British Guide to American Political Terminology

With the American Presidential Election fast approaching a lot of eyes will now be turning toward the states but to the rest of the world the way America carries out its election can be strange.

So here is your British guide to American political terminology:

The first thing that is important to know about America is that it has a written constitution. Now you may be thinking ‘aren’t all constitutions written?’ and you would be right to think this; but in this context it simply means that the American constitution is all written down in one document compared to the UK constitution which is a combination of laws taken from different documents. 

This document is the basis on which America builds its governments on and is particularly hard to change due to the system of The Founding Fathers put in place to ensure democracy. The constitution was written in 1787 and was in effect from March 4th 1789.

Another system that The Founding Fathers put in place was separation of powers. This is where the executive, judiciary and legislative branches of government are all separate from each other. To understand this concept you first need to understand what each branch of government does…

The Executive Branch of government is where the President, Vice President and secretaries of state reside. Secretaries of state are not allowed to serve in congress as this would be a conflict of interest for them. Laws are enforced and signed off in this branch, although the Senate has to ratify any laws that are signed off.

The Legislative Branch is for lawmakers; in America there is a bicameral legislature in place, this means there are two chambers in this branch. These are known as the House of Representatives and Senate. This is where laws are made before going to the President for them to sign off on.

The Judicial Branch is the home of the court system from the district courts all the way up to the Supreme Court. This is the branch of government which upholds the law by making decisions on what should be done in specific cases. This branch can also overturn previous decisions made which can entirely change how the country can handle the future.

So, each of these branches has its own role within the US government system but whilst all of them are separate they are all equal in the power they have over the American people. These branches are all subject to a system known as checks and balances which is a group of rules and procedures to ensure one branch doesn’t have complete control over the political system.

At the very start of an election year political parties hold primaries and caucuses, these are two different ways a party can gather information on who the voters want as presidential candidate. 

A direct primary is where only members of a political party can vote for a presidential candidate, whereas an indirect primary is where any registered voter can go and vote for the party presidential candidate. On the other hand, a caucus is where members of a party go and decide in a public meeting which candidate they want to represent them. Essentially the difference between the two is; a primary is done in secret whereas a caucus is done in public.

During this time some states will front load which essentially means they will try and hold their primaries or caucuses earlier in the year so that they can get more attention from the parties and to potentially have more of an impact on the election. Front loading is very common in smaller states such as Iowa or New Hampshire. In comparison, Super Tuesday, the first Tuesday in March, is when a majority of states hold primaries or caucuses and tends to offer a glimpse of the candidates strengths and weaknesses.

The US is a two party system which as the name suggests means that there are only two political parties in the country. The Republican Party tends to be in favour of limited government and a well regulated economy. The Democratic Party has a more socially liberal view, they are supportive of equality among individuals in minority groups, LGBTQ communities and those with disabilities.

The main reason the US has a two party system is due to the first past the post system that they use. This is a voting system which means the first candidate past 50% is the winner and wins that area. However, the US has an added layer known as the electoral college; this is where each state is delegated a certain number of electors who represent them based on population. 

Altogether there are 538 electors and to win this, candidates need over 270 votes. To become President, a candidate needs to win the electoral college vote which is why the candidate who wins the popular vote doesn’t always become President.

Midway through the election year political parties will hold a convention, this is where they will announce their official presidential nomination.

States are often classified as safe or swing, a safe state is one which the party in charge is likely to retain compared to a swing state, where it could go to either party. Occasionally a state will go to a run-off, this is often where two candidates get through and the winner has to go through a second round of voting to win the seat.

So now you should hopefully have a better understanding of American political terminology.