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Political System.

The United States is an indirect democracy – that is, the people rule through the representatives they elect. In the beginning, only white men with property could vote. Over time, the vote has been given to more and more people. Today any citizen who is at least 18 years old can vote. The capital of the country is the City of Washington, situated in the Columbia District – a territory not included in any of the states.

The Constitution.

The United States Constitution, written in 1787, established the country’s political system and is the basis for its laws. In the 200 years of its history, the United States has already grown and changed. Yet the Constitution works as well today as when it was written. One reason is that the Constitution can be amended (for example, the Fifteenth Amendment gave black Americans the right to vote and the Nineteenth Amendment gave women the right to vote). Another reason is that the Constitution is flexible: its basic principles can be applied and interpreted differently at different times.

Federalism.

The United States has a federalist system. This means that there are individual states, each with its own government, and there is a federal, or national, government. The Constitution gives certain powers to the federal government, other powers to the state governments, and yet other powers to both. For example, only the national government can print money; the states establish their own school systems, and both the national and the state governments can collect taxes.

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