Stupid question of the day...

[Keith]

So ok, I'm totally not into politics at all but for some reason, Laura and I enjoy watching West Wing. I know that government is different in Canada from the US but can someone tell me the differences between the role of a Governor, Secretary, Congressman, and Speakerman? Are these all elected officials? I know I could easily look this up but I figured it's a slow day so I wanted to see who know the answer to this... BTW, don't just cut n' paste stuff from the internet... :rolleyes:

Keith

[steppedinpunk]

blah, I'm on summer vacation... not in the mood to think about anything I learned in school...

[TJ]

governor, is the chief role of the the state. so basicly matt blunt missouri's governor is president of missouri, secertary is a appointed member of the presidents team of cabinent members. congressman is either senate (which has 100 members 2 from each state) and then house of represenatives. which is a group of 400 now i believe. basicly the congress has the most power they can over ride the president. and speaker man is head of the house of represenatives

[Keith]

So the hierachy structure would look like this?

President -> Vice-President -> Speaker man -> Congressman -> Governor?

[marcsmt]

So the hierachy structure would look like this?

President -> Vice-President -> Speaker man -> Congressman -> Governor?
Somewhat. There is a vertical power structure, and a horizontal power structure.

The horizontal power structure works in that the President, Congress (The Senate and House), and the Supreme Court all have checks and balances on each other. They are all essentially on the same level, as far as power is concerned. On the state level, it works the same way. The Governor, the State Legislature and the State Courts all have checks on balances on one another.

Consequently, the federal government has vertical power over state governments.

[Mike]

So the hierachy structure would look like this?

President -> Vice-President -> Speaker man -> Congressman -> Governor?

Keith not exactly. Its really confussing how things work. The chain of sucession is really complex. I have a book on it if you want it.

[2SLO]

wrong. i am king dingaling and thats that.

[mstewar]

Keith not exactly. Its really confussing how things work. The chain of sucession is really complex. I have a book on it if you want it.

yeah.. this is not easily explainable in a short post.. perhaps we should have a class for keith and laura.. :)

[Matthew/E36]

Ill provide conspiracy stories...Ill let someone else provide the flow charts and diagrams.

[PitchBlack00]

Well Bush's system is ground breaking in the manner that it goes:
Vice-President>President>Speaker of the House>etc

[TJ]

or just watch the school house rock episode on this

and the best thing to remember is freedom cost a buck o five

[ShadowDancer]

remember freedom cost a buck o five

buwahhaaahhhahahah ...that' gold jerry, gold. So who is going to pay their buck o five?

[stevem99]

Keith,

It's not that confusing- I think the main thing you need to know first is the difference between State and Federal government.

"United States of America" each state is soveriegn however we have the federal government which has the primary purpose of defense. Throw some value-added services in there and that's our federal government. All citizens pay federal income taxes which help fund initiatives of the federal government. One of the federal governments main pulls in getting states to abide by certain rules or regulations is the withholding of federal aid. For example the federal government might give a certain amount of money to states for highway maintenance or construction. Our federal government might be in favor of a law that says you can't have open containers in vehicles but here we have a state that doesn't have or enforce this law- well our federal government might refuse to give them those funds to sanction them. They also do things like fine states for not abiding by laws.

Remember that at the federal level each state has their own representation so they can basically get 'their say' in how things are run.

So really- a state governer is basically the president of that state- with his (or her) own agenda for running that state and his (or her) own subordinates. You can even think about how this structure trickles down to counties and then to cities where each have their own elected officials and rules.

The president of the United States is responsible for leading all of the states in a direction. At this level the President is involved in world initiatives, trading agreements and 'over-arching' things like that.. The president will have his (or her) own set of subordinates(obviously). A little like a monarch (depending)- more like a prime minister though.

Remember when I said each state gets their say in the federal government- this happens through two entities- the House of Representatives and the Senate. Think of it like a filtering system- bills are brought before the House of Representatives and then work their way up to the Senate and then if the senate approves the bill it is passed on to the president where it can be made into a law.

Anyway i hope that clears some of it up. Once you know the basic structure you can focus on specifcs like what the speak of the house does.

-SteveM

PS that got a little long so i hope i didn't contradict my opening statement :)

[steppedinpunk]

buwahhaaahhhahahah ...that' gold jerry, gold.

thats old brandon, old.

lol, just playin, you know I love you.
you need a new saying though... :P

[Keith]

Thanks Steve... that cleared things up... :)

Keith

[ShadowDancer]

thats old brandon, old.

lol, just playin, you know I love you.
you need a new saying though... :P


nahh....what I do need tho is some bubble tea.

[steppedinpunk]

nahh....what I do need tho is some bubble tea.

mmm me too