The system of courts in the United States

In the United States, the judiciary (which is a collective term for courts and judges) is divided into the national (federal) and state judiciary. Each is independent of the other with the exception that the US Supreme Court may, under special circumstances involving federal questions, review a state court decisions.

The State courts are set up in a system that looks like the sys­tem of Federal courts, with the Supreme Court at the top, which meets in the Supreme Court Building in Washington, D. C. It is a beautiful building of white marble. The figures over the entrance represent the national ideas of law and liberty. Above the main entrance appear the words "Equal Justice Under Law".

The Supreme Court is in session from October to June. One of the most important duties of the justices is to decide whether laws passed by the Congress agree with the Constitution. The justices do this by interpreting the laws of Congress and the pro­visions of the Constitution. If the Supreme Court decides that the Constitution does not give Congress the power to pass a certain law, the court declares the law to be unconstitutional. Such a law can no longer be enforced by the President and his executive officers.

Besides the US Supreme Court there are various district courts and courts of appeals. They have somewhat less politicalimportance, since their principal duty is to settle cases where no constitutional question is at stake. These courts handle both civil and criminal cases.

 

Vocabulary

 

to impose taxes – облагать налогами

to coin money – чеканить деньги

tie-vote – равное число голосов

Sergeant-at-Arms – парламентский пристав

mace – жезл

teller – счетчик

odd-numbered – нечетный

to appear on the floor – появляться на заседаниях

lobby – кулуары

backstage – закулисный

satchel – сумка, ранец

the right to petition the Government for a redress of grievances – право обращаться к правительству с петициями о заглаживании обид

to be at stake – находиться в опасности

 

 

UNIT 4

THE USA

THE ADMINISTRATION

The presidency of the United States is the highest governmental office. President of the USA is the head of the State and the Gov­ernment, he is also the Commander-in-Chief of the US Armed Forces. "Administration" is a popular term to identify the execu­tive branch of the federal government, responsible for adminis­tering and executing the laws.

President is assisted by Vice-President and the Cabinet. The President and Vice-president are elected for a term of four years and can be re-elected for another term, "but not longer than that, since the Twenty-Second Amendment to the Constitution (1951) limited the President's term in office.

President must be a natural-born citizen of the USA, at least 35 years old, and for at least 14 years a resident of the USA. The term of office of the President begins at noon on January 20.

Presidential elections are held in two stages. The first stage is in November when Americans vote for electors, and the second stage is on the first Monday after the second Wednesday in De­cember, when electors elect President and Vice-president. After the ballots are opened at a joint session of Congress, the Presi­dent-Elect becomes the US President.

Presidential elections in the USA have a distinct class charac­ter, as only very rich people can put forward their candidatures far President's and Vice-President's posts. Before the elections the candidates for Presidency tour the country meeting people and delivering speeches. Everything is done to ensure the support of the voters at the elections. Candidates promise to improve liv­ing conditions, to stop the growth of unemployment, to support disarmament, etc., but they seldom keep their pre-election prom­ises after they are elected.

President conducts foreign affairs, signs treaties in the name of the USA, appoints diplomats, Cabinet members, federal judges with the consent and advice of the Senate. President ordinarily outlines the course of his administration through his frequent messages to Congress. The major presidential messages sent to Congress are the annual State of the Union message, the annual budget message and the economic report.

Vice-president presides over the Senate, his other duties are indefinite. The White House may use Vice-president as a contact man among the senators, or he may sit at Cabinet meetings and become a sort of understudy to the President. He takes the President's office if the President is unable to finish his term. Vice-president rather tends to be the forgotten man of American politics, because of his lack of power.

US President is assisted in Administration by a Cabinet of 12 members. Cabinet secretaries correspond to European ministers. They are heads of different departments and directly and fully responsible to President who appoints them for an indefinite time. Cabinet officials usually serve during his term. When the Presi­dent's service ends, it is customary for the Cabinet to resign, so the new President can appoint new chiefs of executive depar­tments. Among the most important departments one should men­tion the Department of State responsible for American foreign policy, the Department of Defence or the Pentagon, the Depart­ment of Justice, the Department of Commerce, etc. The State Department ranks ahead of other Departments in prestige and seniority. The political power of the Secretary of State is second only to that of the President. The Secretary of State has the duty of trying to maintain peace and to negotiate economic and politi­cal treaties.

In addition to Secretaries, President has an inner Cabinet, the so-called "White House Office". It is the name given to the Presi­dent's immediate assistants and various advisers on different as­pects of home and foreign policy. The President's Press Secretary is called upon to explain what the President meant to say, or in­tended to say. Frequently the Press Secretary is a close personal friend of the President.

Under US Constitution, the House of Representatives may bring charges against the President in impeachment proceedings. "Impeachment" is a formal accusation against a public official by a legislative body. A two-thirds vote in the Senate is necessary for conviction. It is a method provided for getting rid of officials who cannot be dismissed: presidents, vice-presidents and "all civil officers of the United States. They may be removed from office for treason, bribery or other high crimes".

Inauguration day

Inauguration always takes place at noon on January 20. It is an official act of installing the President of the United States in office. It is also the occasion for extensive ceremonies.

Inauguration is connected with some traditions. Thus, the in­cumbent President is expected to give a dinner on the eve in hon­our of the President-Elect and in the morning of the same day to conduct him through the White House. By 12 o'clock on January 20, the participants of the ceremony and guests take their places on a rostrum especially erected in front of the Capitol. The cen­tral point of the ceremony is the taking of an oath by the Presi­dent and the delivery of his inaugural speech. The wording of the President's oath is laid down in the Constitution and runs as fol­lows: "I do solemnly swear that 1 will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my abil­ity, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States". The President's Inauguration speech is regarded as a declaration of principles proclaimed by the new Administration.

The ceremony ends in a military parade. The scope of the ceremony depends greatly on the tastes and wishes of the new President. It is known that John Kennedy invited large groups of intellectuals and prominent actors and singers. At the time of Nixon's Inauguration balls, concerts and receptions continued for several days. If this was a great extravagance, it was also a tradi­tion.

THE CABINET

(All departments are headed by a secretary, except the Justice Department, which is headed by the attorney general.)

The Department of Agriculture:

Created in 1862.

The Department of Commerce:

Created in 1903. The Department of Commerce and Labour split into two separate departments in 1913.

The Department of Defense:

Amalgamated in 1947. The Department of Defense was established by com­bining the Department of War (established in 1789), the Department of the Navy (established in 1798) and the Department of the Air Force (established in 1947). Although the secretary of defense is a member of the Cabinet, the secretaries of the Army, Navy and Air Force are not.

The Department of Education:

Created in 1979. Formerly part of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare.

The Department of Energy:

Created in 1977.

The Department of Health and Human Services:

Created in 1979, when the Department of Health, Education and Welfare (created in 1953) was split into separate entities.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development:

Created in 1965.

The Department of Interior:

Created in 1849.

The Department of Justice:

Created in 1870. Between 1789 and 1870, the attorney general was a mem­ber of the Cabinet, but not the head of a department.

The Department of Labor:

Created in 1913.

The Department of State:

Created in 1789.

The Department of Transportation:

Created in 1966.

The Department of the Treasury:

Created in 1789.

The Department of Veterans Affairs:

Created in 1988. Formerly the Veterans Administration,now elevated to Cabinet level.

 

THE MAJOR POLITICAL PARTIES

The popularity of George Washington, who wanted the country to stay a one-party political system, and the good effects of the Con­stitution on trade prevented the organization of opposing parties until the end of Washington's second term. Then the question of who should be the new President began to divide the people into political organizations backing opposing candidates. Thus the one-party Revolutionary government of the United States split up into a two-party system.

The present-day Democratic Party was founded in 1828, repre­senting Southern planters — slave owners and part of Northern bourgeoisie, as well as groups of petty bourgeoisie and farmers. The Republican Party was founded in 1854. It united industrial and trade bourgeoisie from North-East, farmers, workers, crafts­men who were interested in destroying the political power of the South. During Lincoln's Administration, Republicans supported the agricultural reforms and the abolishment of slavery. Yet after the Civil War of 1861-1865 the party lost its progressive charac­ter and the differences between the two parties disappeared.

The parties chose their own names, Republican and Demo­cratic, but not their party emblems. The cartoonist Thomas Nast invented the Republican elephant and the Democratic donkey in the early 1870s and they soon became fixed types. The parties are not divided by any doctrinal gulf. It is hard to say what the "Republican Party view" or the "Democratic Party view" of any political issue is. Outsiders often complain that they find it diffi­cult to distinguish between the two major political parties of the US, which appear to support such similar policies.

The main task of the parties is to win elections. Every four years the American parties come together as national bodies in the Presidential nominating conventions and make up the party programs. But once a President is chosen, the parties again be­come amorphous bodies. This traditional two-party system is favourite by big business, for it creates an illusion that voters are free to choose between candidates from two parties whereas both of them faithfully serve big business interest.

What distinguishes the two parties is not so much opinion as position. In 1887 James Russell Lowell said, “No thoughtful man has been able to see any other difference between the two great parties … than that the one was in and wished to say there and the other was out and didn’t wish to stay there.” It is also true today.

One of the reasons of the stability of the two-party system is family tradition. Each new generation of Americans inherits its politics and party loyalty from their fathers. National origin plays a role, too. Descendants of northern Europeans tend to the Republican party while those of southern and eastern Europeans prefer the Democratic party.

 

Vocabulary

ballot – избирательный бюллетень

President-Elect – избранный, но ещё не вступивший в должность президент

the annual State of the Union message – ежегодное послание президента конгрессу о ситуации в стране

understudy – дублер

to negotiate – обсуждать условия

accusation – обвинение

UNIT 5

WASHINGTON, D. C. (I)

When the thirteen colonies became states and decided to join in a Union, there was much discussion about the capital. The decision finally arrived at was to carve out a hundred square miles from the States of Maryland and Virginia, call it Federal territory, and build a model capital on that site. It was only reasonable that the capital should bear the name of the General who had done so much to effect American Independence, and became its first President — Washington.

The hundred square miles are known as the District of Co­lumbia. This area is not a state, it belongs neither to the north nor to the south, but to all the states. The District is named in honour of Columbus, the discoverer of America. The terms Washington and the District of Columbia are practically synony­mous. The name of the capital always goes with the abbreviation D. C. not to be mixed with another Washington, one of the 50 US states.

The capital owes a great deal to George Washington. The President took an active part in selecting the area of the federal district, and decided that the city should be built on the north bank of the Potomac River. The capital was founded in 1791. George Washington called upon a famous French engineer, Pierre L'Enfant, one of the keen and sympathetic French supporters of the new republic of America. L'Enfant designed a city with the orderly street plan that has been followed to this day.

At the beginning of the nineteenth century, the new capital was called "Wilderness City" and the "City of Streets Without Houses". When the government moved there in 1800, President John Adams¹ and his party literally couldn't find the place, be­coming lost in the woods.

To the visitor, Washington appears most confusing, despite the master plan drawn by Pierre L'Enfant so long ago. The centre of the city is the Capitol Building. Four geographical sections, or quadrants, radiate out from the Capitol dividing the District of Columbia into North-East, North-West, South-East, South-West. The Capitol is also the point from which the city's streets are numbered or lettered. Round the Capitol a series of circles and squares occur at various intervals, and diagonal avenues radiate from these. From the Capitol to the Executive Mansion² runs broad Pennsylvania Avenue, about a mile and a half in length and flanked with trees. This is the avenue used for all those proces­sions and parades that make festive Washington so familiar a sight to television viewers.

All the diagonal avenues are named after the original thirteen American states, and the longest and straightest of them all is Massachusetts Avenue, which virtually cuts the city in half. But not every diagonal is an avenue, that is why despite the simple plan of numbered and lettered streets Washington at times con­fuses its sightseers.

Washington is not the largest city in the United States, for it cannot compare in size with cities like New York, Chicago, Phila­delphia, Detroit and Los Angeles, which have more than a million inhabitants. In 1985 its population was 626,000.

In the political sense, however, it is the centre of the republic and the most important city in the United States. Washington's only big business has always been the business of Government. It is said that some three-quarters of the adult population in Washington, D. C. are wholly or indirectly involved in the ad­ministrative machine and the general process of government: they are either politicians, or civil servants, or suppliers of goods and services to such people. In 1800, when the US government moved to Washington from Philadelphia, the Washington bureaucracy consisted of about 130 clerks, while in the 1980s government em­ployees in Washington numbered more than 300,000.

Power is what Washington is all about. It is power that at­tracts able men into government and politics and keeps them working ten hours or more a day, for far less money than they could make elsewhere. Thus, it is not an exaggeration that Washington is the greatest industrial town in the world, and its industry is politics.

Washington's climate

Washington's climate is a combination of the sweaty summers of Louisiana and the wintry cold of the North-West. One season, however, has to be seen: Washington's cherry-blossom time. It is a spectacle borrowed from Japan, as indeed are the cherry-trees themselves, which abound near the Jefferson Memorial. Several thousands of these cherry-trees were given to Washington in 1912 by the city of Tokyo. When they flower — in early April — the whole city draws its breath and drinks them in for almost exactly 12 days: give or take a day, that is how long cherry-blossom time lasts. It is the one Washington thing that owes nothing to protocol nor to press-conference nor to power; it is possibly the one thing in Washington that is not manipulated by the Pentagon or privilege; it just comes to pass. A huge fuss is made of the occasion, with Cherry Blossom Queens and similar trappings. It is indeed Washington's wonderful season, possibly because it is the one occasion in the natural cycle of this world capital that has nothing to do with the politicians.