英美文化08 American Government

American Government

I. Federalism

1.

2. great faith in constitution and laws. And this can be seen as an American feature, a respect for law and contract. The newly established America has the oldest written constitution in the

world.) Originally the women were not given the power to vote (this would be changed in 1922), and there were limits of property and religion, and the Indians and the black had no right to vote (lawfully changed in 1965).

3.

4. Two parties, the Democrats and Republicans dominate the politics of the whole country.

5. body), and no federal taxes can be collected or money spent without the approval of both Houses .

6. Elections for both Houses are held in November each even-numbered year. The House of for the remainder of his term. (众议员每两年全部改选，即任期两年，参议员每隔两年改选三分之一，六年全部改选完，即任期为六年。)

7. each

state . (The two senators are elected at separate elections.)

8. The House of Representatives has a fix number of seats (435), and they are elected according to

the population of each state.

9. The President signs laws. If he refuses, his “ can be overridden推翻 by a two-thirds

majority in both Houses. All treaties, and all the President’s appointments to high offices are subject to the Senate’s approval.

10. The fixed term of office of President and congress have prevented the instability of many

European countries when the executive resigns for a failure in the parliamentary assembly. And it also prevented the concentration of power (as in a parliamentary system based on strongly disciplined parties such as that of Britain). But it creates difficulty in continuing a coherent

policy.

# American for persons to hold offices; secondly —

II. The Federal Government

1. 牵制) by one another.

2. The United State Congress does not have a general legislative power, but only power to make

laws on some particular subjects. The first article in the Constitution limits the power of

Constitution within 18 specific ones.

3. third House of the legislature.) The Supreme Court is composed of 9 Justices. 法官They are with the consent of the Senate (not automatically,

4. In November each four years, a President is elected to serve for four years from the following

January. If the President dies, the Vice-President becomes President for the unexpired part of the four years.

5. Until 1951, there was no limit to the terms of being elected President. (Up to 1940, 8 presidents

had served for two terms but none for a third. In 1940, Franklin Roosevelt was elected for a third term and in 1944 for a fourth which was cut short by his death.) In 1951 a constitutional amendment set a limit of two terms (8 years).

6. 弹劾(to remove a President), up to 1974,

no President (Nixon) had resigned, and the only attempt at impeachment failed. A constitutional amendment of 1967 requires that if a Vice-President dies or resigned the Senate elects a new one.

7. The Vice-President has no defined function except to preside over the Senate. (Nixon was an

exception, for Eisenhower in 1952-60 greatly emphasized Nixon’s ability and gave him real work to do.) The Vice-President sees the experience very helpful for his being elected as the next President.

III. The State Government

1.

2. “parishes ”.)which have their

own powers. Within the counties the towns have their local governments as cities. Cities Municipalities and counties have their own sources of revenue, mainly in the form of a tax on property .

3. even a third term is possible. (Some cities have in recent years appointed city managers on a non-political basis.)

4. Economical democracy: If an authority wants to borrow money for some capital project—even

a new school—it may have to ask the voters to approve a scheme to borrow money through the issue of bonds, 债券的发行 on which interest will to be paid of future taxes.

IV. Legal System

1. The legal system is complicated because there are two separate sets of courts—state and federal.

2. Each state has its own laws, courts, police and prisons.

3. American courts follow an English tradition of Common Law. When there is no statute law to

define the rights of a case, the judge decides according to precedents, i.e., by previous decision of courts in analogous cases.

4. from [美]巡回上诉法庭 the last resort is the Supreme Court. The principle of separation of powers demands that there should be no executive power to remove a judge.

5. agency under the President, who appoints its chief. There is also a separate federal prison system, and a criminal who has been sentenced for a federal crime goes to a

federal prison.

6. Each state had a system of courts, and the judges were not to be subject to the executive or the 治安法官or 地方法官. Above these are the state courts for 美国州的地方法院 高等法院At the

highest levelwhich hear appeals from the lower courts. In level. (At all levels some judges are appointed, and some are publicly elected. States differ from (审判长, 首席法官)is elected and he appoints the other judges, possibly with the advice of a judicial council.)

V. Complementary material:

1. When President Nixon faced an impeachment or resignation, the Vice-President Agnew was

involved in another scandal. Agnew resigned and Nixon proposed Gerald Ford as the new

Vice-President and Senate agreed. Then Nixon resigned and Ford automatically became

President, and the Senate appointed Nelson Rockefeller as Vice-President on Ford’s nomination without a contest.

Bibliography

朱永涛. 英美文化基础教程. 北京：外语教学与研究出版社，1991.

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