C. The Constitution of the United States teaching a unit on the ...
C. The Constitution of the United States
As a result of the work of the delegates to the Constitutional Convention, the United States has a constitutional government, that is, one in which the law limits what government can do. The Constitution is the highest law in the land. No actions of either the legislative or executive branches may violate the Constitution. The judicial branch determines the constitutionality of their actions--laws, executive orders, regulations, and so on. (Note that this power of judicial review is not included in the Constitution. It was first established in the landmark Supreme Court case of Marbury v. Madison (1803), in which Chief Justice John Marshall ruled that the Court has the power to nullify laws it deems unconstitutional.)
The United States has the oldest written constitution in the world. One of the reasons for its success is its adaptability. The delegates built an amendment process into the document. Yet only 27 amendments have been added since ratification, and the Constitution remains remarkably similar to what it was in 1789. 43
There are five basic principles on which the Constitution rests:
1. popular sovereignty, the will of the people;
2. federalism, the division of power among national and state governments;
3. separation of powers among executive, legislative, and judicial branches;
4. checks and balances among the three branches of government; and
5. limited government, the delineation of the powers between federal and state government.
D. Levels and Functions of Government
State Government
After the colonies had declared their independence as the United States of America, Congress encouraged the new states to write constitutions. As each of the subsequent 37 states was admitted to the Union, each had to develop its own constitution.
These state constitutions and the laws that the individual states have passed or will pass are subordinate to the U.S. Constitution, which is the highest law of the nation. Article VI of the Constitution, which the new states agreed to obey, articulates this:
This Constitution, and the laws of the United States which shall be made in pursuance thereof; and all treaties made, or which shall be made, under the authority of the United States, shall be the supreme law of the land; and the judges in every state shall be bound thereby, anything in the Constitution or laws of any state to the contrary notwithstanding.
The organization of state government is similar to the organization of the federal government. Each state has executive, legislative, and judicial branches. A governor heads the executive department. Most states have a lieutenant governor and also a cabinet that oversees the departments responsible for carrying out the laws.
The legislative branch makes the state's laws. All the states except Nebraska have upper and lower lawmaking bodies. Nebraska has just one legislative body.
The state courts hear many more cases than federal courts. States have general trial courts that hear most civil and criminal cases, specialized trial courts such as
family law or state tax law courts, and a state supreme court, which is the court of last appeal in the state court system. Thirty-nine states have intermediary courts of appeals, which hear routine appeals on trials. Like the U.S. Supreme Court, the supreme courts in those 39 states hear only cases that might impact the law as it is written and has been interpreted. Thirty-six states have some form of elected judges, and the other 14 states appoint their state judges.
Local Government
The United States is composed of 50 states and almost 90,000 local government units. A local government unit may be a county, municipality (city), township, school district, or a special district, such as a flood control district or a fire protection district. In all, 17.7 million people worked for state and local governmental units in 2001, and that number has been rising since the 1960s, while the number of federal civilian employees has been declining since the early 1990s.
Type
county, largest local government
Purpose
Administrative arm of state government
township
municipality (city)
Administrative arm of state or county government in most places where they exist
Operates most services for communities
Function
Officials
Keeps birth, death, and marriage records Maintains roads and and bridges Maintains countywide law enforcement and court systems Collects taxes Registers voters and supervises elections Provides public welfare on a countywide basis
County: commission executive, clerk, sheriff--elective offices
Similar to county purposes
Township: board supervisor, possibly other department heads--elective offices
Maintains streets, parks, and recreation programs Manages water and sewer utilities Collects trash and garbage Provides fire and police protection Manages public hospitals and health programs Operates public transportation systems Manages public welfare systems Manages housing and urban development programs
Mayor and city council; or council and city manager. The latter runs the day-today operations of the city.
Type
school district
special district
Purpose
Operates a locality's school district; most school systems are their own district; an exception is Hawaii, which operates the state's schools.
Provides a single service over a wide area that may include several cities or townships or even counties
Function
Operates a community's schools, or schools in more than one community if a regional or consolidated school district
Officials
Elected school board and hired administrators
Great variety of types; fire, flood control, sewage treatment, libraries
No typical organizational structure; may be elected or appointed policy-making board
How Government Services Are Paid For
The services that governments provide, from trash collection to running summer playground programs to operating schools, cost a great deal of money-- billions and billions of dollars when added together across the nation. There are a variety of ways that public services are paid for. Among them are:
? at the federal level: personal income taxes; corporate income taxes; excise taxes (tax placed on the production, manufacture, transportation, sale, or use of a good or service; for example, taxes on gasoline, cigarettes, telephone usage); social insurance taxes and contributions (funds Social Security payments)
? at the state level: personal income tax; corporate income taxes; business tax; tolls on roads, bridges, tunnels; sales taxes; taxes on cigarettes, gasoline, clothes, and other goods
? at the local level: wage or income tax; business tax; property tax; sales tax on cigarettes, clothes, and other goods
How People Can Participate in Government
People may participate in government in a number of ways. The most basic way is to be an informed voter and vote in all local, state, and national elections. Paying taxes, serving on juries, and obeying the law are other ways that a person exercises the responsibilities of citizenship.
Other ways to participate in government are to volunteer in the campaigns of candidates for public office or to become a candidate. There are also many different kinds of jobs in government service, from the traditional, such as law enforcement officer, to the unusual, such as urban archaeologist working for the National Park Service.
................
................
In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.
To fulfill the demand for quickly locating and searching documents.
It is intelligent file search solution for home and business.
Related download
- guided reading activity social sciences
- protecting local authority in state constitutions and challenging
- what is a constitution principles and concepts
- state fiscal constitutions a modest proposal rutgers law review
- q61 introduction to federalism and state constitutions
- the governance of land use oecd
- lesson 4 state constitutions and local charters
- c the constitution of the united states teaching a unit on the
- state constitutions freedom s frontier cato institute
- state constitutions and fiscal policy mercatus center
Related searches
- vice president of the united states office
- president of the united states job description
- history of the united states flag
- ranks of the united states army
- constitution of the united states
- sociologists think of the united states as
- list of the united states alphabetically
- title 26 of the united states code
- understanding the constitution of the united states
- president of the united states list
- weather map of the united states today
- printable constitution of the united states