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The form of government is based on three main principles: federalism, the separation of powers, and respect for the Constitution with its seven articles and 26 amendments. Americans are subject to two governments, that of their state and that of the Union, and each has its own distinct function. The states have, under the Constitution, the primary functions of providing law and order, education, public health and most of the things which concern day-to-day life. The Federal government at Washington is concerned with foreign affairs and with matters of general concern to all the states, including commerce between the states.
At each level, in state and Union, there is a constitution which defines and limits political power, and which provides safeguards against tyranny and means for popular participation. In each state, power is divided between three agencies, with law-making power given to a legislature (usually of two houses, elected for fixed terms), an executive (the governor), and finally the judges of the State Supreme Court. A possible abuse of power or infringement by one branch on the rights and duties of the others is prevented by a system of checks and balances. Each state is divided into counties, which have their own powers. Within the counties the towns have their own local governments. City government, with elected mayor, council and judges, reproduces the state pattern on a smaller scale. Each of the fifty states has its own peculiarities. But one can say that all state and city governments provide for election of legislatures and executives for fixed terms, and all have devices for ensuring that each of the three elements of government exercises a check on the other two.
The Federal government also has three elements: executive (the President), legislative (Congress) and judicial (Supreme Court) branch, and the three elements are checked and balanced by one another. The President is the effective head of the executive branch of government, head of state and Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces. The Cabinet is appointed by the Presindent. Ist seat is the White House in Washington. In November of each leap year (next 2000) a President is elected to serve for exactly four years from a fixed day in the following January. The four-year rhythm has never been broken. Together with the President, a Vice-President is elected, and if the President dies the Vice-President becomes President for the unexpired part of the four years. The founders of the Constitution thought of the President as a replacement for the English king, and did not expect any President to resign, though the old device of impeachment was available for Congress to remove a President by a special kind of political trial.
A constitutional amendment of 1967 made new arrangements for the succession, so that if a Vice-President in office dies or resigns the Senate elects a new one.
A person elected as Vice-President expects that he will have no defined function except to preside over the Senate (he has only a vote if the Senate vote is 50:50) unless he happens to be thrust into the highest office through the chance of the President's death. Most Vice-Presidents during a second term regard the office as a useful base from which to try to win their party's next candidature for the Presidency, as Nixon did in 1960, Humphrey in 1968, and Bush in 1988.
Out of the nineteen men elected to the Presidency between 1840 and 1960, four were assassinated (John F. Kennedy in 1963) and four died in office, so eight of the men elected as Vice-President before Ford acceded to the highest office - and in May 1945 Vice-President Truman became President only four months after the four-year period had begun.
Until 1951 there was no limit to the number of four-year terms for which a person could be elected as President. In 1940 Franklin Roosevelt was elected for a third term, and in 1944 for a fourth, cut short by his death. In 1951 a constitutional amendment set a limit of two terms - that is, eight years.
The Senate and the House of Representatives together form the Congress, which is the law-making body, and no federal taxes can be collected or money spent without the approval of both Houses. The President signs the laws. If he refuses, his veto can be overridden by a two-thirds majority in both Houses. Elections for both Houses are held in November each even-numbered year, when the whole House of Representatives is elected, to serve for only two years, while senators are elected in rotation for six years. If a senator or representative dies or resigns, a special election may be held to fill the vacant place for the remainder of the term.
The Senate embodies the federal nature of the Constitution, with two senators from each state. Each state's two senators are elected at separate elections, for example, one in November 1984 to serve for 1985-91, the other in 1986 to serve for 1987-93; and each senator is elected by and for a whole state.
The House of Representatives has a fixed number of seats (435), and each state has one seat for every 1/435 share that it has of the whole U.S. population. Every ten years, after each census, states with fast-growing populations, like Texas and Florida, are given extra seats at the expense of those with slow growth like New York. Six states have only one seat in the House; the others are divided into constituencies or \"districts\", each of which is represented by the candidate who wins most votes at the election.
The rules about fixed terms of office for President and Congress have prevented the type of instability that has been found at times in many European countries where the executive head of government resigns if defeated in the parliamentary assembly. They have also prevented the concentration of power that occurs in a parliamentary system based on two strongly disciplined parties such as that of Great Britain. But they have created conditions in which it may be difficult for any coherent policy at all to be followed, for example when the President is a Democrat faced by a Republican majority in one House of Congress - or even in both Houses.
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