Lecture 3 The United States of America
Physical Geography
The area of the USA is 9,631,419 km2, making it the 3rd largest country in the rid. It has three land borders, two with Canada and one with Mexico, and one territorial-waters boundary with Russia. It is otherwise bounded by the Pacific Ocean, the Bering Sea, the Arctic Ocean, and the Atlantic Ocean.
The United States landscape varies greatly: temperate forestland on the East coast, mangrove in Florida, the Great Plains in the centre of the country, the Mississippi-Missouri river system, the Great Lakes which are shared with Canada, the Rocky Mountains west of the plains, deserts and temperate coastal zones west of the Rocky Mountains and temperate rain forests in the Pacific Northwest,
There are many highly dramatic landscapes with some of those often seer. in Hollywood films, especially Westerns, familiar to many around the world. The Badlands of South Dakota and Cole-ado provide much unique scenery.
The climate varies along with the landscape, from tropical in southern Flora to tundra in Alaska. Most of the North and East experiences a temperate continent climate, with hot summers and cold winters. Most of the American South experiences a subtropical humid climate with mild winters and long, hot, humid summers Rainfall decreases markedly from the humid forests of the Eastern Great Plains I the semiarid shortgrass prairies on the High Plains abutting the Rocky Mountains.
Human Geography and Demographics
According to the US Census Bureau, the population estimate for 2005 295,734,134 and growing quite quickly, having increased nearly 15 million 2000. The percentage of females was 50.9 %. Despite the post-war "Baby that has left most European countries with a high percentage of pensioners with the number rapidly increasing, over a quarter of Americans are under birth rates are still high. Immigration is still significant, with over 11 % of
Although many Americans are rich by any standards, 12.4 % live below the "poverty line". In 1999 the average per capita income was $21,587 and the median household income was $41,994.
Americans, in part due to categories decided by the U.S. government, generally describe themselves as being one of five ethnic groups:
White, (also called Caucasian);
African American, (also called Black);
Hispanic, (also called Latino);
Asian American and
Native American
Much of American culture is strongly contrasted to Canadian culture. A key example is that Canadians see their country as a mosaic of unique immigrant cultures, a large picture made up of many distinct pieces, rather than a melting-pot, in the way that American like to describe their society and culture. The USA heavily stresses that its immigrants fuse their various cultural identities together in this 'melting pot', rather than retain ethnic groups with their own clear identities. Obviously this will not always be the case and many anthropologists and sociologists have invented theories that modify the official view to offer a compromise that is nearer to reality. Two of these many theories are the "salad bowl" culture theory and the "pizza" culture theory.
Language
English is the name of a language, but also the adjective from the noun 'England'. When using terminology to differentiate between language dialects, "American English" (AmE) or "US English" are sufficiently accurate to enable either name to be used comfortably.
"British English" assumes that the Scots, Welsh and Irish all speak the same dialect as the English. This is not at all true. Americans (and many others around the world) invariably but mistakenly use the term "British English" to describe that which is correctly called "Anglo-English". The convention in British academic writing on linguistics is actually to use one of three terms, Anglo-English, English English (or EngEng) or English in England. Academic convention is also to split Anglo-English into three dialects.
The USA has no official language, but English is used de facto nationwide. Spanish is the second language and it is estimated that around 20 % of Americans speak Spanish as their first language.
American English or U.S. English is the diverse form of the English language used mostly in the United States of America. According to the 1990 census, 97 percent of U.S. residents speak US English "well". As of 2004, more than two-thirds of native speakers of English use the American dialect, although most for whom English is a second language around the world prefer Anglo-English.
English was inherited from British colonization. The first wave of English-speaking immigrants was settled in North America in the 17th century. They brought with them Anglo-English words that remained in their vocabulary but were replaced in Anglo-English itself. "Diaper" for example, is archaic Anglo-English, replaced by "nappy" but the word survives in AmE. Similarly "gotten" as the past participle of "get" is also archaic in Anglo-English. From this date, there were also speakers in North America of the German, French, Dutch, Native American, Spanish, Swedish and Finnish languages. For almost a century, the majority of immigrants were German speakers and this had a major effect on American grammar, spelling and vocabulary.
American English has both spelling and grammatical differences from Anglo-English, some of which were made as part of an attempt to rationalize the English spelling used by Anglo-English at the time. The first American dictionary was written by Noah Webster in 1828. At the time America was a relatively new country and Webster's particular contribution was to show that the USA spoke a different dialect from the various British ones, and so he wrote a dictionary with many spellings differing from the standard. Many of these changes were initiated unilaterally by Webster.
Webster also argued for many "simplifications" to conventional spelling. Many words are shortened and differ from other versions of English. Frequently, German spellings such as 'center' are used instead of 'centre'. Conversely, American English sometimes favors words that are morphologically more complex, whereas Anglo-English uses clipped forms, such as AmE 'transportation' or Anglo-English 'transport' or where the British form is a back-formation, such as AmE 'burglarize' and Anglo-English 'burgle' (from burglar).
Those interested in studying this topic are strongly advised to start with "Mother Tongue" (1990) by Bill Bryson, both detailed and highly readable.
System of Government
The United States of America consists of fifty states with limited autonomy in which federal law takes precedence over state law. In general, matters that lie entirely within state borders are the exclusive concern of state governments, although this constitutional responsibility has been eroded since the Civil War (1861-1865). These include internal communications; regulations relating to property, industry, business, and public utilities; the state criminal code; and working conditions within the state. The District of Columbia falls under the jurisdiction of the US Congress, but has limited home rule.
The various state constitutions differ in some details but generally follow a pattern similar to that of the federal Constitution, including a statement of the rights of the people and a plan for organizing the government. On such matters as the operation of businesses, banks, public utilities and charitable institutions, state constitutions are often more detailed and explicit than the federal Constitution. In recent years, the federal government has assumed broader responsibility in such matters as health, education, welfare, transportation, housing and urban development.
The Federal Government itself consists of three branches that are designed to check and balance each other: the executive branch (headed by the President), the legislative branch (the U.S. Congress), and the judicial branch (headed by the Supreme Court).
The President is elected to a four-year term by the Electoral College, which is chosen through popular votes in the fifty states and the District of Columbia. The various legislators are chosen by popular vote in the 50 states.
Members of Congress are elected for terms of two years in the House of Representatives and six years in the Senate. Justices of the Supreme Court are appointed by the President with the consent of the Senate for an unlimited term.
The United States Capitol in Washington, DC, home of the U.S. Congress, the legislative branch of the government of United States.
This tripartite model of government is generally duplicated at the state level. Local governments take various forms. The federal and state governments are dominated by two major political parties, the Republicans and the Democrats, with the Republican Party being more conservative and the Democratic Party being more liberal. Several other, smaller parties exists as well; but they maintain very few national strongholds.
Political parties in the United States do not have formal "leaders" like many other countries, although there are complex hierarchies within the political parties that form various executive committees. The two parties exist on the federal, state, and local levels, although the parties' organization, platform, and ideologies are not necessarily uniform across all levels of government.
The Republicans generally receive more funding and support from business groups, religious Christians, and rural Americans, while the Democratic party receives more support from labour unions and minority ethnic groups. Because federal elections in the United States are among the most expensive in the world, access to funds is vital in the political system. Thus corporations, unions, and other organized groups that provide funds and political support to parties and politicians play a very large role in determining political agendas and government decision-making.
Under the 10th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, all governmental powers not granted to the United States Federal Government by the Constitution are reserved for the states.
The governments of the 13 colonies which formed the original union under the Constitution trace their history back to the royal charters which established them during the era of colonialism. Most other states were organized as federal territories before forming their own governments and requesting admittance into the union. Notable exceptions are Vermont, Texas and Hawaii, which were sovereign nations before joining the union.
Each U.S. state has a written constitution and a three-branch government modelled on the U.S. federal government, although this particular structure is not mandatory.
The executive branch of every state is headed by an elected governor, and many states have a position of lieutenant governor. The legislative branch is typically a bicameral legislature. (Nebraska has a unicameral legislature.) The upper house of state legislatures is usually called the senate and the lower house is usually called the house of representatives. (New York's lower house is called the Assembly. Connecticut's house and senate together are called the General Assembly, and the bicameral legislature of Massachusetts is called the General Court.) The judicial branch is typically headed by a supreme court which hears appeals from lower state courts. The structure of courts and the methods by which judges are elected or appointed is a determined by legislation or the state constitution. (New York's highest court is called the Court of Appeals.)
System of Education
In the American educational system children are generally required to attend school from the age of five or six until age 16, although most continue until they are at least 17 or 18, or have graduated from high school. The public education systems vary from one state to another but generally are organized as follows:
Age 5: Kindergarten
Ages 6-11: Elementary school. Grades 1 to 5 or 6.
Ages 12-13 or 12-14: Junior high school or middle school (usually grades 7-9 or grades 6-8, respectively).
Ages 14-18: High school.
Additionally, many children attend schools before they reach the age of five. These pre-schools are often private and not part of the public educational system although some public school systems include pre-schools.
Public education in the United States is provided by the separate states, not the federal government. It is free, but unlike many other countries, the US has no standard nationwide curriculum. Rather it is up to the teachers and administrators of the school districts to determine what is and is not taught, although increasingly, statewide curricula are being developed. Also, as of 2003 there is increasing state and federal pressure to use standardized tests, which lead to a more uniform curriculum.
Most of the private institutions have traditionally been religious institutions, such as Catholic schools, various Protestant schools and Jewish yeshivas. Some private secular schools, military schools and multi-lingual schools are available. Private secular and multi-lingual elementary and secondary education may cost S10,000 to $20,000 per year per student in large metropolitan areas, placing these schools out of reach of all but the most wealthy of middle and upper class families. However, many of these schools provide academic scholarships and need-based assistance. Religious schools vary in price, from nearly free, to costs on par with private secular schools. Poorer families may send their children to these lower priced schools for a religious education, or because they consider the schools better than the available public schools. Home schooling is allowed in many states and is an alternative for a small minority of households. The motivation for home schooling is often, but not always, religious.
The United States is a great centre of higher education, boasting more than 1,500 universities, colleges, and other institutions of higher learning.
As with the lower level public education system, there is no national public university system in the United States. Each state has its own public university system. There are also many privately run colleges, universities, and trade schools, some of them religiously affiliated. State university tuition ranges from nearly free on up, but is generally significantly lower than at private schools, and often lower for state residents than for out-of-state students.
The most famous universities are the eight Ivy League Universities, which include Harvard and Yale, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of California.
The Ivy League Universities are named after the ivy plants traditionally covering their older buildings. The term "Ivy League" has connotations of academic excellence as well as a certain amount of elitism. A great deal of searching on the internet failed to find the number of Nobel laureates associated with these universities, but: there is a vast amount of information on their endowments and how rich they are.
Law
The law of the United States is derived from the common law of England, which was in force at the time of the Revolutionary War. However, the supreme law of the land in the United States is the United States Constitution and, as stated in the Constitution, treaties to which the U.S. is a party. These form the basis for federal laws under the federal constitution in the United States, circumscribing the boundaries c: the jurisdiction of federal law and the laws in the fifty U.S. states and territories.
As described in 4.1 above, the Federal Government itself consists of three branches that are designed to check and balance each other: the judicial branch is headed by the Supreme Court. In most States, this is then repeated at a local level, using a local constitution as the level below the Federal one.
Federal law in the United States originates with the Constitution, which gives Congress the power to enact statutes for certain specific purposes, such as regulating commerce. Nearly all statutes have been codified in the United States Code. Many statutes give executive branch agencies the power to create regulations, which are published in the Code of Federal Regulations and also carry the force of law. Many lawsuits turn on the meaning of a federal statute or regulation, and judicial interpretations of such meaning carry legal force.
American States are separate sovereign bodies with their own constitutions and have the unlimited power to make laws covering anything not already decided by the federal Constitution or federal statutes. Nearly all States started with the same English common law base, but the passage of time has resulted in enormous diversity in the laws of the fifty States. Over time, State courts expanded the old common law rules in different directions and with different interpretations, and State legislatures have passed various statutes expanding or overriding such judge-made precedents.
Unlike the rest of the country, state law in Louisiana is based on the Napoleonic Code, inherited from its time as a French colony. However, its criminal law has been necessarily modified by common law influences and the supremacy of the federal Constitution.
The Supreme Court of the United States, located in Washington, D.C., is the highest court in the United States; that is, it has ultimate judicial authority within the United States to interpret and decide questions of federal law, including the Constitution of the United States. It can overturn any decision made by a supreme court in any of the States. The Supreme Court is sometimes known by the acronym SCOTUS.