Analyzing The Development And Formation Of The United States Government

In the making of the United States, there were many events that are important. This paper intends to highlight a few of those events including; Magna Carta, Mayflower Compact, Declaration of Independence, Articles of Confederation and the Federalist Papers. Many events in America’s history helped to establish the United States as a free and independent country. The Declaration of Independence in particular explains the rights and freedoms that Americans. Each document is like a stepping stones that leads to the next and building upon the pervious document.

Daniel Elazar’s three categories of state political cultures are moralistic, individualistic, and traditionalistic (Smith & Greenblatt , 2016). Moralistic culture is defined in the textbook, a political culture that views politics and government as the means to achieve the collective good (Smith & Greenblatt , 2016). Individualist culture is described as a political culture that views politics and government as just another way to achieve individual goals (Smith & Greenblatt , 2016). Traditionalistic culture is explained as a political culture that views politics and government as the means of maintaining the existing social order (Smith & Greenblatt , 2016). I believe the states can have mixed features of all three of Elazar’s types of

The United States government system is very interesting and complexly designed. The state and federal government is a mirror of each other when it comes to the generics of the executive branch, legislative branch, and judicial branch, however, internally the state government has major differences on how the branches are conducted. Throughout this paper we will discuss the greatest difference between state and federal, which is the state cannot change or remove laws passed by the federal government but they could change how they execute the federal laws to their liking as long as it is constitutional.

Political culture reflects the political ethics and convictions of people, not only around the United States of America but also all over the world. The people believe that the government is responsible for the type of services (like education, health care, community services, etc.) that they are entitled too; therefore, if the outcome is not good the political system has failed. There are three different political cultures: moral, traditional, and individualist. The State of Texas has a mix from all the cultures; however, traditional and individualist cultures seem to predominate.

The structure of our American Government was founded in the Constitution of the United States. The Constitution was written to be the “supreme law of the land,” and produces a democratic republic, where citizens govern themselves (Our American Government, n.d). The purpose of our government, is to “establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessing of liberty to ourselves and our posterity” (Our American Government, n.d.). For our country to accomplish this purpose our Founding Fathers created three principles, “inherent rights, self-government, and separation of powers” (Our American Government, n.d.). The government was developed to ensure order in society and protect its citizens, but with all systems, there is strengths and weakness, let’s examine those strengths and weakness. Let’s first look at the strength and weakness of the U.S. Constitution.

I believe the five pathways for change were put here to guide us in becoming a more efficient government and to give different examples of how to go about change in America. All of the pathways are important but to me the most important is the lobbying decision makers’ pathway. “Lobbyists are said to be advocates, someone who represents a specific side of an issue. According to Thomson Gale Legal Encyclopedia, A lobbyist and a lawyer have similar attributes whereas the lobbyist targets the legislative point of view and the lawyer targets the judicial point of view. Lawyers provide facts on different perspectives on legal issues dealing with the case; And lobbyist offer local, state, and federal

Like nature, the United States government has evolved to meet the demands of an ever growing population, the increasing terrorist threat, and a new state of mind in terms of what government should look like. Each branch of the federal system plays a key role in controlling the populace. The Executive branch handles day-to-day maintenance of the federal government, makes sure laws are enforced and carried out, as well as represents the U.S. to foreign interests. The Legislative branch passes laws and allocates funds for use in running the federal government and providing assistance to the states. The Judicial branch hears cases that involve disputes between interpretations of the laws or those that challenge them. A delicate balance

The structure of our American Government, was founded in the Constitution of the United States. The Constitution was written to be the “supreme law of the land”, and creates a federal democratic republic, where citizens govern themselves (Our American Governement, n.d). The purpose of our government, is to “establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessing of liberty to ourselves and our posterity” (Our American Government, n.d.). For our country to achieve this purpose our Founding Fathers created three main principles, “inherent rights, self-government, and separation of powers” (Our American Government, n.d.). Government was developed to ensure order in society and protect its citizens, but with all systems there are strengths and weakness, let’s examine those strengths and weakness. Let’s first look at the strength and weakness of the U.S. Constitution.

When the founding fathers wrote the Constitution, they wrote the document with a set of strict ideals in mind to protect the American people from the government expanding its power. The Supreme Court has interpreted the Constitution in ways that have expanded the powers of Congress, making them most responsible for the growth of federal power. In the Constitution, the Commerce clause was created to regulate interstate commerce, but after the Supreme Court ruled on cases the interpretation changed and the federal government can now regulate commercial activities including minimum wage and labor. The Court broadened the “Necessary and Proper” clause when it ruled that Congress can establish a federal bank. Finally, the Court reinterpreted the meaning of the First Amendment so as to eliminate voluntary prayer in public or in schools. These are not the only illustrations of the Supreme Court expanding federal power, but by examining these three examples, expansion of federal power is shown.

The purpose of this paper is intended to summarize my views on what has influenced my understanding of politics and government prior to taking this class, and how my understanding is now since completing this course.

This book, “The Rise of the States: Evolution of American State Government,” by Jon Teaford, is his explanation of how the states have changed positively and negatively throughout the years. Each state has control over their citizens living in the state differently. Teaford addresses these issues in the form of his own discussion and explanations. Teaford begins with a background of the United States and different series of events that unfolded from the mistreatment of the national government to it’s citizens. I enjoyed the quote by Roscoe Drummond, “Our federal system of states no longer exists and has no more chance of being brought back into existence than an apple pie can be put back on the apple tree.” This is a great explanation of how the national government has changed vastly within history.

Our unique political culture has evolved throughout history and today, it is more complicated than ever before. According to the Governing Texas, political culture is defined as broadly shared values, beliefs, and attitudes about how government and society should function. Daniel Elazar believed there to be 3 types of political cultures: moralistic, individualistic, and traditionalistic. Moralistic political culture is the belief that the government should be active in promoting the public good and that citizens should participate in politics and civic activities to ensure that good.

1.Analyze the evolution of the American political system. Be sure to include one individual or document that influenced the Constitution and one change in the federal system.