Politics & International Relations
US Government Structure
The US government structure is based on a system of checks and balances among three branches: the executive, legislative, and judicial. The executive branch is headed by the President, the legislative branch is composed of the Senate and the House of Representatives, and the judicial branch is led by the Supreme Court. This separation of powers is designed to prevent any one branch from becoming too powerful.
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4 Key excerpts on "US Government Structure"
eBook - PDFHow Your Government Really Works
A Topical Encyclopedia of the Federal Government
- Glenn L. Starks, F. Erik Brooks(Authors)
- 2008(Publication Date)
- Greenwood(Publisher)
2 Structure of the United States Government Today The contemporary structure of the U.S. government consists of the three branches established under the Constitution: the executive, legislative and judicial. However, the government has grown so large that the branches have expanded to consist of de- partments, agencies, offices, boards, and commissions that execute the various mis- sions and functions of each branch. The system of checks and balances originally es- tablished under the Constitution is still in place to ensure the branches do not violate their constitutionally defined separation of powers. Due to the government’s size and complexity, checks and balances are also in place within the branches to regulate their individual components. A graphical representation of the government’s structure is shown in Figure 2.1. The executive branch, headed by the president, is the largest of the three branches in terms of number of employees and number of agencies. It includes the vice presi- dent, executive office of the president, the president’s cabinet, executive branch depart- ments, independent agencies, government corporations, government sponsored enter- prises, and many boards, commissions, and committees. Its primary function is to execute laws. The legislative branch is led by the two houses or chambers of Congress, and is thus called a bicameral legislature. The House of Representatives is the lower house and the Senate is the upper house. The legislative branch also consists of various offices that support Congress, and independent agencies. Congress also establishes regulatory agencies that exist outside of the three branches to execute specific laws and oversee specific sectors of the government, industry, or U.S. population. The primary func- tions of Congress are passing laws, approving budgets and authorizing funding for agencies, and conducting hearings and investigations.
eBook - PDFFoundations of Comparative Politics
Democracies of the Modern World
- Kenneth Newton, Jan W. van Deth(Authors)
- 2021(Publication Date)
- Cambridge University Press(Publisher)
PART I I The Polity: Structures and Institutions Part I of this book considered the nature and development of the modern democratic state in general terms. Part II looks more closely at internal structures and institutions – sometimes referred to as the ‘ machinery of state ’ or the ‘ nuts and bolts of government ’ , because they are the permanent structures of the political system. They are important because they set the framework within which individuals and organisations behave in everyday political life. In this sense we can distinguish between government, with its formal structures and institutions, on the one hand, and politics, with its political behaviour and processes, on the other. Following this distinction, Part II concentrates on structures and institutions of government, while Part III focuses on the political behaviour of individuals, groups and organisations. Although this is a convenient and useful way of dividing up the book, we should not forget that structures in fl uence and mould behaviour, just as much as behaviour helps to create structures – the two are simply different sides of the same coin. Chapter 4 deals with the constitutional framework of democracies. Constitutions are sometimes overlooked in modern comparative politics, but they are enormously important. They try to grapple with the basic problem of all democracies – how to balance the necessary powers of the state against the individual rights of citizens, and how to ensure that government does not become too powerful and remains responsible and accountable to its citizens. Constitutions are the blueprints of power in democracies. Chapter 5 turns to the three main branches of most democratic governments – the executive, legislative and judicial branches. It shows how, in spite of the bewildering 75 variety of constitutional arrangements, most states fall into one of two general types, either presidential or parliamentary systems, and how these work in practice.
eBook - ePub- Cynthia Metcalf, Rhonda Atkinson(Authors)
- 2017(Publication Date)
- Research & Education Association(Publisher)
Analyze the guiding concepts, principles, and effects of U.S. foreign policy. The Constitutional Framework for Foreign PolicyThe Constitution lays out the institutional framework for foreign policy that places it under control of the federal government. The Founders divided responsibility for foreign affairs between the president and the Congress. The president, as the head of state, could appoint and receive ambassadors, sign treaties, and represent the United States abroad. Congress could declare war, but the president, as commander-in-chief, could actually wage the war. The president also had the authority to negotiate treaties that are then subject to the advice and consent of the Senate (two-thirds vote needed for approval). The president appoints key foreign policy and military officials as well as ambassadors, but the Senate must consent.The Theoretical Framework of International Relations The study of how nations interact with one another can be approached from a variety of perspectives, including the following:• A traditional analysis uses the descriptive process and focuses on such topics as global issues, international institutions, and the foreign policies of individual nation-states.• The strategists’ approach zeroes in on war and deterrence. Scholars in this camp may employ game theory to analyze negotiations, the effectiveness of weapons systems, and the likelihood of limited versus all-out war in a given crisis situation.• The middle range theorists analyze specific components of international relations, such as the politics of arms races, the escalation of international crises, and the role of prejudice and attitudes toward other cultures in precipitating war and peace.• A world politics approach takes into consideration such factors as economics, ethics, law, and trade agreements and stresses the significance of international organizations and the complexities of interactions among nations.The grand theory of international relations is presented by Hans J. Morgenthau in Politics Among Nations
eBook - PDFThe Design and Use of Political Economy Indicators
Challenges of Definition, Aggregation, and Application
- K. Banaian, B. Roberts, K. Banaian, B. Roberts(Authors)
- 2008(Publication Date)
- Palgrave Macmillan(Publisher)
CHAPTER 10 Government Structure, Strength, and Effectiveness Joshua C. Walton, Apanard Angkinand, Marina Arbetman, Marie Besançon, Eric M. P. Chiu, Suzanne Danis, Arthur T. Denzau, Yi Feng, Jacek Kugler, Kristin Johnson, and Thomas D. Willett 1 Introduction There has been an explosion of cross-national datasets purporting to measure various aspects of political institutions and the strength and stability of governments. These have come from a variety of literatures in International Relations, International Political Economy and analy- ses of economic growth, among others. This explosion has left the researcher with an embarrassment of riches—and an entangling dilemma: what do the measures mean, and which might be most useful for particular empirical purposes? In this chapter, we attempt to bring some order to this choice with our analyses and discussions of the wide variety of data now available. In this overview, we discuss different concepts of good governance, pre- sent some of the datasets, and offer initial comments on them. Because of the daunting breadth of this topic, we will not attempt to provide a comprehensive, detailed explanation of all available measures. Rather we will explore in broad strokes the general dimensions by which governments are categorized and evaluated. The first dimension under review is that of the state’s structure, specifically the structure that delineates the decision-making process of K. Banaian et al. (eds.), The Design and Use of Political Economy Indicators © King Banaian and Bryan Roberts 2008 188 ● Walton, Angkinand, Arbetman et al. the state’s governmental apparatus. This dimension in particular tends to be the basis for the ways by which we differentiate different kinds of states.
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