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GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS - CONSTITUTIONAL FRAMEWORK OF THE US GOVERNMENT…

- - - - Representative and accountable government - through the provision of fixed-term elections held every 4 years for the president and every 2 years for the House of Representatives (the Senate was not directly elected until 1913)
      - The separation of powers - with the three branches of government (legislative, executive and judicial) separated through the first three articles of the constitution - the powers of each branch were then subject to checks and balances by the other two bodies
      - A federal structure of government - with power divided between the federal government in Washington and the individual states
      - Limited government - with citizens given inalienable and entrenched rights in the Bill of Rights (the first 10 amendments) - added in 1791
      - although there have been some formal amendments since 1791 these principles still form the basis of the operation of US government today - they are therefore crucial to the understanding of the workings of the executive, legislature and judiciary in the USA
  - - - why American political scientist Richard Neustadt described the American system as not a 'separation of powers' (which would mean that nothing could ever work) but as 'separate institutions sharing powers' where power is very difficult to exercise but where the branches have to work together to get things done
    - - this separation of personnel is however not absolute
      - the vice president (part of the executive) is also officially president of the Senate and can cast a tie-breaking vote - Dick Cheney used this power eight times between 2001 and 2009
      - The president can issue presidential pardons to convicted offenders (a judicial function) - e.g. Kim Kardashian meeting with Trump to discuss presidential pardon for Alice Marie Johnson
- - - - formal constitutional amendment is a tortuous process requiring super-majorities of at least two-thirds of the vote in both houses of Congress followed by ratification by three-quarters of the state legislatures (meaning 13 states could block any constitutional changes)
      - process entails a prolonged period of debate and demands a clear consensus in favour of change thus avoiding hasty decisions being made without adequate thought - as a result there have only been 27 amendments to the constitution since it was written - number includes the first 10 amendments, the Bill of Rights, ratified in 1791
      - most proposed amendments fail to attract the required support e.g. a balanced budget amendment - this would never pass in Congress, an equal rights amendment - this railed to get the required states' vote, making abortion, same-sex marriage or flag burning unconstitutional
      - examples of successful constitutional amendments include - the civil rights amendments following the civil war - 13th, 14th and 15th amendments, direct election for the Senate -17th amendment 1913, amendments to extend voting rights - to women 19th amendment 1921, and to age 18 26th amendment 1971, two-term presidency - 22nd amendment 1951
      - Other way of getting formal change to the constitution is through the calling of a constitutional convention by two-thirds of the states - this method has never been used
    - - 'we are under a Constitution, but the Constitution is what judges say it is' - Chief Justice Hughes 1909
      - US constitution is a short document containing some vague language - likely that the Founding Fathers intended it to be open to interpretation in future times and not to be regarded as a tablet of stone forever set in eighteenth century conditions
      - amendments are also written in general rather than specific language e.g. 14th amendments 'equal protection of the laws' and 18th Amendment's banning of cruel and unusual punishment
      - interpretation of the meaning of the words of the constitution and its amendments is the function of the Supreme Court, through the cases brought before it - the words themselves do not change (they are simply 'words' on paper) but their meaning is subject to revision and updating through judicial interpretation - such revisions are referred to as informal 'interpretative amendments' rather than formal changes through amendment
      - same phrases in the constitution may be interpreted differently at different times and in different circumstances e.d the phrase 'equal protection of the laws' in the 14th amendment was interpreted one way in the Plessy V Ferguson case of 1896 but very differently in the Brown V Board of Education of Topeka case in 1945 - the growth of presidential powers from the 1930s and the shift of authority from state to federal government are similarly the result of Supreme Court interpretation of the constitution
      - constitution is therefore more flexible and less rigid than is commonly thought - US government has been able to evolve and adapt in response to new challenges and demands that have arisen through changing conditions and circumstances e.g. civil war, great depression, foreign wars including the 'war on terror', Watergate and presidential impeachment
    - - all constitutions are a blend of both written and unwritten rules - the US convention refers to broad principles only and lays down a loose framework of government - as a result many of the ways in which government in the USA today actually works in practise are not in the constitution and have no constitutional status
      - e.g. the existence and workings of the cabinet, the Executive Office of the President (EXOP) and the federal bureaucracy and the huge power of the congressional committees and the Supreme Court's power of judicial review neither of which is constitutionally derived
      - when the US constitution was written in 1787 it was for a country with 3 million inhabitants in 13 states, facing relatively simple issues that needed to be resolved - that same document, plus amendments, which is now providing the framework of government for a world superpower, a country of over 313 million inhabitants in 50 states, facing highly complex economic, social and foreign policy issues imagined in the eighteenth century
      - US constitution has been described as 'brilliantly adaptive' despite its codified nature, as it has changed and evolved to meet these new conditions - can be judged by how well it has stood the test of time
- - - - provides an additional set of checks and balances on the exercise of power, guarding against an over-powerful central government
      - allows for the diversity and traditions of the 50 states to be reflected
      - provides opportunities for citizens to be politically involved at local level
      - states can be training grounds for national leadership - George W Bush was the governor of Texas, Obama was the state senator and then US senator for Illinois, and his rival in 2012, Mitt Romney had been governor of Massachusetts
      - states can show both autonomy and initiative - they can even be laboratories for experimental new policies to see if they work e.g. caps on carbon emissions in New York and California or the innovative use of education vouchers in Wisconsin
    - - too much fragmentation of government can lead to gridlock - states can also be obstructive and refuse to conform, e.g. the refusal of the southern states to de-segregate after the Brown decision in 1945 claiming that states' rights allowed them to refuse
      - the variety of state laws on e.g. abortion, gun ownership and the death penalty causes confusion and a lack of cohesion in the country
      - are significant economic inequalities between rich and poor states, such as Connecticut and Louisiana, and variable provisions for citizens which only the federal government has the resources to equalise
      - there is democratic overload with too many elective offices at state level and therefore too many elections
  - - - the death penalty - still legal in 32 states
      - some aspects of elections e.g. whether to have open or closed primaries
      - local sales tax
      - regulations concerning gambling and the sale of alcohol - though since 1988 the USA has had a national minimum drinking age set at 21 - a good example of inter-relationship between federal and state laws