Politics CaseEssay Preview: Politics CaseReport this essayCHAPTER 1The UNITED STATES OF AMERICA (THE USA)The United States of America (also called the United States, the U.S., the USA, America, and the States) is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its forty-eight contiguous states and Washington, D.C., the capital district, lie between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, bordered by Canada to the north and Mexico to the south.
At 3.79 million square miles (9.83 million km2) and with over 312 million people, the United States is the third or fourth largest country by total area and the third largest by both land area and population. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, the product of large-scale immigration from many countries. The U.S. economy is the worlds largest national economy, with an estimated 2011 GDP of $15.1 trillion (22% of nominal global GDP and over 19% of global GDP at purchasing-power parity). Per capita income is the worlds seventh-highest.
Indigenous peoples descended from forebears who migrated from Asia have inhabited what is now the mainland United States for many thousands of years. This Native American population was greatly reduced by disease and warfare after European contact. The United States was founded by thirteen British colonies located along the Atlantic seaboard. On July 4, 1776, they issued the Declaration of Independence, which proclaimed their right to self-determination and their establishment of a cooperative union. The rebellious states defeated the British Empire in the American Revolution, the first successful colonial war of independence. The current United States Constitution was adopted on September 17, 1787. Its ratification the following year made the states part of a single republic with a strong central government. The Bill of Rights, comprising ten constitutional amendments guaranteeing many fundamental civil rights and freedoms, was ratified in 1791 [4, p. 39].
The Declaration of Independence states:
“The people of the United States have no power over or against any State or people, or over the government of any State in the Union. The people are entitled to a Constitution, organized into a single popular body, called the people’s body … or a Constitution, as may be the case at the time of their choosing, which shall be based on the universal happiness of all mankind, the rights of property, and the equal defense of life and liberty, among others.”
For several years after Washington signed the Declaration, Native American peoples living today do not have a strong central government or central control over their resources. Native Americans say that by giving power to each other over land for their people, they are granting the government and creating a federal government.
The Declaration of Independence states:
“A people is not dependent upon the government which it now possesses, and, in so far as it belongs to a party, this government, as originally conceived, has been the instrument by which it formed. It is the representative of all who form it and which it now possesses.”
From the point of view of the Indian people, this claim is absurd as it creates a government and does thus violate any rights recognized by the Native American peoples. However, the Declaration of Independence did not provide for the elimination of a single central government. The United States government created a single government in 1789, after settling in the Indian Territories. Native American people and tribes today have the right to participate in government and to be able to develop, preserve, and operate their own federal government.
In fact, the Declaration of Independence recognizes both of the most important aspects of Native American society including self-government in government, political rights (including the power to self-regulate the federal government), and democratic institutions (such as the ability to set taxes and taxes and provide emergency assistance to the people, education in most public schools, and affordable health care access to the people).
Native American governments have a unique ability to shape and implement laws, enact legislation, amend policies and statutes, enact ordinances, and control the course of events. In this way, Native Americans are not subject to the laws, agreements, and conventions of their forebears to be able to influence and influence changes in law and policy. This is why treaties, legislation, and regulations are so important for Native American society. In the 1820’s and 1850’s, Native Americans had a unique ability to shape, shape, and enact policies and laws related to the management of various national natural resources, such as water resources, fisheries, and mineral rights and lands. In those times, treaties and legislation were developed in such a manner that federal courts and state legislatures routinely issued public education statutes and resolutions, permitting Native Americans and others to develop and implement their own federal institutions.
The Native Americans also have significant military forces that are deployed in several states to defend the Indian Nation and their interests. In the last 30 years, armed Native Americans have fought numerous wars in the North with numerous Native Americans serving as ground forces, training police soldiers, and deploying paramilitary tactics to assist. In 2010, the United States went to war in the War on Drugs during a campaign using military vehicles as weapons.
According to the 2001 Census Bureau, Native Americans, Alaska, Hawaii, Rhode Island, and Samoa are the 15 largest sub-groups of the American Indian population. They comprise three-quarters of the U.S. U.S. population between 1875 and 1960. The Native American population currently includes more than one million people living within the boundaries of that particular state and territory.
Over the decades Native Americans had a unique ability to develop and implement ways of shaping governmental programs, legislative, and administrative policies and to control the course of events. These types of processes have been the basis for many initiatives. Native Americans have also evolved
Through the 19th century, the United States displaced native tribes, acquired the Louisiana territory from France, Florida from Spain, part of the Oregon Country from the United Kingdom, Alta California and New Mexico from Mexico, and Alaska from Russia, and annexed the Republic of Texas and the Republic of Hawaii. Disputes between the agrarian South and industrial North over the expansion of the institution of slavery and states rights provoked the Civil War of the 1860s. The Norths victory prevented a permanent split of the country and led to the end of legal slavery in the United States. By the 1870s, its national economy was the worlds largest. The Spanish-American War and World War I confirmed the countrys status as a military power. It emerged from World War II as the first country with nuclear weapons and a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union left the United States as the sole superpower. The country accounts for 41% of global military spending, and is a leading economic, political, and cultural force in the world [4, p. 57].
CHAPTER 2THE AMERICAN ECONOMY2.1 The description of the American economyThe American economy is a dynamic, free-market system that is constantly evolving out of the choices and decisions made by millions of citizens who play multiple, often overlapping roles as consumers, producers, investors and voters. The United States is generally described as a mixed economy, which is to say that even though the great majority of productive resources are privately owned, the federal government does play an important part in the marketplace.
By any standard, the American economy that has evolved over less than 250 years has been immensely successful. With less than 5 percent of the worlds population, the United States in the early 1990s produced about 25 percent of the worlds output. The U.S. economy is more than twice as large as the next largest economy, that of Japan. By conventional measures, U.S. productivity and standard of living remain among the highest in the industrial world – although other nations have experienced higher rates of grown in recent decades.
The economy of the United States is the worlds largest national economy. Its nominal GDP was estimated to be over $15 trillion in 2011, approximately a quarter of nominal global GDP. The European Union has a larger collective economy, but is not a single nation. Its GDP at purchasing power parity was also the largest in the world, approximately a fifth of global GDP at purchasing power parity. The U.S. economy also maintains a very high level of output. In 2011, it was estimated to have a per capita GDP (PPP) of $48,147, the 7th highest in the world, thus making U.S. one of the worlds wealthiest nations. The U.S. is the largest trading nation in the world. Its three largest trading partners as of 2010 are Canada, China and Mexico.
The economy of the United States is a mixed economy and has maintained a stable overall GDP growth rate, a moderate unemployment rate, and high levels of research and capital investment. It has been the worlds largest national economy (not including colonial empires) since at