The US Government Set up - please explain

[Skyedriver]

Can anyone please give me a very simple explanation of how the US government is set up. The House, the Senate, The Parties etc? How the elections work, Candidates and presidential elections. It all seems very complicated.
Can it be aligned with our own Houses of Parliament Labour/Conservative/LibDems etc

If I can get my head around this one my next task is Italy....

[GCH]

Skyedriver said:

Can anyone please give me a very simple explanation of how the US government is set up. The House, the Senate, The Parties etc? How the elections work, Candidates and presidential elections. It all seems very complicated.
Can it be aligned with our own Houses of Parliament Labour/Conservative/LibDems etc

If I can get my head around this one my next task is Italy....

Difficult to fit an entire explanation of the system of government and constitutional law here into one post here , but to summarise:

Congress is split into two houses - the upper and lower. These are both in the same building - the US Capitol - which you may have seen on the news last week..

House of representatives. The lower house.
Think of this like your local MP and the house of commons.
435 members, each one representing a district - number from each state depends on population, so somewhere like Delaware or Alaska has one house representative, but California has 53.
A term in the house is two years (hence you hear the term 'midterm elections' with an election mid way through a presidential term)
Every four years, after a Presidential election, the house votes for their leader - 'The Speaker of the House' who gets a fancy chair and a gavel.
A bill is introduced by a member, debated & bickered about in committee, debated & bickered about on the floor of the house, and gets voted on.
If passed by a majority, it proceeds to the upper house.


The upper house is the Senate. I guess this could broadly be compared to the house of Lords, only more corrupt.
100 members - two senators per state. From the majority party in the Senate, one Senator is chosen Senate Majority Leader and they also have a fancy chair & gavel.
A senators terms is 6 years (not all elected at once, again, 'midterms').

Bills passed and sent from the (lower) house to the Senate are debated in committee, debated on the floor, amendments introduced, and voted on.
If a Senate vote is split 50/50, deciding vote goes to the Vice President. The Senate also has to debate and vote to approval all of the Presidents cabinet picks.
Once passed in the senate, it goes to the president to sign, and once signed it becomes law. If the president refuses to sign, a 2/3 majority vote in both houses would pass the bill into law.
Also, the President can issue and sign what is called an Executive Order, or Presidential Proclamation, which isn't a law, but has the force of and acts like one, completely bypassing the house and senate. For example, the currently in effect travel ban to the US for people who have been in the UK in the preceding 14 days was a Presidential Proclamation.


Presidential & Vice Presidential elections are every four years on a specific day in November - this is set in the constitution, much like the inauguration date and various other dates are set in stone.
The presidential election is entirely different to the UK where the leader of the majority party is the Prime Minister - you could end up with, say, a democrat majority house and senate but with a Republican president - and it is an entirely separate vote from anyone else who happens to also be up for election at that election, such as a house member, senator, or judge. You can vote for your pick for president, while choosing to leave blank the rest of the votes on the ballot.
If the president resigns/is shot/whatever, there is a specified line of succession (again, clearly defined in the constitution) - there won't be a snap election called during a presidential term. If the president is no longer president, the VP is immediately sworn in as President, and their new pick for their VP has to be voted and approved by the Senate.
Should something happen to both the President and Vice president at once or in quick succession without a new Vice President, the Speaker of the House becomes president.


I had to study all this stuff for my Citizenship test

Edited by GCH on Thursday 14th January 20:44

[Skyedriver]

hat's most helpful, thanks.
I'll read through that slowly and absorb.

Is there only two parties, has that always been so and is it unlikely to change or there be "independent" members.

I presume one is more capitalist and one more socialist as per the UK or is that not the case. Is it more east v west or north v south?

[Skyedriver]

Thank you GCH & Cheesecake Runner

Had time this morning to sit down and read that properly.

Couldn't quite understand the voting system but now see you can vote for say a Republican President but Democrat Congress person.

Now understand the mid term election thing as well, that always puzzled me. A two year stint isn't long but I guess most will retai their seats.

Must be rather difficult for a President to get things through or to sign off motions if the Congress or Seanate are from the opposition/

Does the President actually sit in either house (like our Prime Minister) or in the White House getting updates on proceedings?

I appreciate the size of the country and it's population but why does it take quite as long to confirm the vote and why then take so long to arrange the change over of Prresident etc. Is that just down to historically agreed dates. It would seem possible for an outgoing President to make a lot of snap decisions before being replaced rather than "collect your belongings you're being escorted out in half an hour"

Thanks again.

[ATG]

No, the President doesn't sit in either house. He's independent of both, and similarly his "cabinet" are also not picked from members of those houses.

Typically the US system produces greater continuity of policy and slower political change than the UK system which is much more winner-takes-all after single, big Parliamentary elections.

[Dr Jekyll]

CheesecakeRunner said:

This is correct, the Republican Party is right wing capitalist, and the Democratic Party, more left wing. However, both parties sit to the right of centre from a UK perspective. The Democrats are probably on par with the centrist member of the Conservative Party.

If you want something really interesting, around 100 years ago, the American party beliefs were the opposite of what they are now. Both parties have switched their positions.

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/opinion/article/H...

There is an argument to be made that opposing slavery, then opposing racial segregation, then opposing race based affirmative action, is a perfectly consistent set of beliefs.

[Skyedriver]

Thank you both.

[Matt Harper]

GCH said:

I had to study all this stuff for my Citizenship test

Edited by GCH on Thursday 14th January 20:44

.... and 99.9% of Americans by birth are incapable of giving an explanation that would be 5% as informed as this.

During the in-person part of my citizenship test, I had to demonstrate to the examining official that I had a basic command of the English language. Her Chinese accent and inability to string a coherent sentence together in English made it very difficult for me to understand what she was asking of me.

[anonymous-user]

Matt Harper said:

.... and 99.9% of Americans by birth are incapable of giving an explanation that would be 5% as informed as this.

So roughly the same as 99.9% of British who have no idea how their parliament/government works. And that's before you even get to the absurdity of UK devolution in its multiple flavours.