Политическая система США.


                      The political system of the USA.
      The United States of America is the greatest capitalist country in the
world. The USA is the President republic. It means  that  the  president  is
the head of the country. The President is elected for four  years,  together
with the Vice-President, chosen for the same  term.  He  cannot  be  younger
than 35 years old and he must have lived in the USA for at least  14  years,
and be a civilian. He must do his job according  to  the  Constitution.  The
President cannot serve more than two terms.
      The  legislative  branch  of  the  US  Government,  or  the  Congress,
represents all of the American states. The Congress was created  by  Article
I of the constitution, adopted in 1787. It consists of two parts: the  House
of Representatives and the Senate.
      The Senate made up of 100 members (2 from each state), elected  for  a
term of 6 years. One third of the Senate is elected every  2  years.  To  be
elected a Senator, a person must be a least 30 years old  and  have  been  a
citizen of the USA for at least 9 years.
      The House  of  Representatives  comprises  representatives  from  each
state, elected for a two-years term.  The  number  of  representatives  from
each state depends on its population, but every state is represented. To  be
elected a representative, a person must be at least  25  years  of  age  and
have been a citizen of the country for at least 7 years.
      In general, Senators are better  known  than  Representatives  because
they are fewer in  number  and  serve  for  a  longer  time.  Many  American
Presidents served in Congress before they became President. Presidents  John
Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, and Richard  Nixon  were  all  Representatives  and
then senators before becoming President of the United States.
      The presiding officer of the Senate is the Vice-President of the  USA.
The presiding officer of the  House  of  Representatives,  the  Speaker,  is
elected by the house. The work of preparing and considering laws is done  by
the committees of both Houses. There  are  15  standing  committees  in  the
Senate and 19 in the House of Representatives.
      The job of the Congress is to make laws.  The  President  can  veto  a
bill. The Congress can pass the law anyway if it gets a two-thirds  majority
vote. The Congress can also declare the war. The  House  of  Representatives
can also impeach the President. This means that the  House  can  charge  the
President which a crime. In this case, the Senate will put the President  on
trail. The Senate votes to approve the justices that the President  appoints
to Supreme Court. The Congress assembles at least once a year.
      The executive branch of the government puts the  country’s  laws  into
effect. It consists of the president, the Vice-President  and  the  Cabinet.
The President is the head of the executive  branch  of  the  government;  he
appoints the members of the Cabinet. When  the  president  receives  a  bill
from the Congress, he must sign it, and then the bill  becomes  a  law.  The
Cabinet advises the President on many matters and is composed of  the  heads
of ten executive departments: Secretary of Senate,  Secretary  of  Treasury,
Secretary of Defence and others.
      The judicial branch of the government is the system of courts  in  the
United States. Its job is to enforce laws. The Supreme Court is the  highest
court in the country. It consists of 9 justices: one  Chief  Justice  and  8
associate justices. The President appoints  the  justices,  but  the  Senate
must approve them. The justices are appointed for life.  The  Supreme  Court
makes sure people obey the laws. The Supreme Court can also decide if a  law
is constitutional, that is, if it is in  agreement  with  the  Constitution.
The judicial branch  works  together  with  the  legislative  and  executive
branches to protect the Constitution and the rights of people.
      There are two main bourgeois political parties in the  USA.  They  are
the Democratic Party (was organized in the 1820s) and the  Republican  Party
(was organized in the 1850s). They defend monopoly capital. The  only  party
that defends the interests of the working people is the Communist Party.  It
was formed in 1919 in Chicago. The Communist Party struggles for better  way
of life for the working people and it fights for the  interests  of  Negroes
and coloured people, against all  kinds  of  discrimination.  The  Communist
Party stands for peaceful coexistence with the socialist countries.
                     The basis of the American republic.
      The Constitution of the United States is  the  central  instrument  of
American government and the supreme law of the land. For 200 years,  it  has
guided the evolution of governmental institutions freedom,  economic  growth
and social progress.
      The American Constitution is the world’s oldest  written  constitution
in force,  one  that  has  served  as  the  model  for  a  number  of  other
constitutions around the world. The Constitution owes its staying  power  to
its simplicity and flexibility.  Originally designed to provide a  framework
for governing four million people in 13 very different  colonies  along  the
Atlantic coast, its basic provisions were so soundly  conceived  that,  with
only 26 amendments, it now serves the needs of more than 240 million  people
in 50 even more diverse  states  that  stretch  from  the  Atlantic  to  the
Pacific Ocean.
      The path of the Constitution was neither straight nor  easy.  A  draft
document emerged in 1787, but only after intense debate  and  six  years  of
experience with an earlier federal union. The 13  British  colonies,  strung
out along the eastern seaboard of what is now the  United  States,  declared
their independence from England in 1776. A year before, war had  broken  out
between the colonies and Great Britain, a war for independence  that  lasted
for six bitter years. While  still  at  war,  the  colonies  —  now  calling
themselves the United States of America — drafted  a  compact,  which  bound
them together  as  a  nation.  The  compact,  designated  the  “Articles  of
Confederation and Perpetual Union”, was adopted by a Congress of the  states
in 1777, and formally signed in July 1778. The Articles became binding  when
they were ratified by the 13th state, Maryland, in March 1781.
      It was under these inauspicious circumstances that the Constitution of
the United States was drawn up. In February 1787, the Continental  Congress,
the legislative body of the republic, issued a call for the states  to  send
delegates to Philadelphia to revise the  Articles.  The  Constitutional,  or
Federal, Convention convened on May 25, 1787, in  Independence  Hall,  where
the Declaration of Independence had been adopted 11 years  earlier  on  July
4, 1776. Although the delegates  had  been  authorized  only  to  amend  the
Articles of Confederation, they pushed the Articles aside and  proceeded  to
construct a charter for a wholly new, more centralized form  of  government.
The new document, the Constitution, was completed September  17,  1787,  and
was officially adopted March 4, 1789.
      The 55 delegates who drafted the Constitution  included  most  of  the
outstanding  leaders,  of  Founding  Fathers,  of  the  new   nation.   They
represented a wide range of interests, backgrounds  and  stations  in  life.
All agreed, however, on the central objectives expressed in the preamble  to
the Constitution:
      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,  to  ordain  and  establish  this
Constitution for the United States of America.
                             The Bill of Rights.
      The Constitution has been amended 26  times  since  1789,  and  it  is
likely to be further revised in the future. The most sweeping  changes  were
made within two years  of  its  adoption.  In  that  period,  the  first  10
amendments, known collectively as the Bill of Rights, were added. They  were
approved as a block by the Congress in September 1789, and  ratified  by  11
states by the end of 1791.
      Much of the initial resistance to the Constitution came not from those
opposed to strengthening the federal union,  but  from  statesmen  who  felt
that the rights of individuals must be  specifically  spelled  out.  One  of
these was George Mason, author of the Declaration  of  Rights  of  Virginia,
which was a forerunner  of  the  Bill  of  Rights.  As  a  delegate  to  the
Constitutional Convention, Mason refused to sign  the  document  because  he
felt individual rights were  not  sufficiently  protected.  Indeed,  Mason’s
opposition nearly blocked  ratification  of  Virginia.   As  noted  earlier,
Massachusetts, because of similar feelings, conditioned its ratification  on
the addition of specific guarantees of individual rights. By  the  time  the
First Congress convened, sentiment  for  adoption  of  such  amendments  was
nearly unanimous, and the Congress lost little time in drafting them.
      These amendments  remain  intact  today,  as  they  were  written  two
centuries ago. The first guaranties freedom of worship,  speech  and  press,
the right of peaceful assembly, and the right of petition the government  to
corrects wrongs. The second guarantees the right of citizens to  bear  arms.
The third provides that troops may not be quartered in private home  without
the owner’s  consent.  The  fourth  guards  against  unreasonable  searches,
arrests and seizures of property.
      The next four amendments deal with the system of  justice:  The  fifth
forbids trial for a major crime expect after indictment by a grand jury.  It
prohibits repeated trails for the same offence; forbids  punishment  without
due process of law and provides that an accused person may not be  compelled
to testify against himself. The sixth guarantees  a  speedy  public  testify
for criminal offences. It requires trial by  an  unbiased  jury,  guarantees
the rights to legal counsel for the accused,  and  provides  that  witnesses
shall be completed to attend the trial and testify in the  presence  of  the
accused. The  seventh  assures  trial  by  jury  in  civil  cases  involving
anything valued at more than 20 U.S. dollars. The eighth  forbids  excessive
bail or fines, and cruel or unusual punishment.
      The last two of the 10 amendments contain  very  broad  statements  of
constitutional authority: The ninth declares that the listing if  individual
rights is not meant to be comprehensive; that the people have  other  rights
not specifically mentioned in  the  Constitution.  The  10th  provides  that
powers not delegated by the  Constitution  to  the  federal  government  nor
prohibited by it to the states are reserved to the states or the people.
                         State and local government.
      Each of the fifty states of the USA has a constitution patterned after
the national Constitution, with its three divisions of  power:  legislative,
executive and judicial.  The head of each state  is  the  governor,  elected
for four or two years. The office of the governor  is  one  of  considerable
prestige and political power and has been  steadily  growing  in  influence.
The governor is assisted by Secretaries.  The state legislatures consist  of
two houses (except Nebraska, which has a  single-chamber  legislature,)  and
they  collect  taxes,  elect  their  officers,  approve   state   government
officials, and pass state laws. No state, however, may pass a  law  contrary
to the Constitution or the United States’ laws and treaties.
      Each state creates of  local  government.  The  chief  unit  of  local
government is the county, of which there are more than  3000.  The  counties
maintain public order through the sheriff and his deputies; in  many  states
the counties maintain the smaller local highways. The sheriff is  the  chief
law enforcement officer of the county. He is  also  officer  of  the  court,
serves papers, enforces orders, maintains  the  jail,  and  collects  taxes,
with particular functions varying from state to state. The sheriff’s  deputy
is appointed by the sheriff. He assists the sheriff in law enforcement,  and
in some states may act in place of a sheriff. He is usually  paid  in  fees.
Most large cities have an elected mayor as head of the local government  and
an elected council to help him. Some smaller cities have a  commission  form
of the government. Five men are elected to take care of the city’s  services
and its money problems.
      The mayor-council system is the most popular kind of local  government
and the city manager type is the  second  most  popular.  In  this  kind  if
government  an  elected  council  hires  a  professional  city  manager   to
administer and watch over the city’s business.  The  elected  council  keeps
the legislative power.
                          Congressional elections.
      The Congress of the United States  is  composed  of  two  houses,  the
Senate and the House of Representatives. The Senate  represents  the  states
and the House represents the population according to its distribution  among
the states. Each state is guaranteed at  least  one  representative  in  the
House.  The  remainder  are  apportioned  among  the  states  according  the
population. There is now,  roughly,  one  representative  for  every  380000
people,  but  no  two  congressional  districts  have   exactly   the   same
population.
      The Senate of the United States is composed of  one  hundred  members,
two being elected from each state. Senators are chosen for six  years,  one-
third retiring or seeking re-election every two  years.  Two  senators  from
the same state never finish their terms  at  the  same  time,  one  of  them
called “Senior Senator” and the other — “Junior Senator”. Theoretically  all
citizens of both sexes over 21 years of age have the right to vote,  but  in
fact this is not so.
      An estimate of the number of American legally barred  from  voting  by
the residence laws based on 1960  Census  figures  on  population  mobility,
indicates that 5.4 million, or five per cent of adult Americans were  unable
to vote in 1960 because  the  residence  requirements  in  some  states  the
payment of taxes (called “poll-taxes”) is necessary for  getting  the  right
to vote. In some southern states voters are required to  give  a  reasonable
explanation of what they read. In some states the ability to  read  (usually
an extract from the Constitution) is required. In  Alabama  the  voter  must
take  an  “anti-Communist  oath”  and  fill  in  a  questionnaire   to   the
satisfaction of the registers. As a result of this millions  of  people  are
deprived the right to  vote.  At  the  same  time  it  is  well  known  that
Americans are less disposed to exercise their right to vote than just  about
any other nation. The percentage of voters in the potential electorate  (the
adult  citizenry)  is  about  sixty-five  per  cent.  One  of  reasons   for
nonvoting, is the two-party system. In  the  United  States  there  are  two
major bourgeois political parties, the Democratic and the  Republican  (also
called G.O.P.  —  “the  Grand  Old  Party”).  Both  of  them  represent  the
interests of monopoly capitalists and  there  is  no  clear-curt  difference
between the two parties, between their policies and  their  party  machines,
but there is a difference between their  bosses  and  their  rank  and  file
members, common people who lacking  a  third  choice  have  to  vote  either
Democratic or Republican. For many years, the  mainstay  of  the  Republican
Party was a block of industrialists and  financiers  of  the  Northeast  and
midwestern farmers. The membership of  the  Democratic  Party  was  no  less
curious, for two of its most important components were  southern  landowners
and northern industrial workers —  two  factions  apparently  irreconcilable
because of differing economic and social objectives.
      The area in which one lives is still considered an important factor in
determining one’s vote, though sectionalism  appears  to  be  of  decreasing
importance.  Until recent years, the South was “solid”  for  the  Democrats,
while New England was “rock-ribbed” for the Republicans.
      The great cities of the United States show a strong tendency  to  vote
Democratic while suburban areas have  become  Republican  bastions  in  many
parts of the nation.
      Blue-collar workers and racial minority  groups  are  concentrated  in
cities.  Since this groups tend to vote Democratic, the party  they  support
has great strength in cities. On other hand, those who belong to  the  high-
income groups and usually  vote  Republican  are  concentrated  in  suburban
areas.
      The party machines of both Republican and Democratic parties  are  run
by party bosses closely associated with different monopoly groups and  these
two  main  political  parties  in  the  USA  are  parties  of  the  monopoly
capitalists.  The  Republican  and  Democratic  parties   have   monopolized
political life in  the  USA.  Their  monopoly  of  political  power  creates
difficulties in the struggle for democracy.  While  the  reactionary  groups
operate  easily  within  each  of  this  two  main  parties  of  capitalism,
promoting their interests, the working class  and  the  mass  movements  are
denied such an opportunity. This is especially felt in  the  elections.  The
American big business and progressive forces in the country and isolate  the
Communist Party.
      The Communist Party of the USA was denied its rights  as  a  political
party by legal and  extralegal  means.  Anti-Communist  “loyalty  oaths”  by
candidates required by some state laws were used as  an  additional  against
the Communist Party and other  progressive  organizations.  Because  of  the
bipartisan system of the elections the majority of the nation,  its  working
class, poor farmers and seasonal workers have no other choice  but  to  vote
either for the Democrats or the Republicans. Though major  sections  of  the
working class, the Black people and other popular forces,  still  remain  in
the political grip of the Democratic Party, there is little doubt that  many
voters see nothing to choose between the Tweedledeeism of the Democrats  and
the Tweedledeeism of the Republicans. Lacking a third choice, they  fail  to
choose at all. The central objective towards which all forces  of  the  Left
are striving is an independent electoral policy, and the Communist Party  of
the  USA  calls  for  united  effort  of  labour  membership,  civil  rights
movement,  advocates  of  peace,  so  that  they  could  present  meaningful
alternatives to labour and minority of their needs and interests.