USA Politic Analysis

Joe Biden (left) and Kamala Harris (right) President and Vice President of the United States since 2021.

The United States is a bicameral presidential federal republic. The form of government is that of
representative democracy: the right to vote is granted to American citizens over the age of 18; it is not
mandatory.

American citizens are governed at three levels: the federal level from the capital Washington, D.C., the
state level and the local government level (counties, municipalities). Currency, foreign policy, the army
and foreign trade are the responsibility of the federal state. The country is made up of fifty federated
states which have full sovereignty in many areas: justice, education, transport, etc. Each of the 50 states
has its own flag, governor, congress and government. Legislation differs from constituency to
constituency. All of the states use common law with the exception of Louisiana which has retained the
principle of the Napoleonic code.

The American Constitution is the oldest modern constitution still in force (1787). Supplemented by the
Bill of Rights and numerous amendments, it guarantees individual rights to American citizens. To be
adopted, an amendment must obtain the approval of three quarters of the Federated States.

The three powers (legislative, executive and judicial) are separated:

Executive power is exercised by the president and the vice-president. They are elected together for
four years, by indirect universal suffrage. Each state is represented by its college of grand electors
whose number is approximately proportional to the number of inhabitants of the state in question.
Since 1951, the president can serve only two terms. The president is the commander-in-chief, but
cannot declare war. He resides in the White House and has veto power over bills. He appoints the
members of his cabinet and directs the Administration.

Legislative power rests with a Congress composed of two chambers, the Senate and the House of
Representatives, which sit on Capitol Hill. The House of Representatives has 435 members, elected from
congressional districts for two-year terms. The number of representatives depends on the demographic
weight of the states: the least populated send a representative to Congress, while California has 53 seats
there. Each state elects two senators for six years, regardless of its population. The Senate is renewed by
thirds every two years.
 The Supreme Court is the highest court in the federal court system. Composed of nine judges for life
chosen by the president with the agreement of the Senate, it interprets the laws and verifies their
constitutionality. It is the apex of the judiciary in the United States and the country's court of last
instance.

The White House, symbol of executive power.

The Capitol, seat of legislative power.

The Supreme Court, representative of the judiciary.

Political life is dominated by two parties: the Republican Party and the Democratic Party. The Republican
Party, founded in 1854, is currently considered conservative or right-wing, its symbol is the elephant and
its color red since the 2000s39. The Democratic Party, founded in 1828, is described as liberal (in the
American sense of the term): it is classified at the center-left and its color is blue. Minor parties exist,
including the Libertarian Party, Green Party USA, Reform Party, and Constitution Party. The Northeast,
Great Lakes, and West Coast states are considered more progressive than those in the South and the
Rocky Mountains.

Associations and organizations

United States Conference of Mayors

The United States Conference of Mayors is an official, non-partisan organization that brings together all
American cities with a population of 30,000 or more. Today, they number 1,408 cities. These cities are
represented within the Conference by their elected representative, the mayor40.

States and territories

Main articles: States of the United States, States of the United States by order of entry into the Union,
States of the United States by population, States of the United States by area, and Territories of the
United States.

The United States is made up of fifty states and one federal district, the District of Columbia. The forty-
eight contiguous states — all states except Alaska and Hawaii — are called the contiguous United States
(abbreviated as CONUS (CONtiguous United States)) or “lower 48” (“the lower 48”) and occupy the
major part of central North America. Alaska is separated from the contiguous United States by Canada;
together they form the continental United States. Hawaii, the fiftieth state, is located in the Pacific.
In addition to the territories (Puerto Rico, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, United States Virgin Islands,
American Samoa), the United States also includes several other areas that are not suitable or even
prohibited for habitat. Palmyra Atoll is unincorporated territory, but it is uninhabited. United States
Minor Outlying Islands are uninhabited islands and atolls in the Pacific and Caribbean Sea. Additionally,
the US Navy has established a major naval base in Guantánamo Bay in Cuba since 1898 and on Diego
Garcia Atoll in the Indian Ocean since 1971.

Main Features

Denali, the highest point in the United States (Alaska).

Death Valley features the lowest point in the United States (California).

The United States ranks fourth in the world in area (9,631,417 km2) behind Russia, Canada and China41.
With 7% of the land surface of the planet, the size of the American territory is comparable to that of the
European continent. The states of Alaska and Texas are thus larger than any other European country
(excluding Russia). Located in North America, the 48 contiguous states (sometimes called "Mainland" or
"Continental United States"), whose shape evokes a pentagon, stretch over four time zones. A distance
of 4,280 km separates the Atlantic coast to the east and the Pacific coast to the west42. To these two
coasts, we must add the one that borders the Gulf of Mexico in the southeast of the country, between
the Mexican border and the extreme south of Florida. You have to travel 2,500 km to connect Canada to
Mexico. The United States has 12,034 km of land borders43, 8,893 km with Canada (including 2,477 km
with Alaska), 3,141 km with Mexico and 28 km with Cuba (Naval base in Guantánamo Bay). The total
length of the American coasts is 19,924 km.

Together, the Missouri and Mississippi rivers run more than 6,000 km in the Mainland, the equivalent of
the course of the Amazon in South America. The last two federal states are Hawaii, a volcanic
archipelago in the North Pacific Ocean, and Alaska, northwest of Canada. In the eastern Caribbean, the
island of Puerto Rico is an unincorporated territory.

The country's highest point, Denali (6,190 meters), is in Alaska. Outside Alaska, the main peak is Mount
Whitney in California (4,421 meters). The lowest elevation is at Badwater in Death Valley National Park
in California (−86 meters).

The vastness of the territory, the great variety of reliefs and climates produce very diverse landscapes
depending on the region. The large natural ensembles of the country roughly follow a meridian
organization: to the east, an increasingly wide plain going towards Florida, borders the Atlantic Ocean.
To the east-northeast of the country, New England is subject to polar air masses in winter. The South is
subject to tropical influences. Towards the interior follow the foothills and then the Appalachian
mountains, which culminate at 2,037 meters above sea level and are covered with forests.
The plains and plateaus of the center of the country (New France) are drained by the river system of the
Mississippi and the Missouri. To the northeast, the Great Lakes represent an important shipping route
connected to the St. Lawrence River. The southern regions (from Texas to Florida) are subject to the
passage of tropical cyclones (hurricanes and tropical storms) at the end of the summer, their climate is
humid subtropical except southern Florida (Miami region) which is already tropical . To the east of the
Rocky Mountains stretch the fertile Great Plains and then the semi-arid High Plains, from Mexico to
Canada. In the United States is Tornado Alley, an area spanning several states or parts of states where
tornadoes frequently occur.

The American West (New Spain) is dominated by the Rocky Mountains, the Cascade Range and the
Sierra Nevada which frame valleys (Central Valley), plateaus (Colorado Plateau, Columbia Plateau) and
high altitude basins ( Big pool). The Rocky Mountains culminate at about 4,401 meters in Colorado: the
climate is mountainous and the vegetation is layered. To the north is the Yellowstone supervolcano. The
interior basins are marked by aridity (Mojave Desert, Death Valley). The Pacific coast is dominated by
mountain ranges covered with forests. The maritime influence of the Pacific is immediately blocked by
the mountains and is limited to a narrow coastal strip. The region is subject to volcanic risk (Mount Saint
Helens, Mount Rainier) and seismic (San Andreas fault). The coast of the states of Washington and
Oregon is subject to a very humid oceanic climate, that of California has a Mediterranean-type climate.

Located at the northwestern tip of North America, Alaska is a state dominated by mountains and active
volcanoes (Alexander Archipelago, Aleutian Islands): the coast is subject to oceanic influences while the
far north is subject to a polar climate. Finally, the Hawaiian archipelago is made up of a series of hot
spots and has a tropical climate.

The 331 million Americans are unevenly distributed across the country. The population density is, in
fact, higher in the east of the country than in the west. Half of the population is concentrated east of the
100th meridian with the megalopolis of BosWash, the shores of the Great Lakes (Chicago, Detroit,
Milwaukee, Cleveland) and ChiPitts, the Appalachians and the Atlantic coast. Beyond the 100th
meridian, the densities decrease for historical reasons – the settlement took place from east to west –
and natural (aridity). The Pacific facade is denser with the Californian axis (San Francisco, Los Angeles)
and the arm of Puget Sound known as Pugetopolis (Seattle, Portland). The cities and urban areas of
Austin and Dallas in Texas also contain millions of residents, as do Orlando and Miami in Florida. The
average density of the United States is 31 inhabitants per km2.

The Americans focus on the coastlines, including those of the Great Lakes. West of the 100th meridian
to the Pacific Rim and Alaska, densities are generally low, except in a few isolated towns and in
California. The latter is the most populous state in the United States and continues to attract internal
and external migratory flows.

Cities and urban population

Main articles: City (United States), List of the most populous cities in the United States, and
Metropolitan area (United States).

More than three quarters of the population is urban. The United States ranks third in the world for
urban population, in absolute terms44. More than 30% of Americans live in a metropolis of more than
five million inhabitants45. These agglomerations are recent and structured in networks. Their economic
weight is considerable for the country. They experience difficulties related to immigration, social change
and globalization.

The BosWash megalopolis, a group of urban areas in the northeast of the country, stretches 800 km
from Boston to Washington, D.C. via New York.