Vocabulary:

a county- избирательный округ

party convention – партийный съезд

“Electoral College”- коллегия выборщиков

nomination- выдвижение кандидата

to cast a ballot- проголосовать

2. Find the English equivalents for:

- зарегистрироваться для голосования;

- президентские выборы;

- избирательный бюллетень;

- избирательная кампания.

3. Look through all the numbers in the sentences and say if they are true or false. Give your variant if necessary:

1. American citizens under 18 may vote.

2. In 1988, at the Presidential elections, only 86 per cent of the registered voters took part in the elections.

3. There are 40 registration laws in the USA which are obligatory for the country.

4. In 1990 only 50 per cent cast their ballots.

4. Place the sentences in a right order. Try to retell the text:

1. Americans who want to vote must put down their names in a register before the election.

2. Each state can determine its own registration procedure.

3. Any American citizen, over 18 years of age has the rights to vote.

4. There is always a number of citizens who can vote but don’t.

5. There is a different registration law for each state.

5. Speak on:

1. The elections in your country.

Home reading

Great Britain

STATE SYSTEM OF GREAT BRITAIN

Britain is a multiparty democracy (state system). It's complex and unique as it is the product of a long period of historical development which resulted in the Glorious Revolution and establishment of the Crowned Republic in 1688. The absence of a revolutionary upheaval since then, i.e. for more than 300 years, the lack of a document known as a written constitution, the tendency to preserve outward forms when the inner substance is changed — all this makes the English polity both complex and unique.

Officially Great Britain is a state of the constitutional monarchy. That means that at the head of the state is monarch (Queen or King). But the power of the Queen is not absolute, it is greatly limited by Parliament.

British polity comprises three main ruling bodies — monarchy, parliament and government. The oldest of the three institutions is monarchy. In many countries their constitution enforce a strict separation between the three branches of power — the executive, the legislative and the judiciary. Britain has some separation but not very much. The legal system is independent to a large degree: although the government of the day appoints judges, it cannot interfere with their work and it cannot get rid of those appointed by the previous government. But the executive and the legislature are not separate at all. In fact, the former is part of the latter, because government is formed within Parliament. Judiciary is also performed by Parliament.

(1400)

Ancient institution

The monarchy is the most ancient secular institution in the United Kingdom, going back at least to the 9th century. The Queen can trace her descent from the Saxon King Egbert, who united all England under his sovereignty in 829. The continuity of the monarchy has been broken only once by a republic that lasted only 11 years (1649-1660). Monarchy is founded on the hereditary principle and it has never been abandoned. The succession passed automatically to the oldest male child or, in the absence of males, to the oldest female offspring of the monarch. Quite recently the rules of descent have been changed. Now the succession passes to the oldest child irrespective of its sex.

The coronation of the sovereign follows some months or a year after the accession. The ceremony has remained much the same in substance for over 1000 years. It consists of recognition and acceptance of the new monarch by the people; the taking by the monarch of an oath of royal duties; the anointing and crowning (after communion); and the rendering of homage by the Lords Spiritual and Temporal.

The coronation service, conducted by the Archbishop of Canterbury, is held at Westminster Abbey in the presence of representatives of the Lords, the Commons and all the great public interests in the United Kingdom, the Prime Minister and leading members of the Commonwealth countries, representatives of foreign states.

By the Act of Parliament, the monarch must be a Protestant. The Queen's title in the United Kingdom is "Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and of Her other Realms and Territories Queen, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith".

For several centuries the monarch personally exercised supreme executive, legislative and judicial powers but with the growth of Parliament and the courts the direct exercise of these functions progressively decreased. The 17th-century struggle between the Crown and Parliament led to the establishment of a constitutional monarchy.

(2000)