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Serving
Students at
Santa Ana
College and
Santiago
Canyon College
UNITED STATES
Government
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The
United States of America
President:
George W. Bush (2001)
Vice
President: Richard B. Cheney (2001)
Type
of Government
The United
States is a democratic federal republic. Individual states hold sovereignty
over their territory and have rights that are not reserved by the federal
government. Each state has it own legislature for enacting local
laws. The federal government has a president elected by an
electoral
college of delegates chosen to represent the vote of the people in each
state. Presidential elections are held every four years in November.
The president is elected for a four-year term and may be reelected only
once. The bicameral legislature (Congress) has two houses: the 435
seat House of Representatives whose members serve two year terms and the
100 seat Senate whose members serve six year terms. One-third of
the Senate seats become vacant every two years and the House of Representatives
seats are vacated every two years. There is a separate Judicial branch.
Due to the two party political system, Congress is dominated by the Republican
and Democratic parties. Other smaller parties exist and hold a few
seats in the legislature, but most act as pressure groups rather than viable
political parties.
Given
the federal republic system, individual states have sovereignty over their
own territory. The president is both chief of state and head of the
government, and is elected for a term of four years. An electoral
college of delegates from each state elects the president, an unwieldy
system that gives disproportionate power to the most populous states.
The legislative branch is elected by universal direct suffrage. The
voting age is 18.
Economic
Summary
GDP/PPP:
$8.511 trillion; $31,500 per capita (1998 est.).
Real
growth rate: 3.8%.
Inflation:
1.6%.
Arable
land: 19%.
Agriculture:
wheat,
other grains, corn, fruit, vegetables, cotton, beef, pork, poultry, dairy
products, forest products, fish.
Labor
Force: 137.7 million (includes unemployed, 1998)
Managerial
and professional 29.6%
Technical,
sales, and administrative support 29.3%
Manufacturing,
mining, transportation, and crafts 24.8%
Services
13.6%
Farming,
forestry, and fishing 2.7%.
Industries:
Petroleum, steel, motor vehicles, aerospace, telecommunications, chemicals,
electronics, food processing, consumer goods, lumber, mining (leading
industrial power in the world, highly diversified and technologically advanced)
Natural
Resources: Coal, oil, copper, gold, silver, minerals, timber.
Exports:
$663
billion (f.o.b., 1998 est.) capital goods, automobiles, industrial
supplies and raw materials, consumer goods, agricultural products.
Imports:
$912 billion (c.i.f., 1998 est.): crude oil and refined petroleum
products, machinery, automobiles, consumer goods, industrial raw materials,
food and beverages.
Major
Trading Partners: Canada, Western Europe, Japan, Mexico, China.
Links
for More Information
About
the USA
The
Library of Congress Country Studies
.
Sources:
Central
Intelligence Agency
The
Library of Congress Country Studies
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