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[00:30.86]In this section, you will hear a mini-lecture.
[00:35.67]You will hear the lecture ONCE ONLY. While listening, take notes on the important points.
[00:42.99]Your notes will not be marked,
[00:45.30]but you will need them to complete a gap-filling task after the mini-lecture.
[00:51.09]When the lecture is over, you’ll be given two minutes to check your notes,
[00:56.34]and another 10 minutes to complete the gap-filling task.
[01:00.38]Now listen to the mini-lecture.
[01:03.67]Today we will focus on the Government in Britain and the United States.
[01:10.01]Let’s have a look at them one after the other.
[01:12.97]Government in Britain can be divided into National government and Local government.
[01:19.75]The center of government in Britain is Parliament,
[01:23.47]which makes all the important laws for the country about crimes and punishment, taxation, etc.
[01:31.01]Parliament is made up of the House of Commons, the House of Lords and the monarch.
[01:37.47]The Houses of Parliament are in Westminster in London
[01:41.62]and sometimes “Westminster” itself is used to mean Parliament.
[01:47.42]The House of commons, or the Commons, is the lower but more powerful of the two Houses.
[01:55.73]It has 650 elected members, called Members of Parliament or MPs,
[02:03.61]each representing people in a particular area or constituency.
[02:08.53]The House of Lords, or the Lords, is the higher but less powerful of the two Houses.
[02:15.53]It has over 1,000 members, none of whom is elected.
[02:20.56]These members include: people who have titles like Lord or Viscount
[02:26.25]which have been passed down to them on the death of their father;
[02:29.86]people who are given titles as a reward for their long service in public life,
[02:35.66]but whose children do not inherit their title;
[02:38.50]and some important leaders of the Church of England, such as Archbishops and Bishops.
[02:44.85]The government brings bills to the House of Commons, which are discussed by MPs.
[02:51.96]The bills then go to the House of Lords to be discussed.
[02:56.55]The House of Lords can suggest changes to a bill, but does not have the power to reject it .
[03:04.21]When bills come back to the Commons,
[03:06.94]MPs vote on them and if they are passed they are signed by the monarch and become Acts of Parliament.
[03:14.60]At present England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland are all governed by Parliament in Westminster.
[03:23.24]In Northern Ireland the political parties are different but their MPs still go to the House of Commons.
[03:31.11]In Scotland there is a lot of discussion
[03:34.39]about whether Scotland should have some separate or partly separate form of government.
[03:39.53]The same is true in Wales.
[03:41.61]The Local government in Britain, also known as Councils, can make small laws, that is bylaws,
[03:50.58]which only apply in their area, but these are usually about small, local matters.
[03:56.60]For instance, they may be about fines that will be made for people who park in certain streets.
[04:03.27]Councils are paid for by local taxes
[04:07.42]and also by an amount of money given to them each year by the national government.
[04:12.89]Their main job is the organizing and providing of local services,
[04:18.47]e.g. hospitals, schools, libraries, public transport, street-cleaning, etc.
[04:26.02]They are also responsible for setting the amount of local tax
[04:30.06]that people must pay and for collecting this tax.
[04:33.78]Local councils are elected by people within each town, city, or county area.
[04:40.02]The people who are elected, known as councilors, usually represent one of the national political parties,
[04:47.89]but are often elected
[04:49.43]because of their policies on local issues rather than the national policies of their party.
[04:55.33]Now let’s move to the topic of Government in the US.
[04:59.70]All levels of government in the US, including federal, state, and local,
[05:05.61]are elected by the people of the country.
[05:08.13]First, we’ll talk about the federal government.
[05:11.74]The constitution of the US specifically limits the power of the federal, or national,
[05:18.30]government mainly to defense, foreign affairs, printing money,
[05:23.40]controlling trade and relations between the states, and protecting human rights.
[05:28.54]The federal government is made up of the Congress , the President, and the Supreme Court.
[05:35.00]Congress, the central law-making body in the US,
[05:38.94]is made up of the House of Representatives and the Senate.
[05:43.31]The House of Representatives is the lower but more important of the two houses of Congress.
[05:49.33]It has 435 members, called Representatives or Congressmen.
[05:55.56]The number of Representatives for each state depends on the size of the population of the state,
[06:02.67]with each state having at least one Representative.
[06:06.61]The Senate is the higher but less powerful of the two houses of Congress.
[06:12.73]It has 100 members, called Senators, elected by their state.
[06:18.09]Each state has two Senators. Congress decides whether a BILL becomes law.
[06:24.65]If the Senate and the House of Representatives both agree to a bill, the President is asked to agree.
[06:32.42]The President can veto the bill,
[06:35.70]but Congress can still make it a law if 2/3 of the members of each house agree to it.
[06:42.81]Second, we’ll learn something about the state government.
[06:46.96]The state government has the greatest influence in people’s daily lives.
[06:52.44]Each state has its own written Constitution,
[06:55.93]and among the states there are sometimes great differences in law
[07:00.54]on matters such as property, crime, health and education.
[07:05.35]The highest elected official of each state is the Governor.
[07:09.84]Each state also has one or two elected lawmaking bodies
[07:14.21]whose members represent the various parts of the state.
[07:18.04]Third, let’s have a look at the local government.
[07:22.20]The local government concerns laws made at the town, city or county level.
[07:28.00]These laws are usually limited to a small area and concern such things as traffic,
[07:34.56]where and when alcoholic drinks can be sold, or keeping animals.
[07:39.26]It is the highest elected official of a town or city Council.
[07:43.96]Every law at every level of government must be in agreement with the United States constitution.
[07:50.97]Any citizen who thinks he or she has not been given their rights under the law
[07:56.76]may argue their case through all the courts up to the Supreme Court,
[08:02.01]which is the final Court of Appeal in the US, if necessary,
[08:06.06]and any law which is found to be not in agreement with the constitution cannot be kept in force.
[08:13.71]To sum up, the governments in Britain and the US just bear different structures and layers.
[08:20.50]Of course, they are made on the basis of each country’s history, cultural and social norms, and so on.
[08:27.39]So, government in each country is just the embodiment of all its historical and current situations.
