US system of goverment

Discussion in 'Politics' started by Asguard, Jan 25, 2008.

  1. Asguard Kiss my dark side Valued Senior Member

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    I would like to know the minsterial positions in the US federal goverment and the states and cities

    I am trying to compare them to the Australian minsterial postes
     
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  3. Tiassa Let us not launch the boat ... Valued Senior Member

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    The current list

    Their titles are generally "Secretary", and they compose what is called the Cabinet. What most people think of as the Cabinet is actually a more limited notion than what it actually is. The current executive departments and their heads:

    Dept. of State - Sec. Condoleeza Rice
    Dept. of Treasury - Sec. Henry Paulson
    Dept. of Defense (DoD) - Sec. Robert Gates
    Dept. of Justice - Atty. Gen. Michael Mukasey
    Dept. of Interior - Sec. Dirk Kempthorne
    Dept. of Agriculture - Sec. Chuck Conner, acting
    Dept. of Commerce - Sec. Carlos Gutierrez
    Dept. of Labor - Sec. Elaine Chao
    Dept. of Health and Human Services (HHS) - Sec. Michael Leavitt
    Dept. of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) - Sec. Alphonso Jackson
    Dept. of Transportation - Sec. Mary Peters
    Dept. of Energy (DoE) - Sec. Samuel Bodman
    Dept. of Education - Sec. Margaret Spellings
    Dept. of Veterans' Affairs (VA) - Sec. James Peake
    Dept. of Homeland Security - Sec. Michael Chertoff​

    There are several administrative members of the Cabinet as well:

    Vice President of the United States - Dick Cheney
    White House Chief of Staff - Josh Bolten
    Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) - Stephen Johnson
    Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) - Jim Nussle
    Director of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) - John Walters
    U.S. Trade Representative - Susan Schwab​

    Wikipedia lists three additional people included in the pay grade for Cabinet officials:

    Chairman of the Federal Reserve ("The Fed") - Ben Bernanke
    Commissioner of the Social Security Administration (SSA) - Michael Astrue
    Director of National Intelligence - Mike McConnell​

    And the Wikipedia article on the Cabinet is pretty good, with some basic discussion of the Constitutional basis and history of its operation. It's what I used for the lists above.

    (I suppose over the long run we can try to include the links for all these departments, but I'm not up to it at the moment. Apologies, of course. I'll try to get back to it over the next couple days.)
     
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  5. Asguard Kiss my dark side Valued Senior Member

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    In Australia its different, ministers can be ministers without being in cabinate

    This is from the previous goverment (aparently the parlimentry libary hasnt been updated). This is just the federal goverment

     
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  7. Tiassa Let us not launch the boat ... Valued Senior Member

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    Damn. That's a lot of Ministers and Secretaries.

    I haven't a clue right now how many Congressional committees we have at present. I mean, there's 535 people between the two houses, and I wouldn't be surprised if, when we add it all up, there is more than that number of committees.

    How long do your MPs serve, and how are they elevated to Ministers and Secretaries? Parliamentary election? PM appointment? And is it something they are capable of doing quickly?
     
  8. Asguard Kiss my dark side Valued Senior Member

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    Umm, the PM is always apointed by a vote of cuacious. Not the sort you have, here it means all the parlimentry members of the labor party (not actually sure what the Librals call it)

    In the Libral goverments the PM apoints his ministery, in Labor it USED to be done by cauause but after the last election Kevin Rudd demanded the right to apoint his own Ministry

    As for how long it takes to rise through the ranks i guess that would depend on tallent. 2 star recruites from the labor party got parlimentry secretry jobs after the last election (there first), but there have been back benches that have spent there whole lives there. There is an election for the house of reps and half the senate every 3 years andn 3 months at the most (in the federal goverment its the PM who decides when to call it, in SA they are fixed terms) which a lot of people think are to short because the goverment is always in election mode rather than doing its job.

    Oh and that had nothing to do with the parlimentry commites, they are a bipadisan thing that is set by the parliment. All of those members are from the Libral and National parties because at that time they held power. Now all those posts are filled by the Labor party

    Oh and one other thing, they are not set in stone. The party in goverment can chose to add or delete from that list (although some will never go like the tresure, Atornie General ect). For instance Rudd has a Enviroment minister, a water minister and a minster for climate change
     
  9. Asguard Kiss my dark side Valued Senior Member

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    OH and there are 150 members of the house of reps and 76 senators in the federal parliament


    This is the state government of SA's ministries
    I cant find out how many representatives there are in two houses of the state parliament at the moment
     
  10. cosmictraveler Be kind to yourself always. Valued Senior Member

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  11. Asguard Kiss my dark side Valued Senior Member

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    Oh tiassa i forgot to mention one thing that i probably should have for those who dont know the australian system

    Everyone of those people are elected members of parliment NOT public servants. They each also have to report to there local electrate as well as to the parliment for there ministerial actions

    For example John Howard was the member for belolong and became the second sitting PM to ever lose his own seat.

    Now the ex-Minister for Defence, The Hon Dr Brendan Nelson MP (which stands for member of parliment in case anyone was interested) is now the oposition leader.

    As for the senior public servants like the secretry of the tresury and people like the chairman of the reserve bank i have no idea who they are (actually it would probably take me a lifetime to find out who the top PS in every goverment department)

    Our system works like the English system. If you have ever seen yes minister thats kind of like how our system works

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  12. superstring01 Moderator

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    I love watching Prime Minister's Questions on CSPAN (sometimes I even catch the Australian ones too!)

    ~String
     
  13. Asguard Kiss my dark side Valued Senior Member

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    if your interested in the australian parliment go to this http://www.aph.gov.au/ site click either the house of reps or the senate and you can watch paliment (and the commities if your interested) when they are sitting live

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