Chapter 4 : the American Federal System

• Partiots tried to tackle the flaws of the other regimes by :

  • Written constitutions
  • Popular sovereignty (binding citizens)
  • Small republics
  • Some proposed universal male suffrage
  • Some proposed universal education
  • Others proposed unicameral legislatures
  • Others proposed the separation of powers
• Drafting of republican constitutions based on popular sovereignty.
• Widespread fears about the fragility of republican systems
• Numerous provisions in the early state constitutions (protection of property and life, abolition of hereditary privileges, trial by jury, religious toleration, extended franchise → the right to vote, secret ballot…)
• The federal system : grants authority to each State to legislate on all the matters not delegated to the U.S. Congress
• The Executive branch is composed of :

  • The President (4 years / 2 terms – XXII amendment)
  • The Vice-president (president if the president dies or is incapacitated)
  • The cabinet (advisors designated by the president and approved by the Senate).
• The purpose of the executive branch is

  to implement and inforce laws
• For the presidential election, Americans vote for electors (grands électeurs) who then votes for the president
• The electors are called the electoral college
• Each state has at least 3 electors (+ 3 for Washington DC)
• The higher the population in your state, the higher is the number of representatives
• The number of electors in a state depends on the number of representatives (in the house of representatives) and senators.
• The presidential candidate who receives a majority of the college becomes the president ("the winner takes all")
• the population vote for electors in a state is called the popular vote
• The president's role is to be commander in chief, the principal officer, the head of his political party, and the head of diplomacy.
• The vice president is the president if ever the president resigns, dies or is impeached
• The Vice-President is the president over the Senate and breaks ties.
• The Presidential Cabinet has no legal standing and makes infrequent meetings.
• The President is the head of the executive branch, the executive departments has secretaries and an Attorney General
• The role of the Cabinet is to advise the President, implement their aganda and defend their agenda with the Congress
• There's 15 executive departements
• The role of the Congress regarding the executive branch is that the Senate has to ratify and confirm the choices made by the President.
• There are hundreds of independent federal agencies that are not part of the cabinet but under the president's authority
• The Legislative Branch is the Congress, which itself is divided in 2 chambers. It has the power to make laws in the US and to declare war
• The Senate is composed of 2 senators per states for 6 years term. Every 2 years, 1/3 of the senators are voted by population.
• The role of the Senate is to ratify treaties made by the President and to confirm the president's nominations. The senate is also in charge of the impeachment of federal officials and impeachment of the president or vice president (if they're impeached)
• The House of Representatives is composed of 435 representatives
• The number of representatives of each state depends on the pop of each states. Representatives are elected for 2 years terms.
• The speaker in the House of representatives is elected by its members and is the one who presides over the house.
• The Speaker is the leader of the majority party. they're the third most important person in the US : they're the president if the current president and vice president resigns, dies or is impeached.
• The speaker determines the committees to which the bills are debated before it's debated in the chamber of representatives
• A bill is a project of law
• The speaker sets up the agenda of the House of Representatives
• the role of the Whip is to be the communication director of the majority party.
• The presiding officer of the senate is the vice president
• the vice president is rarely at the senate everyday so they choose a pro-tempore (temporary) president to preside the Senate
• The Congress is supposed to adopt bills by simple majority (by Constitution)
• A bill has to be passed by the both chambers then it goes to the president. He signs a bill and then it becomes a statute
• The word statute is the official word for a law
• If the president refuses a bill, he vetoes a bill.