Lecture 8 The three branches of the US governement Flashcards
What are the 3 branches of the constitution ?
The Legislative, the Executive and the Judicial
What are the 3 buildings that represent those 3 branches ?
The Legisltaive : the U.S capitol
The Executive : the White House
The Judicial : the Supreme Court
What created the Legislative branch ?
The article 1 of the constitution
Who has the power of the legislative branch ?
The power of the legislative branch is vested (confié) in the Congress.
How many people are there in the House of representative ?
435 representatives
How many representatives are there per state ?
It depends on the population of the State. The more populous a State is, the more representative there are.
How many does California have representatives ?
43
How many does South Dakota have representatives ?
2
How often are representatives elected ?
Every 2 years.
What does a representative represent ?
A district, not the entire State.
What are the conditions to become a representative ?
- You have to be at least 25 years old
- You must have been an American citizen for at least 7 years.
- You have to be resident in the district you want to represent.
How is the House of Representative organized ?
The leader of the House of Representative is a speaker. He or she represents the majority party in the house.
What’s the majority party in the House nowadays ?
Democrats.
Who’s the speaker of the House of democrats ?
Nancy Pelosi since January 2019 (moment of the midterm elections)
How many people are there in the Senate ?
100 senators.
How many senators is there per state ?
2 per state whatever the size of the state.
How many years do senators serve ?
Every 6 years.
What do the senators represent ?
The whole state
What are the conditions to become a senator ?
- You have to be at least 30 years old
- You must have been an American citizen for at least 9 years old
- You must be resident of the State you represent
How is the Senate organized ?
The president of the Senate is the vice-president. His role is symbolical, the leader of the majority in the senate is republican
Who is the president of the Senate ?
Mike Pence.
What are the role of the legislative ?
- Their main role is to make laws
- They have the power to declare war, the congress is the only one who can do that.
- Congress make federal budget
- Congress has the right to make laws that regulate commerce (interstate and foreign)
How many many laws does the the Congress study each years ?
They study more than 10 thousand bill (=projet de loi) each year. An average of 600 become laws.
How are the laws proposed ?
1) A senator and a representative introduce a proposal together.
2) The bill is reveiwed by commitees.
3) The House and the Senate vote to approve the bill, when they approve, both have to sign the bill.
4) It is sent to the president, if he agrees he signs it and it becomes a law. If not, the presisent VETOES the bill and it returns to the congress.
5) If the bill gets a 2/3 majority in Congress, it becomes a law, if less, it returns to start.
What created the executive branch ?
The article 2of the constitution
Which branch is the largest of the governement ?
The Exectutive branch with 2.7 million people working in it.
Who compose the executive branch ?
1) The president (“the chief executive”)
2) The vice-president
3) The advisors
4) All the federal agencies and their heads
5) The president’s nominates
6) Secretaries (ministers) and assistant secretaries.
7) The heads of agencies (CIA, FBI….)
How does the president nominates workers of the executive branch ?
The have to be approved by the senate, he can’t just nominates whoever he wants.
What is a department ?
Équivalent de “ministère”
What is an appointement ?
Nomination
From what is the cabinet made ?
In the cabinet, there’s the president the vice president and 15 other departments.
Which departments are the most powerful ?
1) Department of State (ministre des affaires étrangères)
2) Department of Treasury
3) Department of Defense
4) Department of Justice
What is a secretary of state ?
Ministre
Who rules the department of Justice ?
The Attorney General.
What are the president’s roles ?
1) Chief of executive
2) Leader of his party
3) Chief garidan of the economy
4) Chief of the State
5) He makes sure laws are executed
6) He enforces laws
7) He nominates federal officers
8) He approves or vetoes bills
9) Commander in Chief (but tat does not give him the power to declare war)
10) Director of the foreign policy
11) Legislative leader : he suggest bills
What is an attorney?
Avocat
How many terms does a vice-president have the right to serve ?
As much as he wants, there is no restriction.
What are the roles of the vice-president ?
1) He is the president officer of the senate.
2) He plays a major administrative role
3) He has to be ready to become president if anything happens to him (death, sickness, impeachment —-> depending if the congress decide to remove him or not)
How powerful is the judicial branch ?
The founders considered that the judicial branch should be the weakest, but now, this branch has developped a crucial role which is to interprete the law.
What created the judicial branch ?
The article 3 of the constitution created the judicial branch
Who inspired the judicial branch ?
European and English system.
What are the differencies between the american judicial branch and the european’s and english’s ?
1) The American Consitution is different
2) It’s a federal state
3) the Judicial Review
What is the Judicial Review ?
The judicial review is the right (for the judicial branch) to decide if the congressional and state’s act are in accordance with the constitution —-> if not, they have the right to invalidate them.
Why does the judicial review exists ?
It is to make sure that states respect laws.
What ican we say about the supreme court ?
It is the highest judicial body in the US.
It’s located in Washington district.
It’s the only part of the judicial branch that is specifically mentionned in the Constitution
How are the judges of the Supreme court called ?
Justices
How many members are there in the Supreme Court ?
9 members : 1 chief justice and 8 justices
How many years do justices serve ?
They are nominated for life. The only way to stop is to retire or to die.
Who nominates justices ?
The president : he can nominates no one (if no one retires and no one dies)
Trump already nominated 2.
What are the 3 categories of Supreme Court Justices ?
- Judicial conservative
- Judicial moderates
- Judicial liberals
To which categories do the current justices belong ?
4 justices are fairly liberals and 5 are fairly conservative
Is the law important in american life ?
It’s a part of the daily life, American tend to be letigious people (procédurier, au moindre pb ils font des procès)
