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History and Government
History: Before the arrival of Christopher Columbus in North America in 1492, the continent was inhabited by peoples thought to have been descended from nomadic Mongolian tribes who had travelled across the Barents Sea. The first wave of European settlers, mainly English, French and Dutch, crossed the Atlantic in the 17th century and colonised the Eastern Seaboard. The restrictions on political rights and the punitive taxation which the British government imposed on the American colonists led to the American War of Independence (1775–1783), with the Declaration of Independence being signed in 1776. The outcome was a humiliating defeat for the English King, George III. The American Constitution born of this victory has been imitated by many other countries. A period of settlement, purchases from the French and Spanish, and annexation of Indian and Mexican lands followed.
By 1853, the boundaries of the United States were, with the exception of Alaska and Hawaii, as they are today. Economic activity in the southern States centred on plantation agriculture dependent on slavery. Attempts by liberally inclined Republicans, led by Abraham Lincoln, to end slavery were fiercely opposed. The election of Lincoln to the presidency in 1861 precipitated a political crisis in which seven southern States (joined later by three others) seceded from the Union, resulting in the American Civil War. The more powerful and better equipped Union forces prevailed after four years of fighting. After the war, the country entered a period of consolidation, building up an industrial economy and settling the vast interior region of America known as the Midwest.
The mid- and late-19th century also saw the formulation of an American foreign policy with two principal elements: formal diplomatic and trading links were established with the old colonial powers; while on the American continent, the USA sought to establish itself as the regional power – a policy espoused by the Monroe Doctrine (1822) which laid the basis for intervention in support of the USA’s ‘national interest’. The latter has been a constant feature of US policy ever since. Successful diplomatic and commercial overtures were also made to Japan, paving the way for the growth of US power in the Pacific. In Europe, US intervention in 1917 proved decisive for the Allies, and signalled the emergence of the USA as a global power.
Driven by free-market economic policies and innovative developments in technology and production methods – notably the growth of the motor industry – the USA had by this time undeniably become the world’s leading economy. The USA entered World War II following the Japanese attack on the US fleet at Pearl Harbour, although its earlier neutrality had been decidedly favourable to the Allied Powers, especially Britain.
Domestic post-war politics have revolved around the struggle between the Republicans and Democrats, the only two parties of any significance. The Republican Party, often referred to as the GOP or Grand Old Party, picks up most corporate support and substantial backing from wealthy individuals; the Democrats are perceived as the party supported by particular interest groups, thus the ‘labor vote’, ‘black vote’, ‘Jewish vote’ and so on, and as having more liberal views on social and welfare policy.
The Democratic Party is, however, by no means left-wing and equally as keen as its GOP counterpart to attract the votes of ‘middle America’ – the mostly white, middle-income, middle-class folk who form the backbone of the US electorate (ie the quarter of the population who actually vote). Both Republican and Democratic candidates have been elected to the presidency with roughly equal frequency over the history of the nation, but Republicans have been more frequent in the White House since 1945 while the Democrats have dominated Congress. World War II also saw the birth of nuclear weapons and the superpower conflict that has, until recently, dominated modern international relations. The essence of post-war US foreign policy has been the struggle against the spread of communist influence, not only for ideological reasons but also for economic motives.
Despite the dangers of nuclear escalation, the USA has never eschewed military intervention, either directly, or by proxy. The Korean War of the 1950s (under UN auspices), the ill-fated Vietnam war and the Middle East have all seen US troops engaged while many other countries have experienced the effects of military forces financed and supported by discreet US backing.
The Reagan administration, which came to office in 1980, reinvigorated the ideological struggle against communism. However, relations between the USA and the former USSR improved greatly after 1985 owing, almost entirely, to the new Soviet foreign policy adopted by the Gorbachev government. In 1988, Reagan’s Vice-President George Bush (father of the current president) was elected to the White House. Bush presided over the collapse of the Soviet bloc and the demise of communism as a political opponent. So, as far as the USA was concerned, the Cold War was won and foreign policy needed realignment. Thus we have the ‘New World Order’, a loosely defined notion coined by Bush senior before the war against Iraq in early 1991. The enemy, so to speak, was best defined in a prophetic speech by one US official as a ‘swirling pot of poison made up of zealots, crazies, drug traffickers and terrorists’.
Under the aegis of the New World Order, Bush senior launched two major military campaigns – against Panama and Iraq. For all his engagements on the international stage, Bush senior’s apparent neglect of the domestic situation was exploited by his opponent at the 1992 presidential election, the Democratic Governor of Arkansas, Bill Clinton who won by a comfortable majority. After a shaky start, the Clinton administration got into its stride by embarking on two major policy initiatives. The first was the conclusion of two key trade agreements: the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA); and the Uruguay round of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) from which emerged the World Trade Organisation. The second was a plan to overhaul the unfair and hugely expensive US healthcare system; this task was entrusted to Clinton’s talented First Lady, Hilary Rodham Clinton (now a US Senator). The trade agreements were successfully concluded; the healthcare package failed.
Clinton’s foreign policy record improved after a poor start, beginning with the disastrous US involvement (through the UN) in Somalia which was largely a humiliation; Haiti almost went the same way although the position was later recovered. Thereafter, the Dayton accord that ended the Bosnian civil war was a success, favourably contrasting decisive US diplomatic and military action with the vacillations of the Europeans. The historic hard line of Cuba was somewhat softened, largely to the benefit of all concerned. In the Middle East, the Israeli–Palestinian accord was derailed by mutual suspicions and the excessive influence of hardliners on both sides. Further east, the ‘dual containment’ strategy designed to keep the twin pariahs, Iran and Iraq, in check has had mixed results.
At home, the early 1990s were a period of steady growth and rising prosperity and these were the main factors that gave Clinton a substantial opinion poll lead as the 1996 election campaign got under way. Divisions among the Republicans assisted. The challenger, Senate Republican leader Bob Dole, was easily seen off by Clinton in what was one of the least dramatic presidential elections in the history of the USA.
Clinton’s second term was dominated by a series of confrontations with Congress, both houses of which were under opposition Republican control, and specifically over his affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. Congress appointed a special prosecutor, Kenneth Starr, to investigate dissembling by Clinton about Lewinsky and other dubious episodes in his business and personal lives. Despite accumulating a mass of evidence, Starr was unable to persuade Congress to impeach Clinton, but the episode seriously tainted his presidency.
The economy was still booming, but Clinton’s appointed successor, Vice-President Al Gore, was unable to take full advantage during the presidential campaign in 2000. His Republican opponent, George W Bush, governor of Texas and son of former President George Bush, waged a much more effective campaign. The contest was ultimately decided, in circumstances that are still hotly disputed, by an extremely narrow margin in the state of Florida. Amid howls of complaint from the defeated Democrats, George W ‘Dubya’ Bush was returned to the White House.
Bush arrived in Washington as something of an unknown quantity, but defused criticism of his own lack of experience and expertise by assembling a Cabinet of seasoned Washington hands such as Dick Cheney (Vice-President) and Colin Powell (Secretary of State); a number of others had served under his father. Most, from Bush junior down, had close links with the oil industry so when the new administration, in one of its first major foreign policy decisions, pullled out of the Kyoto agreement on carbon dioxide emissions, there were strong protests but little surprise. Soon afterwards, the USA announced its intention to abrogate several arms control agreements. In every field, US foreign policy has now taken a more aggressive and nationalistic bent, especially after ‘9/11’.
Bush junior can hardly have expected to have taken the USA into war before the end of his first year in office, but the events of 11 September 2001 had a momentous and far-reaching impact upon the USA. The attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon brought terrorism to the USA in a manner it can barely have conceived of. The country demanded action, and Bush immediately despatched a substantial force to tackle and destroy the alleged perpetrators: the al-Qaeda movement headed by Osama bin laden and its hosts, the Taleban regime in Afghanistan. He also assembled a diplomatic coalition of some 40 countries including the Western allies, Russia and the former Soviet republics of Central Asia, India and Pakistan under the rubric of an International War Against Terrorism.
Through a dual strategy of aerial bombing and support for the existing opposition to the Taleban, the ‘Northern Alliance’ (see Afghanistan section), the USA was able to bring about the disintegration of the Afghan regime within weeks. By the end of the year, the Taleban regime and the infrastructure (such as it was) of al-Qaeda had been destroyed. Bin Laden, however, vanished without trace along with most of al-Qaeda’s senior personnel. The political future of Afghanistan is also highly uncertain – the new government’s writ barely runs outside Kabul – as is the next phase (if any) of the War Against Terrorism.
The Bush administration has since turned its sights upon the Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein. With support from Britain and others, the Americans have sought to use the United Nations as a vehicle to justify a military campaign to overthrow Saddam. There is widespread scepticism about the true motives: control of oil supplies, Middle eastern hegemony, and finishing off the job begun by Bush senior in 1991 have all been cited. As of the end of February 2003, it seems all but certain that the Americans will shortly begin an assault on Iraq. The strictly military aspect should present little difficulty: the problems are likely to begin with the construction of a new Iraqi government sufficiently coherent to hold the country together.
The more hawkish members of the Bush administration are keen to use the momentum gained during the Afghan campaign to carry the fight to other enemies of the USA: The most immediate problem after Iraq is North Korea (a fellow member of Bush junior’s ‘axis of evil’) which has been indulging in some high-stakes diplomatic brinkmanship over its nuclear and missile programmes.
US rhetoric – heavily influenced by a hawkish group of advisers to Bush junior largely drawn from the ranks of former Republican administrations – has been accompanied by a huge planned increase in defence spending, which includes a commitment to the so-called National Missile Defence programme (popularly known as ‘Son of Star Wars’).
Government: The USA is a Federal Republic with 50 States and the District of Columbia (as in ‘Washington, DC’), which lies between Maryland and Virginia. In addition, the USA has close associations with the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Guam and the US Virgin Islands and exercises trusteeship on behalf of the UN over several Pacific Island groups. The Constitution (the final arbiters of which are the members of the Supreme Court) ensures that the powers of the executive, legislature, judiciary, presidency and the individual states are balanced by constitutional procedures. The President is elected by an electoral college system, based on universal adult suffrage, every four years. No president may be elected to serve more than two full terms of office. The current President is George W Bush, with Dick Cheney as Vice-President. The legislature is bicameral; the Senate has two members from each state while the larger House of Representatives allocates seats on the basis of population. Collectively these two bodies are known as Congress. Each state enjoys a fairly high degree of self-government.
Copyright © 2003 Columbus Publishing Ltd.
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