Access English Challenge | US Political System
Cornelsen Verlag
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hyr94enacv4

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0:00 [Music] hello and welcome to the american challenge which today really is an american
0:15 challenge not just an english one i was thinking about the political system
0:22 in the usa the other day and well i couldn't get my head around it who votes for who and where does everyone go once
0:32 they've been voted for it's so different to the political system where i come from in britain which i know sounds a bit
0:40 crazy sometimes but uh that's what i call mara mara knows everything about american politics she can explain it to us
0:53 hey david what's up hi mara uh yeah the other day um i was thinking about the political system in america and um
1:02 well to be honest i don't really understand it but the british system makes total sense to you david
1:10 well what don't you understand um why do you only have two political parties uh you mean the democrats
1:21 and the republicans yeah the donkey and the elephant well there are a lot more parties than just two
1:28 but they don't have much of a chance against the big ones so your parliament is basically made up of
1:37 two big political parties which parliament are you talking about the senate or the house of representatives
1:45 you have two parliaments well we don't call them parliaments we call them congress now i'm really confused
1:54 well there's the senate and the house of representatives and they meet here at the capitol in washington d.c ah i see two parliaments under
2:04 one roof yeah and the senate has 100 senators two from each state for the uh 50 states yeah david your math's really on today
2:18 yeah and how many members are there in the house of representatives 435 all elected directly by the people
2:28 so that's about nine representatives per state well not quite you see the house of representatives is proportional
2:38 that means that a state like california which has the biggest population of any state in the u.s has more representatives than a state with fewer
2:46 people like indiana and what is the smallest state in america well the state with the fewest amount of people
2:55 is wyoming so it only has one representative in the house of representatives ah okay and um what about congress
3:05 how many members does congress have well there's no third parliament congress is like an umbrella term for the senate and the house of representatives together
3:18 okay and and what does congress actually do oh basically they're responsible for making the laws
3:26 but not without the president of course i almost forgot the president is the president a member of congress too no the
3:35 president is well the president is the president and when the senate and the house of representatives decide on a law
3:42 the president signs it so it becomes official unless the president doesn't want it to become a law and then well
3:49 uh that's a whole other story so does the president always come from the political party with the most seats in the house of
4:00 representatives not always huh is that a problem oh it can be it can be you see
4:09 politicians don't always agree but it is their job to find a solution what if they can't well then it's up for me
4:18 it's up to americans to choose you see the president gets elected every four years senators every six years and
4:26 representatives every two years wow that sounds like a lot of elections it is that's why it's so important for
4:35 americans to vote so mara what are you a donkey or an elephant are you filming this david
4:47 um maybe well let's just say i like a government to look after all its people all of them let's see well talking of politics david the news is on
4:58 right now and i've got to get going okay i hope i was able to answer all your questions bye for now yeah you were very helpful
5:08 thanks i think i understand the american political system better now but i still don't know
5:18 what a filibuster is talking of filibusters that's my english challenge for you today
5:26 if you became the president of the united states of america what laws would you introduce i'm sure you can come up with some very
5:38 exciting new policies check out the worksheet and start your very own presidential campaign
5:47 now good luck [Music]
6:04 you