Is Our System of Government Outdated?
| Subject: | 🗳️ Politics |
| Type: | Argumentative Essay |
| Pages: | 2 |
| Word count: | 625 |
| Topics: | Federalism, ✔️ Political Science, Electoral College, 🏳️ Government |
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Table of Contents
Qualification and Process of electing Government Officials
For the Congress membership, the law sets the limits of requirements of the membership at 25 years of age, and the individual must have an American citizen for seven years and residing from the of origin (Wilson, DiluLio, Bose & Levendusky, 2016). For the senate, he has to have 30 years of age (minimum requirement) and has been a USA citizen for at least seven years, also residing from the state of origin. However, for the current provisions or requirements, the minimum requirements are just routine requirements for the senate. The implication is that a US senate must have experience with policy formulation before seeking for office. For the US government, the Constitution does not set minimum requirements for the individual Cabinet Secretaries. For each position, the individual being appointed must be in agreement or confirm the appointment. For the National Security Advisor, for instance, his appointment by the President does not require confirmation (USA.gov, 2017). However, constitutional requirements are not limited for the individuals. In essence, the age requirement is not limited. Any person can get the appointment including male, female, member of any race, national origin or religion.
For the each of the Cabinet secretary, after being appointed by the President, they are then confirmed by each Senate confirmation review committee comprised of a representative from every ministry (Wilson et al., 2016). For instance, the Attorney general is confirmed by the judiciary committee, the Secretary of Treasury confirmed by the Finance committee and so forth.
In the USA, the president is elected to office after general elections by the public majority votes, but the College or the Congress votes are the major determinants (USA.gov, 2017). In essence, the president has to win the majority votes. However, his final appointed is the number of the electoral votes garnered.
For the State judges, their legislature or governor chooses judges (Haris & Tichenor, 2009). The process of their selection is that a legislative committee assesses the past performance of the judge. However, for the federal judges, the president is responsible for nominating them, and then the Senate confirms the appointments as provided for by the Constitution
Analysis
The current system of governance and how individuals are appointed to office begs the question as to whether the system is outdated. An excellent example is the President who has to garner two-thirds of the Electoral College’s votes. It is outdated since it denies the candidate with the majority popular votes the chance to represent the democratic will of the people. However, for the senate, the qualifications are necessary and should not be updated because it sets a minimum age (25 years) of which a person has the experience in politics to represent the people. The Cabinet secretaries, being appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senatorial committee is also provision or system which should be maintained because the board vets and ensures that the selected candidate is fit for the position. However, the system of selecting federal judges should not rest too much on the president because it leads to a system whereby the president considers candidates who favor his or her political ideology thereby leading to a conflict of interest.
Conclusion
Therefore, to some extent, the current system of governance is outdated in some areas like the appointed of the President since by denying the individual with the majority votes the chance to represent the democratic will of the people. Besides, the president should not have the mandate of selecting federal judges because it is sometimes done by considering the party affiliation and the interest served. However, the Cabinet secretaries should be elected by the same system since the vetting by the house committee ensures that the selected candidates are the best fit for the position.
- Wilson, J.Q, DiluLio, J.J, Bose, M., Levendusky, M.S (2016). American government: Institutions and policies. Cengage Learning.
- USA.gov, (2017). Branches of Government. Retrieved from https://www.usa.gov/branches-of-government
- Haris, R.A & Tichenor, D.J. (2009). A History of the U.S. political system: Ideas, interests, and institutions [3 volumes]: Ideas, Interests, and Institutions. ABC-CLIO.
Offered for reference purposes only.