The last century surely belonged to United States. U.S dominated the world in of economy, technology, education, military supremacy and independent thinking. What made this great country worthy of maintaining such global dominance for so long? There has to be something very special in the way affairs of the state are run. For that, The US Congress is responsible. United States has one of the best democratic systems in the world that evolved after so many experiments. This system has a key role in success of this country.
The US Congress is responsible for enacting all the laws which have made the American society a successful one. As far as structure of US Congress is concerned, it consists of two houses. The House of Representatives also called the lower house and the senate i.e. the upper house. The powers for legislation are divided among these two houses. Both these houses are empowered with special powers. The House of Representatives can initiate revenue generating bills crucial for economy and also can initiate an impeachment movement. The Senate on the other hand has the authority to approve the treaties and key appointments like judges, cabinet secretaries, ambassadors etc. The Senate has a more important role in legislation. The members enjoy longer terms, but are fewer in number.
Both these houses go side by side and consensus is necessary for approval of any legislation. This is one of the beauties of American democracy that there are people ready to debate and discuss issues. This provides a great feed back mechanism which helps in improving the system continuously. Since more brains are working for things and consensus is mandatory, the chances for laws that don’t work in favor of people are very slim. That is why their system is so successful.
The members of both these houses are elected. The timing of these elections is adjusted such that they cannot take place simultaneously. Again, that works for the advantage of general public because if they are not satisfied with the policies of current government, then they can give chance to opposing party for devising laws and putting pressure on government for improving the system.
As far as members of these houses are concerned, the lower house can have 435 members in accordance with the law. These members are selected by direct elections. Each state has a quota of members depending on its population. Each member can serve for tenure of 2 years. Similarly, there are two elected members for all the states serving for 6 years tenure.
There have been healthy procedures for enacting or amending laws in the Congress. Debate is the key. There can be some negative tactics too adopted by the parties in which they delay the procedures by long speeches and try to delay the proceedings. This is technically called filibuster. There has been a remedy called cloture that can make sure no time is wasted. But for that, clear majority is needed.
So, US government has healthy procedures for law making which attribute to the success US has had in the history. The system is not flawless, but encourages discussion which is crucial for democracy.