Unit 4: American Political Institutions
In this unit, we explore the legislative, executive, and judicial branches of the American government. The power to create, implement, and enforce the law is distributed across these three institutions. This separation of powers among these three institutions represents the main strategy the founders created to check governmental power and infuse accountability and limits during every stage of the governing process. As you learn about the legislative, executive, and judicial branches, consider each institution's role in governing and how each institution limits the power of the others.
Completing this unit should take you approximately 9 hours.
Upon successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:
- explain the roles, duties, structure, and functions of the U.S. Congress;
- explain the process of how a bill becomes a law;
- explain the role and constitutional powers of the presidency and vice presidency;
- analyze the role of the bureaucracy as the implementation arm of the executive branch;
- discuss the constitutional origins of the judicial branch and the judicial selection process; and
- analyze how the U.S. Supreme Court interprets the law, paying particular attention to the competing judicial philosophies of judicial restraint and judicial activism.
4.1: The Legislative Branch – Congress
The U.S. Congress is the deliberative body that considers thousands of bills every session and crafts a few of those bills – through negotiation and debate – into laws that distribute, redistribute, and regulate resources and behavior in American society. In addition to writing laws, the U.S. Congress represents Americans and their individual and collective interests. In this section, we explore how representatives should act on behalf of the citizens who elected them to office. Congress also assumes the important role of checking the power of the other branches. Consider the complexity of this legislative body as you progress through this section.
Read this text that outlines the power of Congress, bicameralism, and the legislature's oversight role. Take a few moments to search the news for stories on current congressional hearings. Once you find a set of hearings that are occurring now or have recently concluded, read a little bit more. What type of oversight is the committee engaging in?
Read this text on Congressional representation. Which of the three representation models – delegate, trustee, politico – seems best? Why? In recent years, discussions on descriptive representation have intensified. Take a moment to research the demographics of members of Congress. How are these demographics similar to the overall population? How are they different?
Read this report on the many roles and duties of the individuals voters elect to Congress. Which role is the most important? Why?
Read this text on the organization of the House and the Senate. Pay attention to the party leadership in the two chambers.
Review these materials to explore various aspects of the Senate's leadership structure. The Senate leadership includes the presiding officer, majority leader, minority leader, and the whips. The Senate's presiding officer is not the most visible member of the Senate. They can only vote if there is a tie. The majority and minority leaders schedule Senate business. Whips are less important in the Senate because the close personal relationships that form in the Senate's smaller body make it easier to determine how members will vote without a count.
Read this description of how a bill becomes a law. Is the filibuster a necessary and useful tool or a barrier to sound policymaking? Why?
Read this report. Oversight is an integral part of the system of checks and balances between the legislative and the executive branches of government.
4.2: The Executive Branch – The Presidency
The United States was the first nation to create the office of president as the head of state in a modern republic. Today, several countries have adopted the presidential system of government. As of 2023, there have been 46 presidents of the United States. The president fills several roles, including head of the armed forces, head of state, and head administrator. During the past two centuries, the power of the presidency has expanded in reaction to war and economic crises, the actions of individual presidents, and the rise of mass media. In this section, we explore the presidency and its ever-evolving role in the American political system.
Read this text on the design and the evolution of the presidency. Pay attention to the expanding power of the presidency and the role of crisis in this expansion.
Read this chapter on the institution of the presidency. The office of the presidency is not administered by just one person. The president heads a team, which includes the vice president, a cabinet of advisers, and staff. Can you summarise the responsibilities of the president? What checks and balances are woven into this office?
Read this text on the instruments presidents have to influence public policy. Which of these tools is most useful? Why?
Read this report. Executive privilege is the power the president and other executive branch members claim to resist subpoenas and other interventions from the legislative and judicial branches. The U.S. Constitution does not mention executive privilege, but the Supreme Court ruled the concept is an element of the separation of powers doctrine. It is derived from the supremacy of the executive branch, an element of its area of constitutional activity. Various presidents – most infamously Richard Nixon – have invoked their right to executive privilege over a litany of issues they deemed private communications.
4.3: The Executive Branch – The Bureaucracy
The bureaucracy, part of the executive branch, implements the laws Congress creates. While individuals who work within the bureaucracy are not elected, they experience multiple layers of oversight. Within the executive branch, they are accountable to the president and cabinet. Congressional oversight also holds the bureaucracy to account. Sometimes, the court system reviews and challenges bureaucratic policies and practices. In this section, we explore the structure of the bureaucracy and various strategies created to ensure accountability.
Read this text on the origins and development of the U.S. bureaucracy. Pay attention to the migration away from the patronage system. Do you think the bureaucracy has become too large?
Read this description of the merit-based approach to civil service. Name some benefits and drawbacks to a merit-based approach to civil service staffing.
Read this text that describes several bureaucratic models and types of agencies, corporations, and cabinet positions in the U.S. bureaucracy. Have you ever interacted with representatives from one of these bureaucratic organizations? Did you have a good experience? How would you improve things if you could?
Read this text on bureaucracy oversight. The U.S. bureaucracy includes unelected officials who have a great deal of power to implement policy. Does the bureaucracy have enough oversight to ensure citizens' wishes are carried out democratically?
Read this text on the history and development of the bureaucracy in the American political system – from the spoils system to the Pendleton Act, which mandated that certain segments of federal civil service jobs would be merit-based. Legislators passed the Pendleton Act after a disgruntled government office seeker assassinated President James Garfield.
4.4: The Judicial Branch
U.S. judges play a more active role in the political process than in most other democracies. Unlike other countries, the United States has a dual judiciary which includes the federal and state court systems. In federal and state courts, individuals must have "standing" to sue and assert a personal injury. Courts decide only justiciable cases, not political questions.
Read this text on the federal court system. Pay attention to the concept of judicial review. This concept is fundamental to the U.S. court system and serves as a key instrument for providing government checks and balances. Spend some time reviewing the key court cases in Table 3.1.
Read this text that describes the relationship between state and federal courts in the United States. Note that the Supreme Court is the highest court for both systems.
Read this text on the levels of the federal court system. Reviewing the judicial selection process, consider the importance of senatorial courtesy. Do you think this practice should continue?
Read this text for a thorough overview of the Supreme Court and its procedures. What is the amicus curiae process? Take a moment to research the news for a current case facing the Supreme Court. Can you identify the various procedures you are learning about here in its coverage?
Read this text that describes some consequential Supreme Court judicial decisions. Compare the philosophies of judicial activism and judicial restraint. Which philosophy do you agree with most? Why? Remember that some people argue that opinions represent judicial activism or restraint based on whether they agree with or oppose the verdict.
Read this report on the Supreme Court nomination process. This report gives a detailed account of the president's role in filling vacancies on the Supreme Court. It also explains the Congressional process.
Watch this lecture on the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court is the only court with complete control over the cases it chooses to hear. Its nine justices dispose of thousands of cases annually, and most of their time is concentrated on the fewer than 100 cases per year that they accept for review. These cases usually deal with substantial federal questions or constitutional issues. The court's decisions and opinions establish guidelines for lower courts nationwide.
Unit 4 Assessment
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