Family,

Can anyone shed some light on the US political system?

I am reading Bill Clinton's book and I am having a hard time getting my head around the electorial process of both the Senate and Congress.

What powers do they have?
What are their functions?
How many members of each?
How are the states/populations represented in each?

Thanx in advance!

T

Each state gets 2 Senators US Senate.gov total of 100
State population decides how many Congressman are allotted each state. US House total of 435.

Basically, the houses are responsible for writing bills, but they aren't law until the president signs them. There is so much more, I'm sure those web pages will help.

US Government 101. NOTE: This is answering a question, not expressing a political opinion.

There are 100 Senators. 2 from Each state. They hold office for 6 years. They are elected by a simple majority of the voters in the state. This was setup to make sure that the large states with large populations would not overpower the small states.

There are 525 (IIRC) Congressman (House of Representatives). They are elected by the majority vote of their Congressional Districts. The Congressional Districts are drawn up by the state legslators (regularly redrawn here in Texas to benefit the party that has the majority in the state legslature). They hold office for 2 years, staggered so that only 1/3 of the Congressman come up for reelection every 2 years. This was to provide representation based on population. The number and location of the representatives are determined by the US Census.


The House changes size based on population changes. Some states can lose representatives if their population declines. Then that congressional seat is given to the next largest population location.

The House usually proposes new legislation (bills). Then it gets bent, folded, spindled and mutilated in committees within the House, and after each congressman has had his or her say, the bill gets voted on. If it gets a majority, it moves on to the Senate, where the process is repeated. If the Senate passes the bill, then it gets sent to the President for his signature. If the President Vetos the bill, it can go back to Congress for a veto override vote.

Does that answer your question?

us constitution

gives it all art 2 section one explains the electoral stuff

here are the admendments

all the changes that were though of later and as times changed

to me the most screwed up/ debated / twisted one's are the first, second, fourth and tenth

Don't forget the non voting members....Didtrict of Columbia, Puerto Rico....a few more American Territories have reps....then there is the Vice President who votes in the Senate in the event of a tie vote....

Now we are talking!

What about party representation then?

Do democrat, republican members in each group (congress/senate) come into play?

Are members voted in based on their political party?

Lastly, when the vote occured in November who do you vote for......

- do you vote for a local representative (senate/congress??) and which ever has the most reps, has there party leader as president OR did you cast a vote for Kerry/Bush?

I would love to know what was on each ballot!!

Thanx for responding!

T

T

This is getting dangerously close to being a political discussion. I suggest that you take this to the OT forum.

The political party system is used to get canidated voted in to office. Then they are expected to generally vote for the party items. You do not have to be a member of a political party to get voted into office, but reality is that you would need the backing of a political party to get enough votes to get in office. They have the money and the manpower to get the name out to the public. And that visibility gets the votes.

Your vote would be determined by your opinion. It's a secret ballot. On the ballot is everything from the local dog catcher position to the presidential race. You pick the person you want for each post. There is also the ability to vote for all the canidates from a particular political party, but it's not required for you to vote that way.

Each office ,( dog catcher, local sherrif, state representative, govenor, congressman, senator, president) has a separate box to be checked. We could have a congress that had all of it's members of one political party, and a president that was of the other party. Or we could have a 50/50 split between democrat and republican in congress, and have an independent for president. But in either of those cases I doubt anything would get done, considering the partisan politics involved. The election is supposed to be the will of the people, but for the presidential elections, the electorial college is mixed in there.

As long as it stays within the "how our Guv is SUPPOSED to work"....I don't see a problem.

In CA....we have elections most every year. A local election can be combined with a state and/or Federal one....

The ballot will normally show everyone who has qualified to be considered.....usually by the backing of the Democratic or Republican parties. Independent or lesser third parties can qualify by getting "qualifying" signatures from registered voters and presenting them to the registrar in charge of that particular election. Third parties can skip the signature part depending on how they did last election and if the candidate is the incumbent.

You can also write in a candidate. Last election a write in candidate almost won the Mayor's job in San Diego.

Ballots will also have propositions...stuff like the three strikes law, changes to the Consitution, etc....most are proposed by the elected legislatures and put on the ballots for approval.

Some are put on by private groups and are added by the registrar by the qualification process like candidates...by signatures of registered voters.

Candidates "usually" need 50% +1 vote to win as do "most" propositions. Some props need 2/3 majority, and in the case of the Ahnold and the recall of the GOV in CA....he only needed to get the MOST votes to get a runoff....but he got a majority if I remember right.....

BTW....by Federal Constitutional Law, he is banned from being the Prez as he is not a native born American....

Which is essentially how it's supposed to work, oddly enough. The men who drew up the original constitution (primarily Thomas Jefferson for this bit) had little trust in government to do the right thing, having just escaped a very corrupt government ruled by an arbitrary autocrat. So, the system was deliberately designed to promote logjams and reduce the amount that could get done unless a LOT of people all agreed on the same thing.

The country started with two political parties, and other than some brief periods of a relatively weak third party, that's how it's been since. There are some fringe parties, as well, but they've never really caught on with enough people to matter, esp. at the Federal level. When the fringe parties manage to get anyone in office, it's nearly always in local offices, like city government. There is one Senator (from Alaska?) who's not a member of either of the two major parties. There are a handful of members of the House who are similarly not aligned with either major party.

And, as MikeZ pointed out, most of the Federal stuff is mirrored in each state. Each state has a "Senate" and a "House", though they may use different names (in California, the "House" is called the "Assembly"). Each state will also have different rules for its local government. Many states, for example, don't have a full-time state government. Some have a government that only meets for a short time each year. The laws are heirarchical, with Federal law trumping state trumping county trumping city, and there are defined limits to the authority of each level, which get argued over on a regular basis. Thus: "state's rights".

i learned all this stuff through 'school house rock'

"...im just a bill, on capital hill...."

THEN.....at the Federal Level.....you have three divisions of power, legislative, the court, and the prez.

The (legislative) senate and the house of reps....pass a law....the prez can sign it (or ignore it, it can become law w/o his sig) or veto it...the house and senate can overide his veto with a ....ah shit....2/3 or 3/4 majority I forgot....

The Supreme Court can strike it down if they feel that it is unconsitutional....checks and balances.

The prez appoints replacement supreme court weenies, but they have to be confirmed by the legislative branch. The weeneis serve for life unless they is impeached, die or resign.

The libs are freaking out as there are as many as four supreme weenies about to....ummmm, DIE.....and "W" might be able to REALLY have have some payback fun by appointing some tight ass conservatives......

Ohhoh....I just got political....

Okay,

Now it seems there is some heirarchy (sp).

Is it Pres--> Senate--> Congress?

Why would one run for Senate and not for Congress (and vice versa)?

Trust me, we are coming to the end of my enlightenment!

T

MONEY

The Senate is more of a prestige position, and because there are only two per state, each Senator tends to have more individual power. There are something like 40 Reps for California, but still only two Senators. Senators also have 6 year terms, so they don't have to campaign as often as Reps, who are up for reelection every two years.

The President is the ultimate prestige position, but he not everyone wants to be at the top, where life is generally a lot harder. Better to be a Senator who's relatively unknown outside the Senate, but is powerful within it, chairing a few top committees and pulling a lot of strings behind the scenes. The President also doesn't have any direct power to enact any legislation, he only has the power to block it. Even that power isn't absolute. If the President vetoes a bill, it can still pass if 2/3rds of both houses of Congress vote to override the veto.

btw, you've picked our collective brains:

How close to the British system is the Canadian system? I know that in the UK, they hold elections when they bloody well feel like it (within limits), in relatively small districts that have been in place for centuries. Each district election elects one MP into the one House that matters (Lords aren't elected, but don't have much legislative power, either). Then, the leaders of the parties in that house elect their leader. The party that has the most seats in the house gets to run the country, and the leader of that party is the PM.

I know the Canadian system is different in some respects (no provinces or provincial governments in the UK), but I don't know how different it is. Was Martin directly elected, or elected by the representative government. There's only one house in Canada, right?

Well nobody quote me,

We have muncipal, provincial, and federal governments, each one having power over the next.

All levels have the power to create laws and by-laws that are effective only if they fall within the bounds of our constitution.

Government officials are elected by their representatives and their party leader becomes the premier (provincal leader) or prime-minister.

Federal and provincial ministers preside our house of commons and each minister represents an area of the country that is roughly outlined by population.

An election is every 4 years for most (all?) levels UNLESS they call an early election. An early election can be called if the prime minister feels that he wants more unity (party wise) in the house so stuff is passed quicker (this will happen soon because our Liberal Party does not have a majority in the house).

Thanx for all the in depth responses!!

T

While I am sure that was a simplistic explanation (see above) it sure doesn't sound much different than ours does it

It's very like the British system. The "president" isn't directly elected, and there's only one house, not two. Imagine a system where there's only the House of Reps, and the President is the Speaker of the House. There's no presidential election, just an election for your district's Rep. And Reps have longer terms.

No Senate, so big states get much more power in the Federal government than smaller states, pretty much unchecked except by the Constitution. A pretty major change.

Oh OK Sorry was'nt getting the whole picture. Got it now THANKS.