Download AMERICAN SOCIETY AND ITS INSTITUTIONS

AMERICAN SOCIETY AND ITS INSTITUTIONS
Lecture THREE/ Meeting THREE
US Government
The President of the United States and the
election process
Shape of the American Government
• federal republic
• federal government
• state government
• local government
• division of powers
• federal law
• state law
• local law
• separation of powers
• legislative branch – Congress
• executive branch – President of the U.S.A.
• judicial branch – Federal Courts (Supreme Court)
• checks and balances
Legislative Branch – The Congress
• bicameral parliament
• legislative power and a set of delegated explicit and implied powers
• financial and budgetary matters (budget, taxes, loans, regulating commerce)
• military matters (Congress declares war, raises the army, and makes laws for the military)
• congressional oversight – power to investigate and to oversee the executive branch –
through committees
• power of removal – impeachment of federal officers
• elections every 2 years
• House of Representatives
• representatives elected for 2 years
• currently 435 representatives
• Senate
• Two Senators from each state
• Senators elected for a six-year term
• every two years 1/3 of the Senators elected
• Vice-President is the President of the Senate
Executive Branch – The President of the U.S.A
• number of terms – limited constitutionally to two
(1951)
• The President elected for a 4 year term
• presidential candidates must be natural born citizens
of the U.S.A.
• must be at least 35 years of age
• must be a resident for 14 years
• traditionally forms the cabinet (Secretaries)
• executes the federal law
• accepts (signs) or vetoes federal legislation – veto
can be overridden by a 2/3rds majority vote in both
houses
• conducts foreing policy
• commander-in-chief
• nominates judges of federal courts (including the
Supreme Court Justices)
• may grant presidential pardon
Judicial Branch – Federal Courts
• United States district courts (currently
94 districts)
• United States Circuit Courts of Appeals
(currently 11 CoA's)
• Supreme Court of the United States
• the court of last resort
• checks the law and governmental
actions for constitutional inquiries
• interprets the Constitution
• Chief Justice and eight Associate
Justices nominated by the President,
confirmed by the Senate, may be
impeached by Congress
• Life tenure terminating upon death,
resignation, retirement, or
conviction on impeachment
Eletction Process – Presidential Election
Candidates 2016
Donald J. Trump (R)
Hillary Rodham Clinton (D)
Ed Baker
Ajamu Baraka
David Boarman
Brian Briggs
Darrell Castle ◄ CONSTITUTION
NOMINEE
Paul Chehade
James "JD" Criveau
Ken Cross
Robert Dionisio
Art Drew
David Holcomb
Zoltan Istvan
Gary Johnson ◄ LIBERTARIAN
NOMINEE
John Fitzgerald Johnson
Lynn Sandra Kahn
Chris Keniston ◄ VETERANS PARTY
NOMINEE
Bishop Julian Lewis, Jr.
Evan McMullin
James C. Mitchell, Jr.
Perry Morcom
Mark Pendleton
Jeremiah Pent
Clifton Roberts
Scott Smith
Jill Stein ◄ GREEN PARTY NOMINEE
Samm Tittle
Benjamin Weigel
Bill Weld
Terry W. Wheelock
Electoral Process – Presidential election
• After Ballotpedia https://ballotpedia.org/
• How to become the President?
• An individual can seek the nomination of a political party.
Presidential nominees are selected by delegates at national
nominating conventions. Individual states conduct caucuses or
primary elections to determine which delegates will be sent to the
national convention.[1]
• An individual can run as an independent. Independent presidential
candidates typically must petition each state to have their names
printed on the general election ballot. For the 2016 presidential
contest, it was estimated that an independent candidate would need
to collect in excess of 880,000 signatures in order to appear on the
general election ballot in every state.[1]
• An individual can run as a write-in candidate. In 34 states, a write-in
candidate must file some paperwork in advance of the election. In
nine states, write-in voting for presidential candidates is not
permitted. The remaining states do not require write-in candidates to
file paperwork in advance of the election.[1]
Ballot Access
• Ballot Access for presidential election
• An individual can seek the nomination of a staterecognized political party.
• An individual can run as an independent. Independent
candidates often must petition in order to have their
names printed on the general election ballot.
• An individual can run as a write-in candidate.
• minor parties were recognized in more than 10 states
• Libertarian Party: 33 states
• Green Party: 21 states[3]
• Constitution Party: 15 states
Candidate selection process
• Party nomination processes:
• Presidential nominees: party local and state caucuses and primary
elections and state conventions -> Party national conventions
• Candidate preference Primaries
• Voter registration
• Currently held in 35 jurisdictions by both parties
• Caucuses
• Held in 13 jurisdictions by both parties
• In 8 jurisdictions one party runs a primary, the other a
caucus
• Delegates
• Selected in the primaries or caucuses or included because of their
position as an elected representative or member of the party
leadership
• They select presidential candidate in party national conventions
• Pledged delegates and nonpledged delegates (superdelegates) (D)
• Bound, and unbound delegates (R)
Candidates 2016 – Primaries and caucuses
Election day
• Election Day – popular vote (Tuesday after the first
Monday of November – earliest 2 November –
latest 8 November)
• voters vote for electors
• all states use a "short ballot„
• only few require the name of the elector added to
the name of the presidential candidate
Electoral College
• electoral votes allocated by the number of represenatives and
senators from particular states
• three votes for Washington D.C.
• 'winner-takes-all' with the exception of Maine and Nebraska
• Nebraska and Maine divide ther Electoral Votes by congressional districts + 2
votes based on state-wide popular vote
• hence – votes in popular election do not have the same 'weight':
per-capita Electoral College representation differs significantly:
e.g.: Wyoming vs. California – at a ratio of more than 3:1, yet,
some scholars claim the opposite is true (Banzhaf power index)
• Electors cast their votes on the Monday after the second Wednesday in
December
• 24 states have laws punishing faithless electors
• the candidate to win the majority of votes (currently 270) in the Electoral
Collage – wins
• Electoral votes counted by a joint session of Congress on January 6
Presidential deadlocks
if none of the candidates received the majority of electoral votes
• House of Representatives chooses the President
• House of Repr. chooses from three candidates who recieved the greatest number of
electoral votes
• Each state delegation votes en bloc - its members have a single vote collectively (and the
District of Columbia does not receive a vote)
• A candidate must receive an absolute majority of state delegation votes (currently 26) in
order for that candidate to become the President-elect.
• Additionally, delegations from at least two-thirds of all the states must be present for
voting to take place.
• The House continues balloting until it elects a President.
• Senate chooses the Vice-President
• Senate chooses from two candidates who recieved the greatest number of electoral votes
• The Senate votes in the normal manner in this case (i.e., ballots are individually cast by
each Senator, not by state delegations).
• Two-thirds of the Senators must be present for voting to take place.
• "majority of the whole number" of Senators (currently 51 of 100) is necessary for election.
• If a deadlock continues
• If the House of Representatives has not chosen a President-elect in time for the
inauguration (noon on January 20), the Vice President-elect becomes Acting President until
the House should select a President. If the winner of the vice presidential election is also
not known by then, then the sitting Speaker of the House become Acting President until
either the House should select a President or the Senate should select a Vice President.
Electoral Collage
Electoral College map showing the results of the 2008 US presidential election.
Elections 2016
• https://ballotpedia.org
• Over 15.000 candidates for over 5.000 offices
Electoral Collage - Controversy
• The elections of 1876, 1888 and 2000 produced an Electoral
College winner who did not receive the plurality of the
nationwide popular vote
• in 2000 – Bush: 271 electoral votes, Gore: 266 EV. Popular election – Bush:
50,456,002 (47.87%), Gore: 50,999,897 (48.38%)
• weight of individual votes not equal
• promotes interests of smaller states (yet highlights the federal
character of the nation)
• Presidential campaigns may focus on large swing states (it's
enough to win 11 big states to win the election)
• Electoral Collage system promotes big turnouts in swing states
and discourages turnouts in non-swing states
POTUS
Powers of the President of the USA
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Head of State
Head of Government
Top executive officer
Commander-in-chief
Grants pardons
Sings legislation
Vetoes legislation
Directs foreign policy
Appoints many federal officers (ambassadors, member of Cabinet)
Nominates Supreme Court judges, federal judges
History of POTUS as an anecdote?
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The First President
The Second President
The first president to die in office
The first assassinated president
In fact, all who were assassinated
The first impeached president
The first unmarried president
The first Catholic president
The first president to resign
The first non-white president
A selection of defining moments
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George Washington
Thomas Jefferson vs Aaron Burr
James Monroe
Andrew Jackson
Abraham Lincoln
Andrew Johnson
Theodore Roosevelt
Woodrow Wilson
Franklin Delano Roosevelt
John Fitzgerald Kennedy
Richard Nixon
Ronald Reagan
George W. Bush Jr
Barack Obama
Tasks
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Find and be able to discuss an important historical speech which
helped define the positon of the President of the United States in
contemporary American society and political system.
Be sure to be able to analyse the rhetorical devices which made the
speech so effective. Study what other people had to say about the
speech you chose.
For the next meeting
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Study the structure, history, powers and authorities of US Congress
I need the name of the sutdent to prepare a presentation about one
selected controversy i nthe long Congressional history