Introduction

Abstract

This book is an introduction to the government and politics of the United States of America. Its main subjects are the structure and organisation of the Federal government, and the politics of Federal policy-making. Its secondary subjects are the politics of states, cities, and regions, especially insofar as their governments and politics shape the formation and implementation of Federal policy. Central to the book and its subject is the Constitution of the United States, a document written in 1787, ratified by the then thirteen states in 1789, first formally amended in 1791 with the addition of the ten articles of the Bill of Rights, and on seventeen occasions since (since Appendix 1 and Appendix 2).