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The Federal Government of the United States was established by the United States Constitution. United States politics is dominated by the two major parties, the Democratic Party and the Republican Party. There are several other groups or parties of minor political significance.
Suffrage is universal for citizens 18 years of age and older, though voting rights can be restricted as a result of felony conviction (such laws vary widely by state).
1 Federal, state and local governments
The federal entity created by the Constitution is the dominant feature of the American governmental system. But the system itself is in reality a mosaic, composed of thousands of smaller units — building blocks that together make up the whole. There are 50 state governments plus the government of the District of Columbia, and further down the ladder are still smaller units that govern counties, cities, towns,boroughs and villages.
The most significant fact about politics in the United States, especially at the national level, is that successful participation requires large amounts of money, especially for television advertising. This money is very difficult to raise by appeals to a mass base, although the Republican Party has had some success, as has Howard Dean with his internet appeals. Both parties must depend on wealthy donors and organizations, the Republican Party more on business organizations, the Democratic Party more on labor organizations. This dependency on donors is controversial, and has led to laws limiting spending on political campaigns being enacted; these laws are still fairly limited in scope in comparison to those of other countries such as the United Kingdom, France or Canada. In fact, funding practices commonplace in the United States would likely be considered political corruption elsewhere.
This multiplicity of governmental units is best understood in terms of the evolution of the United States. The federal system, it has been seen, was the last step in an evolutionary process. Prior to the Constitution, there were the governments of the separate colonies (later states) and, prior to those, the governments of counties and smaller units. One of the first tasks accomplished by the early English settlers was the creation of governmental units for the tiny settlements they established along the Atlantic coast. Even before the Pilgrims disembarked from their ship in 1620Events September 6 English emigrants on the Mayflower depart from Plymouth, England for the future New England and arrive at the end of the year. The Mayflower Compact is signed on November 11. November 8 The Battle of White Mountain Two officers of the B, they formulated the Mayflower CompactThe Mayflower Compact was the first governing document of Plymouth Colony. It was drafted by the Pilgrims while they were still aboard the Mayflower and prior to their disembarking. It was signed on November 11, 1620 in what is now Provincetown Harbor nea, the first written American constitution. And as the new nation pushed westward, each frontier outpost created its own government to manage its affairs. (See classical definition of republicRepublic is formed from two Latin words res (thing) and publica (public); it literally means 'the public thing(s)'. In the Latin context, it means 'affairs affecting the state', 'the state' itself, or 'the constitution' of the state". 1) The Latin word re.)
The drafters of the U.S. Constitution left this multilayered governmental system untouched. While they made the national structure supreme, they preferred to keep in place a series of governments more directly in contact with the people and presumably more keenly attuned to their needs. Thus, certain functions — such as defense, currency regulation, and foreign relations — could only be managed by a strong centralized government. But others — such as sanitation, education, and local transportation — could be better served by local jurisdictions.
