monarchy power exercised by the United Kingdom over its colony. So, at the top of the pyramid of the power, we can find the president who's the Chief of the Executive and who leads and guides the government. But the singularity of the American system is that it's the legislative branch who's elected the president and not the citizens. This US legislature is formed by the Congress: the assembly of the Senate and the House of representatives. And to control these branches, we can find the judicial power embodied by the Supreme Court which is composed of judges choose for their entire life by the president.

How to become the new American president?

So, now we know almost how does the American political system work we will seek to know how to become the next POTUS (or President Of The United States)? Indeed, the US presidential election is peculiar. It is an indirect election: voters choose electors who will decide on the suffrage's outcome. Thus, to win the presidential election a candidate must have the most electors: so, at least two hundred seventy votes out of the five hundred thirty-eight votes of electors. Besides, the candidate who has the majority in a state wins all the electors. It is potential for a candidate to be elected with fewer votes of American citizens than their opponent like George Bush. Indeed, the two thousand presidential elections famously dubbed "the endless election" was the most disputed race of the US political history. It opposed George W. Bush, the son of the former Republican president Georges H.W. Bush, to Al Gore, the incumbent Democrat Vice-President, and even if Bush has five hundred thousand votes less than Al Gore, he won the election. Thus, Voters choose Electors on November and Electors elected President on December. Besides, if you want to be elected, there is a lot of little tricks: then, for example, there are unfaithful electors who promise to citizens that they will vote for such a candidate and once elected they go over to the other side. Or there are such particularities: in Maine and Nebraska the electoral system is proportional: the candidate obtaining the majority of the electors of the state don't recover all the votes.

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