14.The process of president elections.

The method of electing President is peculiar to the US. The presidential election is technically an election of presidential electors, not of a President directly. The people of each state don't vote directly for the president. They elect as many electors as this state has senators and representatives in the congress. These electors are selected exclusively by the corresponding party machines. The candidate with the highest number of votes in each state wins all the electoral votes of the state. The electors of all 50 states and District Columbia (3 electors) compose the Electoral Collage (538 persons), though it never meets as a body. The Electoral College is an example of an indirect election. Instead the electors gather in the state capitals shortly after the election and cast their votes for the candidate with the largest number of popular votes in their respective states. To be elected President, a candidate must receive 270 votes. If no candidate has a majority, the decision should be made by the House of Representatives, with all members from a state voting as a unit. In this state, each state and the District Columbia would be given one vote only. Candidates for the Presidency are chosen by political parties several months before the presidential election, which is held every four years. 2004 - Bush was reelected for his 2ntt term. 2008 – B.Obama. His main aims in foreign policy are: he'd draw down forces in Iraq; open talks with adversaries such as Iran, Syria and Cuba; end torture and close Guantanamo; renounce unilateralism and preventive wars; rebuild ties with allies; and re-engage with the Kyoto climate change initiative. He's also pledged to halt the development of and to seek a "world without nuclear weapons." Obama would start to put the threat of terrorism in its proper perspective, elevating the importance of other threats to security, from poverty to pandemic disease to global warming. Obama promises to increase Pentagon spending, boost the size of the Army and Marines, bolster the Special Forces, expand intelligence agencies and maintain the hundreds of US military bases that dot the globe.

15.Parties in us.

Today the United States has two major political parties. One is the Democratic Party, whose origins go back to the nation's third president, Thomas Jefferson and which formed before 1800 The other is the republican Party, which was formed in the 1850s, by people in the states of the North and West, such as Abraham Lincoln, who wanted the government to prevent the expansion of slavery into new states then being admitted to the union. Party membership in any American party is rarely formal. Members of the Democratic and Republican parties are not registered, they do not have cards and do not pay membership dues. There are no official formalities for admission. Any voter during elections may become a Republican or a Democrat by a simple declaration, that he is a member of this or that party. He takes no responsibilities when he makes that declaration. Associating with a party is strictly and exclusively a. matter of individual self-expression.

One explanation for the long life of the Republican and Democratic parties is that they are not strong ideological organizations, but loose alliances of state and local parties that unite every four years for the presidential election. Most Americans today consider the Democratic Party the more liberal party. As they understand it the Democrats believe that the federal government and the state governments should be active in providing social and economic programs for those who need them, During the presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt the government under the Democratic Party established the Social

Security program, which ensures that those who are retired or disabled receive monthly payments from the government.

Republicans are not vividly opposed-to -such programs. However, they believe that many social programs are too costly to the taxpayers and that when taxes are raised to pay for such programs, everyone is hurt. They place more emphasis on private enterprise and often accuse the Democrats of making the government too expensive. For that reason, Americans tend to think of the Republican Party as more conservative.

Party Platform of the Democratic Party

The Democratic Party has a long history of claiming to represent and protect the interests of working Americans and guaranteeing personal liberties for all. One of the places they articulate the beliefs is in the Party's National Platform, adopted every four years by the Delegates at the National Convention.

The National Platform is an official statement of the Party's position on a wide vari¬ety of issues. Each issue category included in the Platform is a "plank." A new Platform is adopted every four years by the Democratic National Convention. For example, the 2000 National Platform emphasized three key Democratic Party ideals:

(1)Prosperity — sustaining and strengthening the economic growth that brought opportunities to many Americans in the 1990s;

(2)Progress — paying attention to the aspects of the lives that cannot be measured in economic terms but which have a deep impact on the everyday existence;

(3) Peace — more than just the absence of war it means protecting America's security wherever it is allegedly endangered and promoting so-called demo¬cratic values around the world.

Republicans' Principles and Beliefs

Republicans believe:

• the strength of the nation lies with the individual and that each person's dignity, freedom, ability and responsibility must be honoured.

• equal rights, equal justice and equal opportunity for all, regardless of race, creed, sex, age or disability must be strictly observed.

• free enterprise and increasing individual initiative have brought the nation

opportunity, economic growth and prosperity.

• that the proper role of government is to provide for the people only those criti¬cal functions that cannot be performed by individuals or private organizations, and that the best government is that which governs least.

• that the most effective, responsible and responsive government is government closest to the people.

• that Americans must retain the principles that have made the nation strong while developing new and innovative ideas to meet the challenges of changing times.

• that Americans value and should preserve the national strength and pride while working to extend peace, freedom and human rights throughout the world.