The United States is a federal republic where the President, Congress and federal courts share the powers provided to the national government, according to the Constitution. The federal government shares its sovereignty with the state government.
The executive branch is headed by the President and officially independent of either the legislature or the judiciary. The Cabinet serves as a set of advisors to the President. They include the Vice President and the head of the executive department. The legislative powers are held in two chambers of Congress, the Senate, and the House of Representatives. The judicial (or judicial) branch, which consists of the Supreme Court and lower federal courts, exercises judicial powers. The function of the judiciary is to interpret the Constitution of the United States and federal laws and regulations. This includes resolving disputes between the executive and legislative branches. The structure of the federal government is codified in the Constitution.
Two political parties, Democrats and Republicans have dominated American politics since the American Civil War, although smaller parties exist such as the Libertarian Party, the Green Party and the Constitution Party. Generally, the Democratic Party is commonly known as the left-wing party in the United States, whereas the Republican Party is commonly known as the right-wing party of the United States.
There are some major differences between the political system of the United States and most other developed democracies. These include greater power in the upper house of the legislature, the wider scope of power held by the Supreme Court, the separation of powers between the legislature and the executive and the dominance of only two major parties. Third parties have less political influence in the United States than in other democratically managed countries; this is due to a combination of strict historical control. These controls take the forms in state and federal laws, unofficial media bans and win-take-all elections and include polling access and exclusive debate rules. There are five United States presidential elections in which the winner loses popular vote.
Video Politics of the United States
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The scholars of Alexis de Tocqueville to date have found a strong continuity in American core political values ​​since the time of the American Revolution at the end of the eighteenth century.
Colonial origin
Some British colonies in North America became extraordinary in the European world because of their vibrant political culture, attracting the most talented and ambitious young men into politics. The reasons for this American exceptionalism include:
- The right to vote is the most widespread in the world, with everyone who has a number of properties allowed to vote. While fewer than 20% of British men can vote, the majority of white American males are eligible. Although the roots of democracy are apparent, it is usually shown to the social elite in the colonial elections. The honor declined sharply with the American Revolution.
- In each colony, elected bodies, especially the assemblies and local governments, decide on a wide range of public and private businesses. Topics of public attention and debate include land grants, commercial subsidies, and taxation, as well as road control, poor aid, taverns, and schools. Americans spend a lot of time in court, because personal lawsuits are very common. Legal matters are supervised by judges and local jurors, with a central role for trained lawyers. This prompted the rapid expansion of the legal profession, and the dominant role of lawyers in politics was evident in the 1770s, as evidenced by the careers of John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, among many others.
- The North American colony is remarkable in the context of the world because of the growing representation of different interest groups. Unlike in Europe, where royal palaces, aristocratic families and established churches hold control, American political culture is open to merchants, landlords, small farmers, craftsmen, Anglican, Presbyterian, Quaker, German, Scotch Irish, Yankees, Yorkers, and many others. identifiable groups. More than 90% of the elected representatives to the legislature live in their district, unlike in England where it is common to have absent members of parliament.
- Americans become fascinated by and increasingly adopt the political values ​​of republicanism, which emphasize equality of rights, the needs of virtuous citizens, and the crime of corruption, luxury, and aristocracy.
None of the colonies had such a political party formed in the 1790s, but each had a shifting faction that competed for power.
American Ideology
Republicanism, along with the classical form of liberalism, remains a dominant ideology. The central documents included the Declaration of Independence (1776), Constitutions (1787), The Federalist Papers (1788), Bill of Rights (1791), and Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address (1863), among others. Political scientist Louis Hartz articulated this theme in American political culture at The Liberal Tradition in America (1955). Hartz saw the South before the war as breaking away from this central ideology in the 1820s as he developed fantasy to support hierarchical and feudal society. Others, such as libertarian David Gordon, the Alabama-based Mises Institute argue that the separatists who formed the Confederacy in 1861 retained the values ​​of classical liberalism. Among the core principles of this ideology are as follows:
- The obligations of citizens: Citizens have a responsibility to understand and support the government, participate in elections, pay taxes, and perform military service.
- Opposition to Political corruption
- Democracy: Governments are accountable to citizens, who can change representation through elections.
- Equality before the law: The law must not grant special privileges to any citizen. Government officials are subject to the same laws as others
- Freedom of religion: The government can not support or suppress religion
- Freedom of speech: Governments can not limit by private law or action of a citizen's speech; an idea market
In response to Hartz and others, political scientist Rogers M. Smith argued in the Civic Ideals (1999) that in addition to liberalism and republicanism, the political culture of the United States has historically served to exclude the various populations of citizenship full access. Pursuing this ideological tradition of "ascriptive inegalitarianism," Smith tracks his relevance in nativist, sexist, and racist beliefs and practices in addition to the struggle over the law of citizenship from the early colonial period to the Progressive Era, and further political debate in the next century.
At the time of the founding of the United States, agriculture and small private businesses dominated the economy, and state governments left welfare issues for private or local initiatives. Laissez-faire ideology was largely abandoned in the 1930s during the Great Depression. Between the 1930s and the 1970s, fiscal policy was characterized by a Keynesian consensus, a period in which modern American liberalism dominates almost unparalleled economic policy. Since the late 1970s and early 1980s, however, the laissez-faire ideology, as explained above mainly by Milton Friedman, once again becomes a powerful force in American politics. While the welfare state of America grew more than threefold after World War II, it has reached 20% of GDP since the late 1970s. In 2014 modern American liberalism, and modern American conservatism engage in continuous political battles, characterized by what the Economist describes as "greater and closer divisions, but fiercely fought election."
The use of "left-right" politics
The modern American political spectrum and the use of the terms "left-right politics", "liberalism", and "conservatism" in the United States are different from those in other parts of the world. According to the American historian Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. (writing in 1956), "Liberalism in American usage has little in common with the word used in the politics of any European country, except England". Schlesinger notes that American liberalism does not support the classical liberalism's commitment to a limited government and laissez-faire economy. Since both positions are generally supported by American conservatives, historian Leo P. Ribuffo noted in 2011, "what Americans now call conservatism in most of the world calls liberalism or neoliberalism."
In American politics, the Democratic Party is commonly known as an established center-left national party, while the smaller Green Party is notorious for being closer to the modern American "anti-capitalist" left wing. The Republican Party is commonly known as the dominant right-wing national party, and the alternative Libertarian Party attracts some independent voters who tend to lean more to the left on social issues and are fiscally conservative in economic policy.
Select privileges
The right to vote is almost universal for citizens of eighteen years and older. All states and the District of Columbia contribute to the election for the President. However, the District, and other US holdings such as Puerto Rico and Guam, have no federal representation in Congress. This constituency has no right to elect political figures outside their respective territories. Each commonwealth, territory, or district may only elect a non-voting delegation to serve in the House of Representatives.
Women's suffrage became an important issue after the American Civil War of 1861-65. After the Fifteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution was ratified in 1870, granting African Americans the right to vote, various groups of women wanted the right to vote as well. Two major interest groups are formed. The first group is the National Woman Suffrage Association, formed by Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, who want to work for federal voting rights and to encourage more governmental change, such as granting property rights to married women. The second group, the American Women's Rights Select Association set up by Lucy Stone, aims to give women the right to vote. In 1890, the two groups merged to form the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA). NAWSA was then mobilized to gain state-by-state support, and in 1920, the Nineteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution was ratified, giving women the right to vote.
Student activism against the Vietnam War in the 1960s prompted the passage of the Twenty-Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which reduced the voting age from twenty-one to eighteen, the legal age of the draft.
Maps Politics of the United States
State government
Member States have the power to enact laws that are not granted to the federal government or denied to states in the US Constitution for all citizens. This includes education, family law, contract law, and most crimes. Unlike the federal government, which has only the powers granted to it in the Constitution, the state government has an inherent force that allows it to act unless it is limited by state or national constitution.
Like the federal government, the state government has three branches: executive, legislative, and judicial. The chief executive of a country is a popularly elected governor, who usually holds office for a four-year term (although in some countries the term is two years). Except for Nebraska, which has unicameral legislatures, all nations have bicameral legislatures, with the upper house commonly called the Senate and the lower chamber called the House of Representatives, the Assembly of Delegates, the Assembly or the like. In most states, senators serve a four-year sentence, and lower house members serve a two-year term.
The constitutions of various states differ in some details but generally follow a pattern similar to the federal Constitution, including statements about people's rights and plans for governing the government. However, the state constitution is generally more detailed.
Local government
The United States has 89,500 local governments, including 3,033 districts, 19,492 municipalities, 16,500 municipalities, 13,000 school districts, and 37,000 other special districts dealing with issues such as fire protection. Local governments directly serve the needs of the people, providing everything from the police and the protection of hygiene rules, health regulations, education, public transport, and housing. Usually local elections are nonpartisan - local activists suspend their party affiliations when campaigning and organizing.
About 28% of the population lives in cities with 100,000 or more inhabitants. The city government is leased by the state, and their charter details the purpose and power of the city government. The Constitution of the United States only provides states and territories as subdivisions of the state, and the Supreme Court has affirmed the supremacy of state sovereignty over the city. For most major cities, cooperation with state and federal organizations is critical to meeting the needs of their inhabitants. This type of city government varies across the nation. However, almost all have central boards, elected by voters, and an executive officer, assisted by various department heads, to manage municipal affairs. Cities in the West and South typically have nonpartisan local politics.
There are three general types of municipal government: the mayor's council, the commission, and the council-manager. It is a pure form; many cities have developed a combination of two or three of them.
The councils
It is the oldest form of city government in the United States and, until the beginning of the 20th century, is used by almost all American cities. The structure is similar to the state and national government, with a mayor elected as the head of the executive branch and the elected council representing the various environments that make up the legislative branch. The mayor appoints the head of the city department and other officials, sometimes with the approval of the council. He has veto power over ordinances (city law) and is often responsible for preparing the city budget. The council passes city regulations, establishes property tax rates, and splits money among various city departments. As the city grows, council seats usually come to represent more than one neighborhood.
Commission
It combines legislative and executive functions within a group of officials, usually three or more in number, elected throughout the city. Each commissioner oversees the work of one or more municipal departments. The Commissioner also establishes the policies and rules under which the city is operated. One of them was named chairman of the body and was often called the mayor, although his powers were on par with other commissioners.
Board manager
City managers are a response to the increasing complexity of urban issues that require management capabilities not often owned by elected public officials. The answer is to entrust most of the executive power, including law enforcement and service delivery, to a highly trained and experienced professional city manager.
City management plans have been adopted by a large number of cities. Under this plan, the elected small council makes city planning and policy, but hires paid administrators, also called city managers, to implement their decisions. Managers are attracting the city budget and overseeing most departments. Normally, no term is defined; managers serve as long as the board is satisfied with its work.
Local government
This area is a division of the country, sometimes (but not always) containing two or more towns and some villages. New York City is so large that it is divided into five separate districts, each region in its own territory. On the other hand, Arlington County, Virginia, the smallest area of ​​the United States, located just across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C., is an urban and suburban area, controlled by the territorial administration of unity. In other cities, municipalities and districts have joined, creating a consolidated city-district government.
In most parts of the US, one city or city is designated a district seat, and this is where government offices are located and where the board of commissioners or supervisors meet. In small countries, councils are elected by regions; in larger, supervisors represent separate districts or cities. The Council collects taxes for state and local governments; borrowing and taking money; improve the salaries of regional employees; overseeing elections; build and maintain roads and bridges; and managing national, state and local welfare programs. In very small countries, executive and legislative power may lie entirely with the sole commissioner, who is assisted by the council to oversee taxes and elections. In some New England states, districts have no governmental function and are only a subdivision of land.
Government municipality
Thousands of city jurisdictions are too small to qualify as a city government. These are rented as towns and villages and deal with local needs such as opening and illuminating roads, ensuring water supplies, providing police and fire protection, and waste management. In many U.S. states, the term city
Governments are usually entrusted to an elected council or council, which may be known by various names: city or village council, board of directors, supervisory board, board of commissioners. The Council may have a chairman or president who serves as chief executive officer, or there may be an elected mayor. Government employees may include clerks, treasurers, police and fire officials, as well as health and welfare officers.
One of the unique aspects of local government, which is mostly found in the New England region of the United States, is city meetings. Once a year, sometimes more often when needed, city-registered voters meet in open sessions to elect officers, debate local issues, and pass legislation to operate the government. As a body, they decide the construction of roads and repairs, construction of buildings and public facilities, tax rates, and the city budget. The city meeting, which has existed for more than three centuries in several places, is often referred to as the purest form of direct democracy, where governmental power is not delegated, but is carried out directly and regularly by everyone.
Campaign funds
Successful participation, especially in federal elections, requires large sums of money, especially for television advertising. This money is very difficult to increase by appealing to the mass base, although in the 2008 election, candidates from both sides managed to raise money from citizens via the Internet, such as Howard Dean with his Internet call. Both sides generally rely on donors and wealthy organizations - traditionally Democrats rely on donations from organized labor while Republicans rely on business donations. Donor dependence is controversial, and has resulted in legislation limiting spending on political campaigns enacted (see campaign finance reform). Opponents of the campaign finance law cited the First Amendment guarantees of free speech, and challenged campaign finance laws as they sought to avoid constitutionally guaranteed rights. Even when the law is enforced, compliance complications with the First Amendment require the preparation of careful and cautious laws, leading to laws that are still quite limited in scope, especially compared to other countries such as Britain, France, or Canada..
Fundraising plays a major role in getting elected candidates to public office. Without money, a candidate may have few opportunities to achieve their goals. In the 2004 election, 95% of House races and 91% of the senate were won by the candidates who spend the most on their campaigns. The attempt to limit the influence of money on American political campaigns dates back to the 1860s. Recently, Congress passed a law requiring candidates to disclose the source of campaign contributions, how campaign funds were spent, and to regulate the use of "soft money" contributions.
Political parties and elections
The United States Constitution does not mention political parties, especially since the Founding Fathers have no intention of American politics to be partisan. In Federalist Papers No. 9 and No. 10, Alexander Hamilton and James Madison, respectively, write specifically about the dangers of domestic political factions. In addition, the first President of the United States, George Washington, was not a member of a political party at the time of his election or during his term of office as president. Washington hopes political parties will not be formed, fear of conflict and stagnation. However, the beginning of the American two-party system emerged from his advisory circle. Hamilton and Madison eventually became the core leaders in this emerging party system.
In modern times, in partisan elections, candidates are nominated by political parties or seek public office as independent. Each country has a significant discretion in deciding how candidates are nominated, and thus eligible to appear on election ballots. Typically, large party candidates are formally elected in the main party or convention, while small and Independent parties are required to complete the petition process.
Political party
The system of modern political parties in the United States is a two-party system dominated by Democrats and Republicans. Both parties have won every US presidential election since 1852 and have controlled the United States Congress since 1856. The Democrats generally position themselves as middle-left in American politics and support the modern American liberal platform, while Republicans generally position themselves as a right -of-center and supporting modern American conservative platform.
Third parties have reached relatively small representatives from time to time at the local level. The Libertarian Party is the largest third party in the country, claiming more than 250,000 registered voters by 2013; usually positioning itself as centric or centric radical and supporting the classical liberal position. Other contemporary thirds include the left-wing Green Party, supporting Green politics, and the right-wing Constitution Party, supporting paleoconservatism.
Selection
Unlike in some parliamentary systems, Americans choose a particular candidate rather than electing a particular political party directly. With the federal government, officials are elected at the federal (national), state and local levels. At the national level, the President, elected indirectly by the people, through Electoral College. In modern times, voters almost always vote in their popular voice. All members of Congress, and offices at state and local level are elected directly.
Various federal and state laws govern the election. The United States Constitution defines (to the extent) how federal elections are held, in Articles One and 2 and various amendments. State legislation governs most aspects of electoral law, including preliminary election, eligibility of voters (outside of basic constitutional definitions), administering state election agencies, and administering state and local elections.
Organization of American political parties
American political parties are more loosely organized than in other countries. Two major parties, in particular, have no formal organization at the national level that controls membership, activities, or policy positions, although some state affiliates do so. So, for an American to say that he is a member of the Democratic or Republican party, it is very different from a Briton who claims he is a member of the Conservative Party or the Labor Party. In the United States, a person can often be a "member" of a party, simply by stating that fact. In some US states, voters may register as members of one or the other and/or vote in the primary election for one or the other. Such participation does not limit the choice of a person in any way. It also does not grant anyone a particular right or obligation within the party, other than allowing that person to vote in the party's primary elections. One may choose to attend a one-day local party committee meeting and another party committee the following day. The only factor that brings a person "closer to action" is the quantity and quality of participation in the party's activities and the ability to persuade others present to give a responsibility.
Party identification becomes somewhat formal when one walks to a partisan office. In most states, this means declaring itself a candidate for nominating a particular party and intending to enter the party's primary election for an office. A party committee may choose to support one or another of those seeking nominations, but ultimately the choice is up to those who choose to vote in the primary, and it is often difficult to say who will vote.
The result is that American political parties have weak central organizations and little central ideology, except by consensus. A party can not really prevent a person who does not agree with the majority of party positions or actively work against the party's objective of claiming party membership, as long as the electorate chooses to vote in the main election elects the person. Once in office, an elected official may change the party only by stating the intention. An elected official who once served may also act in opposition to many of his party positions (this has led to terms such as "Republican In Name Only").
At the federal level, each of the two major parties has a national committee (See, National Democratic Committee, Republican National Committee) which acts as the center for many fundraising and campaign activities, especially in the presidential campaign. The exact composition of these committees is different for each party, but they are made up primarily by representatives of the state parties and affiliated organizations, and others that are important to the party. However, the national committee does not have the power to direct the activities of party members.
Both parties also have separate campaign committees working to select candidates at a certain level. The most significant of these is the Hill committee, which works to elect candidates to every house of Congress.
State parties exist in all fifty states, although their structures differ according to state law, as well as party rules at both national and state levels.
Despite these weak organizations, elections are usually still described as national races between political parties. In what is known as "presidential coattails", candidates in the presidential election become the de facto leaders of their respective parties, and thus usually bring in supporters who in turn then elect their party candidates for other offices. On the other hand, the federal part-time election (where only Congress and not the president for election) is usually considered a referendum on the performance of the sitting president, with voters either voting in or out presidential party candidates, who in turn help the next Sessions of Congress to either pass or blocking the president's agenda, respectively.
General development
Most Church Founders reject political parties as divisive and disruptive. In the 1790s, however, most joined one of the two new parties, and by the 1830s the party had been accepted as a center of democracy. In the 1790s, the First Party System was born. People who have opposing views reinforce their purpose by identifying and organizing like-minded people. Followers of Alexander Hamilton, called "Federalists"; they like a strong central government that will support the interests of national defense, commerce, and industry. Followers of Thomas Jefferson, the Jeffersonians take the name of "Republican"; they prefer a decentralized agrarian republic in which the federal government has limited powers.
By 1828, the First Party System had collapsed. Two new parties emerged from the remnants of Jefferson's Democracy, forming a Second Party System with Whig, living in opposition to President Andrew Jackson and his new Democratic Party. The Democratic Strength of Jacksonian, which is based on urban workers, the impoverished Southern white, and western peasants, dominates that era.
In the 1860s, the problem of slavery became the center of attention, with disagreement in particular on the question of whether slavery should be allowed in the new territory of the country in the West. The Whig Party straddles the issue and sank into his death after an extraordinary electoral defeat by Franklin Pierce in the presidential election of 1852. Ex-Whig joins the newly formed Know Nothings or Republican Party. While the No Tofu party is short-lived, Republicans will survive intense politics ahead of the Civil War. The main Republican policy is that slavery is excluded from all regions. Only six years later, the new party won the presidency when Abraham Lincoln won the election in 1860. At that time, the parties were designated as the dominant political organization in the country, and party loyalty has become an important part of most people's consciousness. Party loyalties are inherited from fathers to boys, and party activities, including spectacular campaign events, complete with uniformed marching groups and torch parades, are part of the social life of many communities.
However, in 1920, this boisterous crowd has been reduced. Town reform, civil service reform, corruption practices, and presidential elections to replace the power of politicians at the national convention have all helped clean up politics.
Development of two-party systems in the United States
Since the 1790s, the country has been run by two major parties. Many small or third parties arise from time to time. They tend to serve the means to advocate for policies eventually adopted by two major political parties. On various occasions, the Socialist Party, the Labor-Party and the Populist Party for several years possessed great local powers, and then faded - albeit in Minnesota, the Labor-Farmers Party joined the Democratic Party of the state, now officially known as the Party Labor-Democrat-Farmer. Currently, the Libertarian Party is the most successful third party. The State of New York has a number of additional third parties, who sometimes run their own candidates for positions and sometimes nominate nominations from two major parties. In District of Columbia, Green Party of State D.C. has served as a strong third party behind the Democratic and Republican Party.
Most US officials are elected from single-member districts and win offices by defeating their opponents in the system to determine the winner called first-pass-post ; people who get plurality win, (which is not the same as getting a majority vote). This encourages a two-party system; see Duverger's law. In the absence of multi-seat congressional districts, proportional representation is not possible and third parties can not develop. Although the election for the Senate elected two senators per constituency (state), the term staggered effectively produced a single seat constituency for the Senate election.
Another important factor is the voice access legislation. Initially, voters went to the polls and publicly declared which candidates they supported. This then develops into a process whereby each political party will make its own ballot and thus the voter will place the ballot of the party into the ballot box. At the end of the nineteenth century, countries began to adopt the Australian Secret Ballot Method, and eventually became the national standard. The secret voting method ensures that voters' privacy will be protected (then the government's work can no longer be given to loyal voters) and each state will be responsible for making an official ballot. The fact that state legislatures are dominated by Democrats and Republicans gives these parties the opportunity to pass discriminatory laws against small political parties, but the law does not begin to emerge until the first Red Shot that hit America after the War World I. State legislatures are beginning to enact difficult laws that make it harder for small political parties to run candidates for offices by requiring high signatures of citizens' petitions and reducing the length of time that such petitions can be legally circulated.
It should also be noted that while more often than not, party members will "follow the line" and support their party's policy, they are free to vote against their own party and vote with the opposition ("crossing the hall") when they please.
"In the United States the same political label (Democrats and Republicans) covers almost all holders of public office, and therefore most voters everywhere are mobilized on behalf of both parties," said Nelson W. Polsby, professor of political science, in the book. > New Federalist Papers: Essays in Defense of the Constitution . "But Democrats and Republicans are not ubiquitous.Various (sometimes subtle, sometimes overtly) variations in the country's 50 political cultures produce a big difference overall in what it means to be, or to vote, Democrats or Republicans. - this distinction shows that one can be justified in referring to the two-party American system as masking something more like a hundred-party system. "
Gerrymandering
The United States has a long gerrymandering tradition. In some states, bipartisan conspiracy is the norm. State lawmakers from both sides sometimes agree to draw the boundaries of the congressional district in a manner that ensures the re-election of most or all of the deputies in office from both sides. Rather than allowing more political influence, some countries have changed the redistricting authority of politicians and gave it to non-partisan redistricting commissions. The states of Washington, Arizona, and California's Proposition 11 (2008) and Proposition 20 (2010) have established standing committees for redistricting after the 2010 census. Rhode Island and New Jersey have developed an ad hoc committee, but developed two parts reorientation two decades ago associated with new census data. The Florida and 5th Amendments, meanwhile, establish rules for the establishment of districts but do not mandate independent commissions.
International election observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation at the European Office for Democratic Institutions and Rights, invited to observe and report the 2004 elections, expressed condemnation of the US congressional redistrict process and made recommendations that the procedure be reviewed to ensure genuine competitiveness of the Congressional election contest.
Groups of political pressure
Special interest groups support the cause of their particular constituency. Business organizations will support low corporate taxes and restrictions on the right to strike, while trade unions will support minimum wage laws and protection for collective bargaining. Other personal interest groups, such as churches and ethnic groups, are more concerned about broader policy issues that may affect their organizations or beliefs.
One type of private interest group that has grown in number and influence in recent years is the political action committee or PAC. It is an independent group, organized around a problem or a series of problems, contributing money to political campaigns for the US Congress or the presidency. PAC is limited in the amount they can contribute directly to candidates in federal elections. There is no limit, however, on the number of PACs able to spend independently to advocate a point of view or to urge the election of candidates to the office.
"The number of interest groups has mushroomed, with more and more of them operating offices in Washington, DC, and representing themselves directly to Congress and federal agencies," said Michael Schudson in his 1998 book The Good Citizen: A History of American Civil Life . "Many organizations that oversee Washington seek financial and moral support from ordinary citizens, because many of them focus on narrow issues or even on a single issue, and often an enormous emotional weight issue, they compete with parties for money, time, and spirit of citizens. "
The amount of money spent by this particular interest continues to grow, as campaigns become more expensive. Many Americans feel that this rich interest, whether corporate, union or PAC, is so strong that ordinary citizens can do much to resist their influence.
Worries about the dwindling oligarchy and democracy
Some views suggest that the political structure of the United States is in many ways an oligarchy, in which the small economic elite strongly determines policy and law. Some academic researchers argue that a shift toward oligarchy has occurred through the influence of corporations, wealthy groups, and other special interest groups, making individual individuals with less impact from the economic elite and interest groups organized in the political process.
A study by political scientist Martin Gilens (Princeton University) and Benjamin Page (Northwestern University) released in April 2014 shows that when a majority of citizens prefer conflict with elites, elites tend to win. Although it does not characterize the United States as a direct "oligarchy" or "plutocracy", Gilens and Page weight the idea of ​​the "civil oligarchy" as used by Jeffrey A. Winters, saying, "Winters has put forward the comparison theory of 'Oligarchy,' in which the richest citizens - even in 'civil oligarchs' such as the United States - dominate policies on important issues concerning the protection of wealth and income.
In his research, Gilens and Page reached this conclusion:
When the majority of citizens disagree with the economic elite and/or with organized interests, they generally lose. Moreover, because of the strong bias of the status quo built into the US political system, even when the vast majority of Americans support policy change, they generally do not get it.... [T] his average American preference seems to be only a very small impact, close to zero, statistically insignificant to public policy.
E.J. Dionne Jr. describes what he considers the effects of ideological and oligarchic interests in the judiciary. Journalists, columnists and scholars interpret the recent Supreme Court ruling as those who allow wealthy elites to use economic power to influence political outcomes that benefit them. "So," Dionne writes, in talking about McCutcheon et al. v. FEC and Citizens United v. The FEC's decision, "having this court conferred on the rich the right to give large sums of money to politicians while underestimating the right of millions of citizens to vote."
Nobel Prize winning economist Paul Krugman writes:
The real fact is that we have a society where money is increasingly concentrated in the hands of some people. It threatens to make us democracy in name only.
The oligarchic effect on democracy and the economy are the key points of the 2016 presidential campaign of Bernie Sanders and Green Party candidate Jill Stein. Bernie Sanders said about the decision of Citizens United and the rise of the Republican Party to power in Congress,
I am afraid we will be on the verge of becoming an oligarchic society in which a handful of billionaires control not only the economy but the political life of this country. And that is just something we will strive for.
See also
- Criticism of US foreign policy
- Internal conditions in the United States
- Fifth Party System
- Voice publish
- Loop of money
- Political arguments of political arms in the United States
- United States political culture
- United States political split
- Political ideology in the United States
- American Left
- Progresvism in the United States
- Modern Liberalism in the United States
- Alt-right
- Conservativism in the United States
- List of political parties in the United States
- The Constitution Party
- The Democratic Party
- Green Party
- Libertarian Party
- Modern Whig Party
- Reformed Party
- Republicans
- The Socialist Party of USA
- South America's Southern Politics
- Topics of reform
- Campaign financial reform in the United States
- Electoral reform in the United States
- Health care reform in the United States
- Reform of cannabis law in the United States
- Tort reform in the United States
- Sixth Party System
- Tea Party Movement
References
Further reading
External links
- US Politics in Curlie (based on DMOZ)
- The party's official website
- The Official Democratic Party Website
- Official Republican Website
- Official Green Party Website
- Official Libertarian Party Website
- Official Constitutional Party Website
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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