The US Constitution: Blueprint Of The Federal Government

GOVERNMENT STRUCTURE

The US Constitution is the blueprint of the Federal Government of the United States of America. At the time of its writing, the separate colonies, which later became states, had their own sovereign governments but US Constitution preserved its many layers of government and it practically bestowed all powers to the states except those that could, conceivably, work against the good of the whole. However, it allocated the supreme power, such as the power to declare war, to Congress. The American system of government, which begun as an experiment in liberty and democracy in 1776, has proven to be remarkably resilient and adaptable.

The United States is the world's oldest surviving federation. It is a constitutional republic

The US President and Vice President are elected together every four years in a nationwide federal election which is held in November of even-numbered years. The line of succession in case the President dies or becomes incapacitated is as follows: Vice President; Speaker of the House; Senate President; and Department Secretaries, generally in the order the departments were created, beginning with the Secretary of State. The President is not elected by direct vote, but by an indirect electoral college system in which the determining votes are apportioned to the states and the District of Columbia. The Supreme Court, led by the Chief Justice of the United States, has nine members, who serve for

are elected directly by the constituents. However, for the President, an elector is chosen to represent the voters. The electors chosen by each state are called the Electoral College. They are a group of people who officially elect the president and vice president. Each state has as many votes in the Electoral College as it has senators and members of the House of Representatives. For example, Utah has 2 senators and 3 members of the House of Representatives--so it has 5 electoral votes. Large states like California have more than 50 electoral votes. States small in population like Alaska only has 3 electoral votes. To be elected, a presidential candidate must put together enough states in the election to get a majority (more than half of the total) of the Electoral College. Even though the American public knows the winner of the presidential election on the actual day of the election in November, that winner is not really yet official. The Electoral College meets officially in December. Its votes are sealed and sent to the U.S. Senate. When the Congress meets in January, the current vice president of the United States unseals the envelope and announces the results to the Senate. This is the official moment at which the president and vice president are really