The Federal Government (Lesson 1): An Introduction to the 3 Branches

Anna Steinbrecher

Chicago, IL
September 15, 2012


So, this will be your basic intro to American Politics for dummies, starting with those of you who are not familiar with the basic structures of American government. Whether it's because you have forgotten your 4th grade Social Studies class (I mean that was how many years ago?) or because you never actually had anyone sit down and lay these things out for you, this will give you a basic working knowledge of the branches and their functions. For anyone rolling your eyes, please, by all means go back to your multi-tabbed web JSTOR browser and your muted CSPAN...

American government was laid down in that glorious document we refer to as THE CONSTITUTION (somewhere an eagle is soaring through sun-lined clouds in slow motion), written in 1787 by the FOUNDING FATHERS. Sure, everyone knows that. And people are pretty familiar that at the end of the Constitution there is this nice document that everyone fights over called THE BILL OF RIGHTS, containing 10 amendments (changes or clarifications to the document) that came later. As a side note, there are, in fact, 27 amendments that have been made to the Constitution, however only the first ten make up the "Bill of Rights".

So what does the government look like? Well America has two things that can help distinguish itself from other countries: capitalism (economic) and democracy (political), which are not synonymous and are often times at odds with one another. America was founded on the ideas of "liberalism" which grew out of a few major historical events (not to be confused with being a "liberal"/progressive). Before some of these big events - the Enlightenment, the Industrial Revolution, the Protestant Reformation and the French Revolution - government was mainly monarchies and authoritarian regimes which governed feudal and agrarian societies of poor and uneducated citizens. After some political and religious turmoil (killed a few monarchs, had a few wars, fought with the Catholic church), we got a lot of people sitting down and talking about people's fundamental rights as human beings. The Founding Fathers drew from a number of political and philosophical sources - namely the works of JOHN LOCKE, THOMAS HOBBES, and other LIBERAL THEORISTS - to create a society which they envisioned would place the rights of the people in their own hands (just which people they included is a matter of debate and controversy, see SLAVERY, THE TRAIL OF TEARS and SUFFRAGE MOVEMENT). But that's the quick precursor paragraph refreshment. Now let's take a look at how things played out with the formation of government...

Let's first take a look at the FEDERAL GOVERNMENT: Executive, Legislative, and Judicial branches.

The Federal Government is usually the sector that people are the most familiar with because it is the most recognizable on the national scale. Its level of power is also the source of a lot of debate and has been for quite some time. In fact, at the time the Constitution was being written and ratified, three of the Founding Fathers had to publish a series of essays defending the newly formed government (these 85 essays are known as "The FEDERALIST PAPERS").

According to the Constitution, the Federal Government is laid out into three distinct sectors in order to provide a system of "checks and balances". Now it is a common thing in the United States for voters such as you and I to complain about the level of inefficiency that goes on in the government (the whole "why can't we just all get along" approach), but if you read on I think you will find that not only was the country designed that way, but it was done so deliberately. To quote one of my Professors: "Conflict is embedded in our government because there is conflict in American society" (Wayne Steger, De Paul University). Which means that if there is argument and disagreement in government, it is only because our country is incredibly diverse and the government is a reflection of that.

So let's start with the one that everyone is probably the most familiar with:
The Executive Branch (4 year term).
The Executive Branch is made up of:

• President, 
• Vice President
• and the subsequent cabinet members who are delegated power within that branch.  There are a lot of departments within the Executive Branch. For a full list of them, see EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENTS.

For roughly the next two months and the past four years, as most people would know (I hope), Barack Obama is our 44th President with Joe Biden acting as our Vice President. A President can sign or veto (reject) legislation enacted by Congress. In addition the President acts as the chief diplomat to foreign countries and is also the "Commander-in-Chief" of the United States Armed Forces (Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, and the Coast Guard) which means that the President has the primary deciding role in military policy (with the exception of declaring war, arguably). Presidents can also issue "pardons" and write "signing statements" on legislature.

The Legislative Branch (terms vary)
The Legislative Branch is often referred to as "Congress" and is made up of:

• The US House of Representatives (2 year term, 435 members)
• The US Senate (6 year term, 100 members)
• In total=535 members

The US House of Representatives is currently made up of elected "congressmen" or "congresswomen" and are elected by "districts". There are A LOT of representatives (currently 435) because each representative is supposed to be assigned to an equal amount of voters (approximately 600,000 by current standards). Ever wonder why states have such funny district lines? It is because the population isn't equally dispersed in density. Cities like Chicago and New York will not only have more districts, but they will also be smaller because there are more people concentrated in one area. More dispersed or rural areas like Southern Illinois will have larger district boundaries to capture the needed 600,000 voters. The shape of the district lines are a matter of more complex issues, including "gerrymandering", but we can get to that topic at a later date. Each member of Congress serves a total of two years before they have to run for re-election. We will discuss the implications of the election terms in the section following this one, aptly named: The Federal Government (Lesson 2): The Implications of the Federal Government Structure.

Here is a great site where you can browse and find your own representative on a map just by typing in the state or zip code you'd like.

The US Senate is comparatively smaller to the House of Representatives, holding a fixed membership of 100 (2 for each state). You will hear the word "constituency" a lot in political terminology, which is just a nice way of saying the targeted audience, or voter. For a Congress member, their constituency is their district. For a Senator, their constituency is their state. And for a President...well, their constituency is the entire country, more or less. Senators have the second longest term in federal government, other than the members of the Judicial Branch. Their terms are 6 years long, but instead of having elections for the entire Senate every 6 years the elections are spaced out so that approximately 1/3 of the Senate is up for election every two years.

Both the House and Senate are in charge of passing legislature. They are the ones that have the power to tax, the power to regulate commerce, to declare war, to establish courts outside of the Supreme Court, to establish post offices and copyright laws, and much more. Congressional power is often referred to as "the power of the purse strings" due to their heavy influence on monetary legislature and regulation.

Within both the House and the Senate, there are quite a long list of committees and subcommittees. Basically, the members are divided up and placed on a specific area of focus. For example: Paul Ryan, who is the Republican nominee for Vice President this election season, is the chairman of the House Budget Committee. Can anyone guess what the House Budget Committee does? Surprise, surprise, it oversees, monitors and regulates the federal budget. For a full list of the committees in both sectors of Congress, click here.

In addition to the committees, one might also hear about "majority" and "minority" within the House or the Senate. Let's take a look at some pretty pictures...

Source: Wikipedia

Each dot represents a member of the US House of Representatives, with the red symbolizing the Republican Party and the blue representing the Democratic Party. Currently from last election cycle (2010), the Republican Party has control as the House majority.

Source: Wikipedia

Likewise, here is a map of the US Senate. Currently there are 53 Democrats (2 Independents that caucus with the Dems) in the Senate and 47 Republicans, giving the Democrats the Senate majority.

The advantages gained and behaviors exhibited by Congressional majorities is something we'll discuss in the next chapter, too. For now just safely assume that depending on which party you're in, it is better to have more voting power in a majority to a certain extent (there are safeguards and political ramifications to protect against tyrannical party "bullying" from the majority).

The Judicial Branch 

(IT4L, or for those who don't speak acronyms: the "in this for life" club)
The Judiciary section of the Federal government is comprised of the Supreme Court. There are 9 appointed "Justices" who all serve tenure once they have been appointed by the President (with a little advisement and consent from the Senate). For those of you who may not know the Justices, here is a list of our current Supreme Court members:

• Justice Elena Kagan (Obama Administration 2010-current)
• Justice Sonya Sotomayor (Obama Administration, 2009-current)
• Chief Justice John Roberts (Bush Jr. Administration, 2005-current) *remember him when we talk about healthcare
• Justice Samuel A. Alito (Bush Jr. Administration, 2001-current)
• Justice Stephen G. Breyer (Clinton Administration, 1994-current)
• Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg (Clinton Administration, 1993-current)
• Justice Clarence Thomas (Bush Sr. Administration, 1991-current)
• Justice Anthony Kennedy (Reagan Administration, 1988-current)
• Justice Antonin Scalia (Reagan Administration, 1986-current)

Whereas the Legislative and Executive Branch have a lot of power to enact laws, the Judicial Branch has a lot of power of interpretation. More so than many other countries, in fact. If you are ever in a room full of American lawyers, try mentioning the Supreme Court case Marbury vs. Madison (1803) and talk a lot about how much you just love "judicial review". As a quick summary, Marbury v. Madison was the case that really made sure the Judicial Branch was not just the "dumb cousin" in the federal government. Through the case, the courts were then able to declare legislation "void" or "unconstitutional", a sort of legislative back-tracking process that further put pressures on the Legislative and Executive bodies. Judicial Review allows courts to examine the Constitutionality of a statute and strike down the document if they find it conflicts with the law (Um, hello? Healthcare debates, anyone? Civil Rights?). If you are ever in Washington D.C. and make it to  the Supreme Court Building there is a plaque in place that contains the quote "It is emphatically the province and duty of the Judiciary Department to say what the law is", which comes from the Marbury v. Madison decision. Okay, enough nerding out on case-law. 

It takes a lot for a case to make it to the Supreme Court, and there are very few cases heard every year. Once a case reaches the court, they will eventually issue the majority "opinion" which is written by an appointed Justice. Opinions are usually pretty lengthy (and really boring if you are a undergrad in Constitutional Law reading them at 3am) explanations that contain a lot of lawyer-words like "jurisprudence" and "so-and-so clause" telling why the court reached the decision they did. Oftentimes other Justices will tack-on other opinions where they might want to add in their two cents (whether it's in agreement, disagreement, or clarification). If you ever want to get a brief glimpse into the life of a law student or just want to make your eyes bleed for the next 20-30 minutes, you can take a crack at the Court's recent opinion on Arizona's S.B 1070 . 

Once Justices are in, they're in for life. This is because they are supposed to be the sector of government most removed from public opinion and political persuasion. Of course no system is perfect (and everyone has their biases), but the goal is to make them objective. 

Okay, feeling any better yet? Did you know most of this? Are you completely overwhelmed? Take a little bit to process and then check back for our next lesson on what the structure of government means for political behavior and outcomes.