40. The usa political system. Executive, Legislative & Judic. Branches of gov.

US is a democracy. The constitution, laws and traditions of the US give the people the right to determine who will be the leader, who will make the laws and what the laws will be. The constitution guarantees freedom to all. Am. polit. system is based on principles of representative government & individual freedom. President of the US is head of state, head of government, and of a de facto two-party legislative and electoral system. The federal government shares sovereignty with the state governments, with the Supreme Court balancing the powers of each. Legisl.branch is made up of elected representatives from all states. Only they can make federal laws, levy taxes, declare war, put foreign treaties into effect. It consists of Congress (The House of representatives(comprise lawmakers who serve 2-year term) + Senate(serve 6-y term)). The executive brunch.The chief executive of US is the President, who together with vice president is elected to a 4year term. They can be elected to only 2 terms. Powers of presidency are formidable, but not without limitations. President proposes legislation to Congress, can veto any bill, influence public opinion, appoint federal judges, issues regulations & derectives regarding the work of the federal departments & agencies, appoints ambassadors & other officials. Pr.is also a comander-in-chief of the armed forces. The judicial brunch is headed by the Supreme Court, specifically created by constitution. Federal judges are appointed for life or voluntary retirement. Federal courts have jurisdiction over laws & treaties, maritime cases,issues involving foreign citizens/governments. Supr. Court consists of a chief justice & 8 associate justices.

41. America between the first and second World Wars.

The history of the United States from 1918 through 1945 covers the post-World War I era, the Great Depression, and World War II. After World War I, the U.S. rejected the Versailles Treaty and did not join the League of Nations.

In 1920, the manufacture, sale, import and export of alcohol was prohibited by an amendment to the United States Constitution. Possession of liquor, and drinking it, was never illegal. The overall level of alcohol consumption did go down, however, state and local governments avoided aggressive enforcement. The federal government was overwhelmed with cases, so that bootlegging and speakeasies flourished in every city, and well-organized criminal gangs exploded in numbers, finances, power, and influence on city politics.

During most of the 1920s, the United States enjoyed a period of sustained prosperity. Agriculture went through a bubble that collapsed in 1921 and that sector remained depressed, and coal mining was being displaced by oil. Otherwise most sectors prospered. Prices were stable, and the gross national product grew steadily until 1929, when the financial bubble burst.

In foreign policy the nation never joined the League of Nations, but instead took the initiative to disarm the world, most notably at the Washington Conference in 1921-1922. Washington also stabilized the European economy through the Dawes Plan and the Young Plan. The Immigration Act of 1924 was aimed at further restricting the Southern and Eastern Europeans, especially Jews, Italians and Slavs, who had begun to enter the country in large numbers beginning in the 1890s.

The Wall Street Crash of 1929 and the ensuing Great Depression led to government efforts to re-start the economy and help its victims. The recovery, however, was very slow. The nadir of the Great Depression was 1933, and recovery was rapid until the recession of 1938 proved a setback. There were no major new industries in the 1930s that were big enough to drive growth the way autos, electricity and construction had been so powerful in the 1920s. GDP surpassed 1929 levels in 1940.

By 1939, isolationist sentiment in America had ebbed, but after the fall of France in 1940 the United States began rearming itself and sent a large stream of money and military supplies to Britain, China and Russia. After the sudden Japanese Attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States entered the war against Imperial Japan, Fascist Italy, and Nazi Germany, known as the "Axis Powers". Italy surrendered in 1943, and Germany and Japan in 1945, after massive devastation and loss of life, while the US emerged far richer and with few casualties.

42. America after WW2.World War Two finally ended in August of nineteen forty-five. Life in the United States began to return to normal. Soldiers began to come home and find jobs. Factories stopped producing war materials and began to produce goods for peacetime.At the same time, other changes began to take place in society. Many Americans were no longer satisfied with their old ways of life. They wanted something new and better. And many were now earning enough money to find that better life.The American work force also changed significantly. During the 1950s, the number of workers providing services grew until it equaled and then surpassed the number who produced goods. And by 1956, a majority of U.S. workers held white-collar rather than blue-collar jobs. At the same time, labor unions won long-term employment contracts and other benefits for their members.

Farmers, on the other hand, faced tough times. Gains in productivity led to agricultural overproduction, as farming became a big business. Small family farms found it increasingly difficult to compete, and more and more farmers left the land. As a result, the number of people employed in the farm sector, which in 1947 stood at 7.9 million, began a continuing decline; by 1998, U.S. farms employed only 3.4 million people.

World War II accelerated the pace of change, obviously in weaponry, but also in transportation, communications, electronics, medicine, and in other ways. both technological and social. Toffler anticipated further acceleration in the rate of change, and from perspective in the first decade of the 21st century, it is hard to imagine a world without many of the things they take for granted. A little over a quarter of a century ago, about the time Ronald Reagan was being elected president, no one except a few obscure scientists had ever heard of the Internet. Cell phones were unknown. Office has had desktop computers, but they were huge machines costing tens of thousands of dollars that could only do word processing. Only a handful of geeks had what we now call a PC, and it probably had a 10 inch screen which displayed only white or green type.

Once the dust has settled from World War II and the millions of displaced persons had been more or less settled and the European and Asian cities rebuilt from the piles of rubble created by the war, things began to change more rapidly. Beneath the ominous cloud of fear generated by the Cold War, people looked ahead with both anticipation and doubt. In 1970 Alvin Toffler published a book called Future Shock, in which he described the manner in which the future was rushing toward us at an accelerated rate. He wrote, “Future shock is the dizzying disorientation brought on by the premature arrival of the future.”

With the first decades of alternating complacency and turbulence The American people hoped for much, achieved much and had their faith in their social and political institutions both strengthened and shaken, often at the same time and sometimes by the same events. Welcome to the postwar world.

1. Geography and environment of the USA. General characteristics.

2. New England.

3. American Demography. Some facts and Figures. Prospects for the future.

4. Labour in America.

5. Social Security in the USA. Benefit programs.

6. The South Atlantic States.

7. The US congress, presidency, election system.

8. The central southeast states.

9. The US Constitution. Amendments to the Constitution.

10. The Southwest

11. History from Leif Ericson to 1865. New Land. English settlements.

12. The Midwest. The Great Lakes Industrial Belt.

13. Colonial era, revolution, devising a constitution, a new nation.

14. Ethnic groups and minorities.

15. The Central Northwest.

16. Civil war.

17. The West. The Mountain States.

18. The Pacific states. California.

19. The pacific States. Oregon, Washington, Alaska, Hawaii.

20. The largest metropolitan cities.

21. The American city.

22. Elementary and Secondary education in the USA.

23. Higher education in the USA.

24. Black Slavery. Civil Rights movement.

25. The Native Americans. Broken treaties.

26. Urban culture, 1912-1918.

27. Urban culture. Early years 1625-1812

28. Science and technology.

29. Immigration to America.

30. American agriculture, Historical overview. Current farm policies.

31. Nature of American business today.

32. American economy and financial institutions.

33. History 1865-1929 reconstruction. Moving west. Industrial growth, labour, immigration.

34. Religion in America.

35. American holidays.

36. Media and communication

37. Medicine, healthcare and Public well fare system in America.

38. The American family.

39. The Middle Atlantic States.

40. The USA political system. Executive legislative and judicial branches of government.

41. America between the first and second World Wars.

42. America after the Second World War