It is a country located almost entirely in North America, also comprising a state in Oceania. It is made up of 50 states and one federal district: Washington D.C, the country capital. With 309 million inhabitants, it is the third most populous country in the world, although it is far from the first two, China and India.
Recognized as the empire of this era, it is the most powerful nation of all time. Established as an independent nation in 1776, it has achieved remarkable economic, scientific and military development.
It has historically been characterized by forcibly depriving other nations and countries of territories and natural resources in order to put them at the service of their enterprises and monopolies. With only 4% of the world’s population, it consumes 25% of the energy produced on the planet, and despite its wealth more than a third of its population has not insured medical care.
The name United States of America was proposed by Thomas Paine and was officially used for the first time in the Declaration of Independence, adopted on July 4th, 1776. It is often said in abridged form United States. Sometimes it is incorrectly called the United States of North America, resulting in a confusion in its gentilic.
In Spanish, the use of North America as an abbreviated form of the name of this country is not acceptable, since there are other nations that share the North American subcontinent. Similarly, America should not be used to refer exclusively to the United States, even though it is a widespread custom among English-speaking people to use the name of the continent as an abbreviated form of the name of the nation.
When writing, the abbreviation EE. UU. is usually used (Obligatorily with intermediate space and points for being an abbreviation and not an acronym) and, to a lesser extent, the acronym EUA. In Spanish it is totally incorrect, although frequent, the use of the English acronym USA.
At a time when Spain was a colonial power, it was called American to anyone who had been born somewhere in America, in the United Kingdom, a century after the discovery, the settlers who lived in the Portions of North America that this other kingdom was occupying , were called Americans, and that included the annexed territory called Nova Francia.
The influence of the United States in Europe and in the world has practically contributed to monopolizing the gentilic for itself. The use of “American” (American English) is now widespread in English-speaking countries and other languages ??because of its influence, although in the Spanish language the most common denomination is still that of Americans.
It must be taken into account that the term “American” is not exclusive to people living in the United States, American is anyone who lives in America, taking into account that America is a continent.
Government and politics
The United States is a constitutional, presidential and federal republic. Its government has limited powers enumerated in the Constitution of the United States but the president has a nuclear briefcase with which it can unleash the destruction of the world. Its form of government is known as “presidential democracy” because there is a president. The election of the president is indirect through compromisarios, with a decisive role of the corporations that contribute the millionaires? funds for the electoral publicity.
Electoral system
The powers of the president reach not only the leadership of the State, but also the executive power and the veto power of some decisions of the legislative power. There are three levels of government: the federal level, the state level, and the local level. The leaders of these territorial administrations are elected by voters by universal suffrage or appointed by other elected officials.
All Americans have the right to vote from the age of 18 but there are limits on the right to vote for those who are in prison for committing crimes that carry the restriction of the vote as an accessory penalty; In some states criminal and penitentiary legislation restricts the right to vote even though the sentence has been served, and residents of the federal district and the federal district are represented only by one Congressional delegate who does not vote. To exercise the right to vote you has to be registered.
The country is made up of 50 autonomous states in its internal regime. The main political parties are the Republican and the Democrat Party, which dominate the political scene, that?s why some consider the system of this country as a bipartisan democracy but authors like Michael Moore speak of there being only one party: the rich ones. Other minor parties are the Green Party, the Constitution Party and the Libertarian Party but their role is symbolic because they do not have the economic resources for a national campaign, they are virtually unrepresentative because the Democratic and Republican parties have More than 95% of the territorial representation.
The US electoral system, despite its central role in the political system of that country, presents a series of contradictions increasingly pronounced as the nation has expanded, both in terms of territory and in terms of the definition of Regional and global imperialist interests.
The participation of citizens in electoral processes, whether as voters or candidates, presents serious impediments, which make the practice move away from what can be considered paradigmatic in the exercise of democracy.
Many impediments are put in place for electors to vote because the elections are held on a business day and it is necessary to move to where the appropriate electoral college functions, since voting is not compulsory and the responsibility to vote falls entirely on the citizen, many people do not vote.