AQA A-Level Politics USA Government and Politics overview quiz quiz

Uncodified, flexible and easily amended

Based on parliamentary sovereignty

Codified, entrenched and supreme

Unwritten and conventional

A simple majority vote in the House of Representatives, with the Senate playing no part at all

A binding national referendum in which a majority of all registered American voters approves it

A ruling of the Supreme Court that reinterprets an existing clause of the original text

A two-thirds vote in Congress and ratification by three-quarters of the states

Confirming presidential appointments and ratifying treaties

Initiating all revenue and taxation bills, which the Senate is then forbidden from amending

Bringing articles of impeachment against the president and other federal officeholders

Electing the Speaker of the House and setting the legislative timetable for both chambers

A two-thirds vote in both chambers used to override a presidential veto of a bill

Extended debate that can block a bill unless 60 senators vote for cloture

The power of the chamber to declare an Act of Congress unconstitutional and strike it down

A fast-track procedure that allows a simple majority to confirm federal judges quickly

The constitutional veto

Acting as commander-in-chief

Issuing executive orders

Granting pardons

An explicit clause written into the text of Article III of the Constitution

The Bill of Rights, specifically the broad guarantees of the First Amendment

The Tenth Amendment, which reserves undelegated powers to the individual states

The case of Marbury v Madison (1803)

Nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate, serving for life

Directly elected by the public in nationwide ballots for fixed, renewable nine-year terms

Chosen by a joint vote of both chambers of Congress sitting together in session

Appointed by the sitting Chief Justice, who selects colleagues to fill any vacancy

The winner of the national popular vote is always guaranteed to become president

A candidate can win the presidency while losing the national popular vote

Congress chooses the president directly by a simple majority vote of both chambers

Each of the fifty states is given exactly one equally weighted vote in the count

Brown v Board of Education (1954)

Marbury v Madison (1803)

Citizens United v FEC (2010)

Obergefell v Hodges (2015)

Rational theory

Cultural theory

Behavioural theory

Structural theory

Rational theory

Cultural theory

Structural theory

Federal theory

It is considerably more powerful than the British cabinet and binds all of its members through collective responsibility

It is advisory, its members are not elected legislators and it has no collective responsibility

Its members must already be sitting senators drawn from the president's own party

It can override the president by majority vote and compel a change of executive policy