THE AMERICAN SYSTEM Of GOVERNMENT

The governmental systems in the United States - federal, state, county, and local - are quite easy to understand, that is, if you grew up with them and studied them in school. One foreign expert complained, for example, that the complexity of just the cities' political and governmental structure is "almost unbelievable."

Americans are much more interested in local politics than in those at the federal level. Many of the most important decisions, such as those concerning education, housing, taxes, and so on, are made close to home, in the state or county.

But all must respect the federal laws and not make laws that interfere with those of the other states (e.g., someone who is divorced under the laws of one state is legally divorced in all).

Sheriffs are usually elected, but state police officials are not.

There are many other areas which are also the concern of cities, towns, and villages. Among these are the opening and closing hours for stores, street and road repair, or architectural laws and other regulations. Also, one local community might decide that a certain magazine is pornographic and forbid its sale, or a local school board might determine that a certain novel should not be in their school library. (A court, however, may later tell the community or school board that they have unfairly attempted to exercise censorship.) But another village, a few miles down the road, might accept both. The same is true of films.

Most states and some cities have their own income taxes. Many cities and counties also have their own laws saying who may and may not own a gun. Many airports, some of them international, are owned and controlled by cities or counties and have their own airport police. Finally, a great many of the most hotly debated questions, which in other countries are decided at the national level, are in America settled by the individual states and communities. Among these are, for example, laws about drug use, capital punishment, abortion, and homosexuality.

Date: 2015-01-02; view: 1208