Understanding Form and System of the United States Government

As much as the United States of America is globally known as a democratic government, it is more accurately termed as a constitutional federal government. The constitution of the United States serve as the foundation and contract between the state and its citizens in their unified endeavor to form a united federation of states of America. It is the foundation of the federation because it provides for the basis and rationale for the creation of what is now the most powerful country in the world. This document is necessary not only because it narrates the basis of the United States system but it is also the social contract between the state and its people. Modern political philosophers advance the idea that governments are created on the basis that the people agreed among themselves to form a government that will uphold and represent their interests. This agreement among the people is written into a piece of paper known as the constitution. The contract provides for the limitations of the powers and responsibilities of the government that they agreed to create.

The United States is a federal republic. It is federal because most of its powers are devolved to the local states. The federal government, although given the highest and widest power and governance, most of its powers are exercise by the state and local political units. Three levels of power and governance govern the United States. The federal level of governance is given the authority to control and manage the national affairs of the United States. The national or federal government is responsible for regulating the internal affairs between its states, providing for national defense, managing the national economy, and dealing with the relationships with other sovereign states and other international entities. The state level of power and governance in the United States politics has the responsibility of managing the more internal and local affairs of their respective political subdivision. The area of control for this state government is only limited to its boundaries. To further devolutionize and empower the locals and citizens, the most localized level of the United States politics is the local government. This local government handles and manages almost the household level of social concerns. They are in the form of city, county, town, or districts of the said geopolitical area.

It is United States is a republic primarily because the power and authority of the government belongs to the people. The people, in order to build peaceful and coherent subdivisions of political power and authority, elect people to act as their representatives to the political system in all levels of governance. They have the ultimate capacity to elect and recall officials of the national, state, and local political units. Republicanism vests upon the general public the power to form the government elect the people who will run it, and ultimately participate in the decision-making process of the national, state, and local governments. This political and power structure of the government of the United States of America has proven to be very effective in handling the affairs and concerns of a country with extremely diverse nationalities, cultures, and a very vast and expanse land area.