7. The Congress of the usa

According to the US constitution, the powers of the government are divided into 3 branches: the executive, headed by the president, the legislative, exercised by the Congress and the judicial.

The Congress of the United States is composed of two houses: the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Senate represents the states. Each state is guarantied at least one representative in the House. The remainder are apportioned among the states according to their population. The Senate of US is composed of one hundred members — two being elected from each state.

Senators are chosen for six years, one-third retiring or seeking is re-elected every two years. Two senators from the same state never finish their terms at the same time, one of them is called "Senior Senator" and the other — "Junior Senator".

The presiding officer of the Senate is the Vice-President of the United States. The Vice-President is not a member of the chamber over which he presides and he sometimes is not a member of the party in power.

The work of the US Congress is done mostly in different committees. The most important of the Senate committees are Appropriations Foreign Relations, Finance, Armed Services.

In the House of Representatives the most important are Rules, Appropriations, Ways and Means, Judiciary, Agriculture. The chairmen of the standing committees are considered the real rulers of the Senate and the House of Representatives.

8. The President of the usa

Every four years, on the first Tuesday after the first Monday of November, millions of Americans go to the polls to choose a new leader in a free and open election. The candidates, nominated during the preceding summer at the conventions of their respective political parties, have waged vigorous campaigns. Through the media of radio, television, newspapers, and magazines, they have made known their views on both national and international affairs and have become familiar faces to the people.

On Inauguration Day, January 20, the successful candidate for the high office of president of the United States takes this oath of office: "I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will do the best of my ability preserve, to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States." This is the same oath that has been taken by every American president since George Washington.

9. The Prime Minister and the Cabinet

The party which wins the most seats in the General Election forms the government in Britain. The leader of the winning party becomes Prime Minister. As leaders of their political parties and leaders of the country, Prime Ministers are powerful because they have the majority support in Parliament and they can choose their own ministers and government. The PM, chooses a committee of ministers called the Cabinet. This is made up of a selection of senior MPs from the House of Commons and some members of the House of Lords. Each member of the Cabinet is a minister responsible for a government department: for example, the Secretary of State for Education and Science is responsible for all the schools, universities and teachers in Britain. The Cabinet of ministers runs the country. The Cabinet meets at the Prime Minister's house — 10 Downing Street. The cabinet works as a team and all ministers must accept the decisions of the "group". The team of ministers must always agree in public because they are collectively responsible for the decisions they make. If a minister cannot agree with all the others, he usually resigns from the cabinet.

Cabinet meetings are held in private and the details must remain secret for at least 30 years. Margaret Thatcher tried to change this style of the Cabinet and was forced to resign when the other ministers could not agree with her. Cabinet ministers cannot, however, do as they please! They are responsible to Parliament and must answer questions from backbenchers from the House of Commons. Even the Prime Minister must answer questions every Tuesday and Thursday in the Commons — this is «called Prime Minister's Question Time. Everyone wants to know what has been decided behind the closed doors of the Cabinet Room.