 Hello and welcome to a video summarizing everything you need to know when it comes to government and politics. My name is Barbara and in this video I'll explain USA politics. What we call it a federal government, it's two constitutions, all the articles and amendments that you must be aware of as well as how the USA government is set out and structured. Now this video is really useful if you're studying the US politics as part of your coursework or exams. So let's get started. Now when it comes to understanding the federal government itself, what federalism means is when power is divided between a national and state government with each having their own clear differences. So specifically, this firstly means that the federal government is led by the president and it passes laws affecting all of the USA. However, the second component is that each state within the USA also has the power to have their own laws. Now when it comes to understanding the general framework of the government, it's been influenced by two constitutions. The first is the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union. Now always remember that there was originally a first constitution but it wasn't very good. This was called the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union which was an agreement among the 13 original states in the USA and it served as its first ever constitution. However, under this constitution the national government was quite weak and the states essentially operated like independent countries. So in 1787, leaders met up to plan for a stronger federal government with an executive, a legislative and a judiciary along with a system to ensure that no single branch would have too much power. This led to the USA constitution as we know it today. So this constitution was essentially rewritten and it established America's national government and its fundamental laws as well as guaranteeing basic rights for its citizens. Now this constitution which is still empowered today is a fairly basic document with few details about how the government is going to run. It essentially outlines the rough organization of the three branches, how they work with the states and how the document could be amended. Filling in the details however was left to future leaders. Now let's go into some detail on the USA constitution because this is very important to be aware of. So let's first start off with Article 1. Now Article 1 is the longest article in the constitution and it puts legislative power in the Senate and the House of Representatives. This article also describes the organization of Congress and lists its specific powers. It also lists the powers denied to Congress as well as the states. Now Article 2 deals with the executive branch and describes the election of the president as well as the vice president, the qualifications for holding this office and the procedures if a president can no longer serve. The powers of the president include serving some commander-in-chief of the army and navy, making treaties appointing ambassadors, officials and Supreme Court justices. And the president is required to report to Congress in the State of the Union. He can propose laws or she can propose laws and they can also call Congress into a special session. Now Article 3 established the Supreme Court and it authorizes Congress to establish lower federal courts. So the types of cases the courts have power over are given and people have the right to trial by jury and the power of courts to declare a law unconstitutional is applied through this article. Now Article 4 shows or rather outlines what one state decides must be respected by other states. So also a citizen of any state has the same privileges as citizens of all the other state. So Article 4 also allows adding new states to the USA. It guarantees each state a Republican government and ensures protection against invasion or domestic violence. Now Article 5 outlines the process to be taken when amending the Constitution and all states are responsible for putting into place the new amendments. Now in Article 6, the Constitution, the laws of the US and treaties entered into by the US are the supreme law of the land and this is really important and known as the supremacy clause and this is really important when it comes to federal government versus state powers which I'm going to talk about slightly later on. Now Article 7 is essentially the article that outlines that the approval by nine of the states was required to accept the Constitution. Now do bear in mind that there have been changes made to this government Constitution called amendments. Now the 1791 Bill of Rights has the first ten amendments to the United States Constitution. So let's look at these amendments because these are also very, very important. So now I'm going to look at amendments one to ten which are included as part of the Bill of Rights and as I mentioned this Bill of Rights was passed in 1791. Amendment one essentially outlines the freedom of religion, speech, the press and assembly. The second amendment outlines the right to keep and bear arms. The third amendment essentially outlines that there can be no quartering of troops in private homes and the fourth amendment essentially outlines unreasonable searches and seizures and these are prohibited. The fifth amendment is concerned with rights of accused persons. The sixth amendment is concerned with rights to trial. The seventh amendment outlines common lawsuits and the procedures taken for that. The eighth amendment essentially looks at excessive bails, cruel and unusual punishments which are prohibited. The ninth amendment talks about and essentially is concerned with the unenumerated rights which are protected and the tenth amendment essentially is concerned with undeligated powers reserved to the states or to the people. So these are not all the amendments. So let's have a look at other amendments which were passed later on. So of course there were later amendments including the prohibition of slavery in 1865, also ex-laser made citizens including equal protection and due process clauses in 1868, the federal government was granted the power to impose income tax in 1913. There was the direct election of the Senate in 1913. There was a two term limit for the president which was actually imposed in 1951. President's succession and disability procedures were outlawed in 1967 and the voting age was lower to 18 in 1971. Now let's examine some more specific rules of the Constitution and how these affect the government. Now do remember that there is a separation between the legislative branch, the executive branch and the digital branch and this is all outlined in the Constitution. Now the Constitution essentially has divided the government into three branches. Of course there's the first executive power which is looked after by the president, there's the legislative power given over to Congress as well as the House of Representatives in the Senate and the judicial power which is looked after by the Supreme Court and other federal courts created by Congress. Now this is essentially how the Constitution separates powers. So as you can see there's the legislative which looks after making laws and beneath that of course there's Congress and within Congress there's the Senate and House of Representatives. Of course there's the executive at the center and as you can see they sit in the White House and this includes the president, vice president and the cabinet and of course on the far right is the judicial branch which essentially interprets laws passed by the legislative arm and this includes the Supreme Court as well as other federal courts. Now let's look at separations of powers starting with the president. So essentially the president can stop Congress by vetoing a bill it's passed and secondly the president can check the federal courts by nominating judges and by the power of pardon. Now Congress these are some of the powers that Congress has. So firstly Congress can really monitor the president by amending, delaying, rejecting the president's legislative proposals. Congress can also override the president's vetoes. Congress can use the power of the purse. Furthermore Congress can refuse to approve the president's appointments and this is only the Senate. The Senate also can refuse to ratify the president's treaties and Congress can use impeachment and trial powers to remove the president from office. Also Congress can monitor federal courts by proposing constitutional amendments to overturn a judicial decision and also refusing to approve a person nominated by federal courts and this is under the Senate. Now when it comes to the power that the federal courts have firstly they can check Congress by declaring a law unconstitutional and they can also monitor the president by declaring the president's actions or actions of the president's subordinates such as the vice president as unconstitutional. Now federalism of course is really really important so another important function of the constitution is to divide power between the national government and the state governments and this division of authority is referred to as federalism. As you can see in the image you can see the White House which essentially represents the national government versus the different states within America. Now the federal government is really strong with a lot of power over the states but at the same time it's limited to the powers it has under the constitution. So powers not given to the federal government are reserved to the states or to the people and as I mentioned earlier under the supremacy clause of the constitution federal law is supreme over state law. State or local laws that conflict with the constitution of federal law are cancelled and forced to change. Of course the constitution also oversees the protection of personal liberty so the third main purpose of the constitution is essentially to protect the liberty of citizens from intrusions by the government. The constitution also provides for the permanent protections of itself so of the constitution. So of course in a democracy without written constitution such as the UK the legislature may pass laws granting or taking away any rights or even changing the structure of the government itself. However a constitution such as the US is way more difficult to alter and the framers of the American constitution made it especially hard to amend. So do you remember that an amendment essentially must pass both houses of congress with a two thirds majority and it must also be ratified by the legislators of three fourths of the states. So that's all. If you found this video useful we'd really appreciate it if you gave it a big thumbs up but also if you require any more revision materials please do make sure you visit our website www.firstreet tutors.com Thank you so much for listening.