The USA

Content

 

1. Geographical position and climate of the USA

2. State system of the USA

3. Education system of the USA

4. Industry of the USA

5. Railway of the USA

6. Fifty states

Conclusion

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1. Geographical position and climate of the USA

 

Geographical position

 

The USA is the most powerful and highly developed country of the world. It is situated in the central part of the North American continent. Its western coast is washed by the Pacific Ocean and its eastern coast is washed by the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico. The USA is separated from Canada in the north by the 49th parallel and the Great Lakes and from Mexico in the south by a line following the Rio Grande River and continuing across the highlands to the Pacific Ocean. The total area of the USA is over 9 million square kilometers. The continental part of the USA consists of the highland regions and two lowland regions. The highland regions are the Appalachia Mountains in the east and the Cordillera in the west. Between the Cordillera and the Appalachian Mountains are the central lowlands which are called the prairie and eastern lowlands called the Mississippi valley. The principal rivers of the USA are the Mississippi, the longest river in the world (7,330 km) and the Hudson River.

The nation's natural advantages and resources are probably greater than those of any other area of equal size. The land is as varied as it huge. There are plains and mountains grasslands and forests, sandy soil, clay and rich, dark loams.

The mineral resources vary from precious gold and rare uranium to common lead and zinc. Coal, oil, iron, copper and other minerals are abundant. They form basis of modern industry.

 

Climate

 

The United States has many kinds of climate. The weather ranges from the warm, wet conditions of the Appalachians to the semi-desert or desert conditions in some of the western states. It varies from southern Arizona and southern Florida, where almost there is no winter at all, to the territory of Montana, North Dakota and South Dakota, where there are long, very cold and severe winters. In other words, the US has practically all the climatic zones. The main land mass of the US is in the temperate zone. The climatic conditions of the country are determined by the great mountains and the wind. West of the Rocky Mountains, running all the way from the Canadian border to Mexico, there are vast areas where almost no trees grow. In this section of the country there are deserts, which receive as little as 12-13 centimeters of rainfall a year. Yet, west of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, there are places in which 250 centimeters of rain fall annually. It is one of the wettest places in the USA. There are all kinds of differences in the climate of the US. For instance, all along the western coast, the temperature changes little between winter and summer. In some places, the average difference between July and January is as little as 10 degrees Centigrade. The climate along the northern part of this coast is similar to that of England. But in the north central part of the country the temperature difference between winter and summer is very great — 36 degrees Centigrade and even more. The coldest days of January may be — 40 degrees Centigrade, and the hottest July days may be 45 degrees. In the eastern part of the US, the difference between summer and winter is also very distinct, but not so extreme.

In the south-eastern corner of the country the climate is mild and spring is like winter, but in summer the temperature may be very high.

Hawaii, the 50th state, is a chain of over 100 islands, lying in the Pacific and stretching from southeast to northwest for 2,575 kilometers. Although this state is located in tropical zone, its climate is favorable, because of the ocean currents that pass its shores and the winds that blow across the land from the northeast. The temperature usually remains close to the annual average of 24 degrees Centigrade.

The situation in Alaska is different. In those parts of the state which lie above the Arctic Circle, Alaska still is a land of icebergs and polar bears. Ice masses lie buried in the earth, which is permanently frozen land to a depth of 90 or more meters.

From early May until early August, the midnight sun never sets on this flat, treeless region, but the sun cannot melt the icy soil more than two thirds of a meter down. The Japan Current of the Pacific warms Alaska, and the Arctic cools it. The temperature may drop as low as — 43 degrees Centigrade in some places, and may drop to 30 degrees in others. In the north, in any given year, more than 11 meters of snow may fall.

 

 

2. State systems of the USA

 

The Higher Organs of Power in the USA

 

By the US Constitution the government of the nation is entrusted to three separate authorities: the Executive, the Legislative and the Judicial. The executive power is vested in the President, who holds his office during the term of four years, and is elected together with the Vice-President.

Among the duties and powers of the President listed by the Constitution are the following: the President is Commandeering-Chief of the armed forces, he makes treaties and appoints ambassadors to foreign powers as well as other high officers of the United States. Within his competence is also the responsibility for taking care that the laws be faithfully executed.

From this one can see that the Constitution gives the President some measure of control of the military establishment, imposes upon him a responsibility for foreign policy and assigns to him the obligation to administer federal programmes.

The administrative business of the nation is conducted by Secretaries who form the Cabinet. They are appointed by the President but their nomination must be confirmed by the Senate. The Cabinet is a kind of an advisory group to the President which has developed by custom rather than by the provisions of the Constitution. The Vice-President likewise participates in the cabinet meetings. The cabinet members are: the Secretary of State, the Secretary of the Treasury, the Secretary of Defence, the Attorney General, the 'Postmaster General, the Secretary of the Interior, the Secretary of Agriculture, the Secretary of Commerce, the Secretary of Labour, and the Secretaries of Health, Education and Welfare.

As chief executive officer, the President can at his discretion remove any Secretary. The Executive Office of the President is represented by a group of agencies. First of all, these are: the White House Office, the Bureau of the Budget, the National Security Council, the Central Intelligence Agency, the Council of Economic Advisers, and the Office of Civil and Defence Mobilisation. These are not advisory bodies but the bodies which carry out administrative functions.

The whole legislative power in the USA is vested in the Congress. There are two chambers in the US Congress: the Senate and the House of Representatives. Besides the legislative function the Senate is entrusted with the power of ratifying or rejecting all treaties made by the President.

 

Administration. State and Municipal Governments

 

The governments of the 50 states have structures closely paralleling those of the federal government. Each state has a governor, a legislature and a judiciary. Each state has its own constitution.

All state legislatures but one have two houses, Nebraska's being unicameral. Traditionally, state legislatures have been dominated by rural representatives who may not always be sympathetic to the needs of growing urban areas. Most state judges are elected.

State governments have functions, encompassing agriculture and conservation, highway and motor vehicle supervision, public safety and corrections, licensing, business and industry, and certain aspects of education, public health and welfare. These activities require a large administrative organization, headed by the governor.

In most states there is also a lieutenant governor, not always of the same party as the governor, who serves as the presiding officer of the Senate. Other elected officials commonly include a secretary of state, state treasurer, state auditor and attorney general.

Municipal governments are more diverse in structure than state governments. There are three basic types: mayor-council governments, commission governments and council-manager governments.

In the first type, the mayor and the council are elected; although the council is nominally responsible for formulating city ordinances, which the mayor enforces, the mayor often controls the actions of the council. Boston, New York City, Philadelphia, Chicago, and Seattle, Wash., are among those cities having the mayor-council type of government.

In the commission type, voters elect a number of commissioners, each of whom serves as head of a city department; the presiding commissioner is generally the mayor. Tulsa, Okla., and Salt Lake City, Utah, are included among the cities with commission governments.

In the council-manager type, an elected council hires a city manager to administer the city departments. The mayor, elected by the council, simply chairs it and officiates at important functions. Des Moines, Iowa, and Cincinnati, Ohio, have council-manager governments.

 

The US Congress

 

The Congress of the United States is composed of two houses: the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Senate represents the states. Each state is guarantied at least one representative in the House. The remainder are apportioned among the states according to their population. The Senate of US is composed of one hundred members — two being elected from each state.

Senators are chosen for six years, one-third retiring or seeking is re-elected every two years. Two senators from the same state never finish their terms at the same time, one of them is called "Senior Senator" and the other — "Junior Senator".

The presiding officer of the Senate is the Vice-President of the United States. The Vice-President is not a member of the chamber over which he presides and he sometimes is not a member of the party in power.

The work of the US Congress is done mostly in different committees. The most important of the Senate committees are Appropriations Foreign Relations, Finance, Armed Services.

In the House of Representatives the most important are Rules, Appropriations, Ways and Means, Judiciary, Agriculture. The chairmen of the standing committees are considered the real rulers of the Senate and the House of Representatives.

 

The President of the United States

 

Do you want to be President of the United States of America? Maybe you can apply for the post.

Answer these three questions. Are you a US citizen? Are you thirty-five years old or older? Have you been a resident of the United States for fourteen years or longer?

Did you say "yes" to all three questions? Then you can take the first steps to the White House.

You become President for a term. A term is four years. You can only serve two terms. This means that you can only be President twice.

This law was adopted in 1951. Before that the law was different. In fact, Franklin D. Roosevelt became President in 1933. He was still President when he died in 1945. He was President for twelve years. No one was President longer than he was.

As President of the United States, you earn $ 200,000 a year. You also get an extra $ 50,000 for expenses, tax free. You have your own limousine, jet, and housekeepers, all free.

You also live rent free, in the White House in Washington, D. С And you are the head of the richest country in the world.

Presidents of the United States were people of very different professions. Twenty-two were lawyers, four — soldiers, four — farmers, four — teachers, two — writers, two — businessmen, one — engineer, one — tailor, and one — actor. Eight of them did not have a college education!

 

 

3. Education systems of the USA

 

Education

 

Education is not mentioned in the Constitution, nor is there any federal department of education, so the matter is left to individual states. Education is free and compulsory in all 'states, however, from the age of 6 till 16 (or 18).

At 6 years of age children go to elementary school, or first grade (the second year is "grade 2" etc.). At elementary school the emphasis is placed on the basic skills (speaking, reading, writing, and arithmetic), though the general principle throughout the American school system is that children should be helped to develop their own interests.

Children move on to high school in the ninth grade, where they continue until the twelfth grade. There are two basic types of high school: one with a more academic curriculum, preparing students for admission to college, and the other offering primarily vocational education (training in a skill or trade).

The local school board decides which courses are compulsory There is great freedom of choice, however, and an important figure in high schools is the guidance counsellor, who advises the students on what courses to take on the basis of their career choices and the frequent tests defining abilities and propensities.

In order to receive the high school diploma necessary in most states to get into college, students must accumulate a minimum number of credits, which are awarded for the successful completion of each one- or half-year course. Students hoping to be admitted to the more famous universities require far more than the minimum number of credits and must also have good grades (the mark given on the basis of course work and a written examination).

Extracurricular activity (such as playing for one of the schools sports teams) is also very important in the American school system and is taken into consideration by colleges and employers.

 

Higher Education

There are about 3,000 colleges and universities, both private and public, in the United States. They are all independent, offering their own choice of studies, setting their own admission standards and deciding which students meet those standards. The greater the prestige of the university, the higher the grades required.

The terms "college" and "university" are often used interchangeably, as "college" is used to refer to all undergraduate education and the four-year undergraduate programme, leading to a bachelor's degree, can be followed at either college or university. Universities is larger than colleges and also have graduate schools where students can receive post-graduate education.

During the first two years students usually follow general courses in the arts or sciences and then choose a major (the subject or area of studies in which they concentrate — the other subjects are called minors).

Credits (with grades) are awarded for the successful completion of each course. These credits are often transferable, so students who have not done well in high school can choose a junior college (or community college), which offers a two-year "transfer" programme, preparing students for degree-granting institutions.

Community colleges also offer two-year courses of a vocational nature, leading to technical and semi-professional occupations, such as journalism.

 

4. Industry and agriculture of the USA

 

Industry

 

The USA remains the world's leading producer of goods and services, although its margin of superiority is diminishing as other countries become more competitive in the world's market. Industrial and technological position of the states is very high. The USA is the leading producer of electrical energy, aluminum, copper, sylph and paper, and one of the top producers of natural gas and automobiles. No other nation exports as much high technology as the USA.

Although the United States remains one of the world's preeminent industrial powers, manufacturing no longer plays as dominant a role in the economy as it once did.

Between 1979 and 1998, manufacturing employment fell from 20.9 million to 18.7 million, or from 21.8% to 14.8% of national employment. Throughout the 1960s, manufacturing accounted for about 29% of total national income; by 1987, the proportion was down to about 19%. In 2002, manufacturing was experiencing a decline due to the recession that began in March 2001, according to the Institute for Supply Management's (ISM) gauge of manufacturing activity.

Industrial activity within the United States has been expanding southward and westward for much of the 20th century, most rapidly since World War II. Louisiana, Oklahoma, and especially Texas are centers of industrial expansion based on petroleum refining; aerospace and other high technology industries are the basis of the new wealth of Texas and California, the nation's leading manufacturing state. The industrial heartland of the United States is the east–north–central region, comprising Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin, with steelmaking and automobile manufacturing among the leading industries. The Middle Atlantic states (New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania) and the Northeast are also highly industrialized; but of the major industrial states in these two regions, Massachusetts has taken the lead in reorienting itself toward such high-technology industries as electronics and information processing.

Large corporations are dominant especially in sectors such as steel, automobiles, pharmaceuticals, aircraft, petroleum refining, computers, soaps and detergents, tires, and communications equipment. The growth of multinational activities of US corporations has been rapid in recent decades.

The history of US industry has been marked by the introduction of increasingly sophisticated technology in the manufacturing process. Advances in chemistry and electronics have revolutionized many industries through new products and methods: examples include the impact of plastics on petrochemicals, the use of lasers and electronic sensors as measuring and controlling devices, and the application of microprocessors to computing machines, home entertainment products, and a variety of other industries. Science has vastly expanded the number of metals available for industrial purposes, notably such light metals as aluminum, magnesium, and titanium. Integrated machines now perform a complex number of successive operations that formerly were done on the assembly line at separate stations. Those industries have prospered that have been best able to make use of the new technology, and the economies of some states—in particular California and Massachusetts—have been largely based on it.

In the 1980s and 1990s, the United States was the world leader in computer manufacturing. At the beginning of the 21st century, however, the high-tech manufacturing industry registered a decline. Employment in high-technology manufacturing fell by 415,000 jobs from January 2001 to December 2002, a decrease of 20%. Semiconductor manufacturing had been migrating out of the United States to East Asian countries, especially China, Taiwan, and Singapore, and research and development in that sector declined from 1999–2003. Certain long-established industries—especially clothing and steelmaking—have suffered from outmoded facilities that (coupled with high US labor costs) have forced the price of their products above the world market level. In 2002, the United States was the world's 3rd-leading steel producer (after China and Japan). Employment in the steel industry fell from 521,000 in 1974 to 190,000 in 1992. The steel industry at the end of 2002 was operating at less than 65% of capacity, the lowest level in 14 years, and 50,300 steelmaking jobs had been lost from 1997–2002. Automobile manufacturing was an ailing industry in the 1980s, but rebounded in the 1990s. The "Big Three" US automakers—General Motors, Ford, and Daimler-Chrysler—manufactured over 60% of the passenger cars sold in the United States in 1995. Passenger car production, which had fallen from 7.1 million units in 1987 to 5.4 million in 1991, rose to 6.3 million by 1995 and to 8.3 million in 1999. In 2001, over 11.4 million automobiles were produced, an 11% decrease from the 12.8 million produced in 2000.

The United States has a total of 153 oil refineries, with a production capacity in 2002 of 16,785,000 barrels per day. Crude oil and refined petroleum products are crucial imports, however.

 

Agriculture

 

Technological advancement has accelerated changes in American agriculture. Farming is highly mechanized and commercialized, but at the same time it requires much investment. In productive terms the achievements of this sector of the economy are extraordinary. U. S. farmers produce enough food for domestic consumption and still supply 15% of the world's food need.

It should be noted that in the past 30 years agricultural lands have been concentrated in fewer and fewer hands as a result of the fact that large-scale specialized farms replaces small family farms.

However high efficiency and productivity of American agriculture has its negative side. On the one hand farming has become too productive to be profitable to many American farmers. Low crop prices, which have resulted from overproduction, often do not bring farmers enough income to live on. Another difficulty an American farmer faces is the decline of agricultural exports. The situation nowadays is that the share of the U. S. crops on the world's market is shrinking while the shares of the European community expand.

 

Foreign trade

 

Besides agricultural products the most part of the U. S. export occupy machinery, automotive products, aircraft and chemicals. The leading U. S. imports are petroleum products, food and beverages machinery, iron and steel products. The USA is the world's largest importer and exporter. Despite its huge domestic production, the economy of America depends heavily on foreign imports. Until recently the US exported more goods than it imported. However the present situation is the declining competitiveness of American goods in the world market first of all due to poor quality, which was indicated by the trade deficit, which is called in economic theory a negative balance of foreign trade. Foreign manufacturers are now selling about 50% inside the country more than Americans are exporting abroad.

It should be specially emphasized that the condition of the U. S. economy depends to a vast extent on the world-wide oil prices. If they are at a low-rate American economy prospers, otherwise it is in a decline. This phenomenon can seem the reason for the economic crisis of the USA nowadays. That is why America has an urge to control the oil field in Iraq which will give it an opportunity to control also over the world one. In fact the predictable war in Iraq is only one aspect of its policy, aimed to retention its specific role in international economics. In this case the economic interests of the USA coincide with its political ones.

5. Railway system of USA

 

Today, most rail transport in the United States is based in freight train shipments. The U.S. rail industry has experienced repeated convulsions due to changing U.S. economic needs and the rise of automobile, bus, and air transport. Despite the difficulties, U.S. railroads carried 427 billion ton-miles of cargo annually in 1930. This increased to 750 billion ton-miles by 1975 and doubled to 1.5 trillion ton-miles in 2005. In the 1950s, the U.S. and Europe moved roughly the same percentage of freight by rail; but, by 2000, the share of U.S. rail freight was 38% while in Europe only 8% of freight traveled by rail. In 1997, while U.S. trains moved 2,165 billion ton-kilometers of freight, the 15-nation European Union moved only 238 billion ton-kilometers of freight.

Railroad companies in the United States are generally separated into three categories based on their annual revenues: Class I for freight railroads with annual operating revenues above $346.8 million (2006 dollars), Class II for freight railroads with revenues between $27.8 million and $346.7 million in 2006 dollars, and Class III for all other freight railroads. These classifications are set by the Surface Transportation Board.

In 1939 there were 132 Class I railroads. Today, as the result of mergers, bankruptcies, and major changes in the regulatory definition of "Class I," there are only seven railroads operating in the United States that meet the criteria for Class I. As of 2006, U.S. freight railroads operated 140,490 route-miles (226,097 km) of standard gauge in the United States.

Although Amtrak qualifies for Class I status under the revenue criteria, it is not considered a Class I railroad because it is not a freight railroad. Today, the sole intercity passenger railroad in the continental United States is Amtrak. Commuter rail systems exist in more than a dozen metropolitan areas, and commuter systems have been proposed in approximately two dozen other cities, but these systems are not extensively interconnected.

The most notable exception to this general rule is New York City, with its extensive subway system, the Long Island Rail Road, the Metro-North rail extending into Connecticut, and links through the New Jersey Transit system to the Philadelphia-based Southeastern Pennsylvania Transit Authority trains to points as far south as Newark, Delaware. About two-thirds of all U.S. passenger rail riders, and one in every three U.S. mass transit users, rides trains in the New York metropolitan area. For more on that phenomenon, see Transportation in New York City.

 

6. Fifty states

 

List of states

Alabama   Alaska   Arizona   Arkansas   California   Colorado   Connecticut   Delaware   Florida   Georgia

Hawaii   Idaho   Illinois   Indiana   Iowa   Kansas   Kentucky   Louisiana   Maine   Maryland

Massachusetts   Michigan   Minnesota   Mississippi   Missouri   Montana   Nebraska   Nevada   New Hampshire   New Jersey

New Mexico   New York   North Carolina   North Dakota   Ohio   Oklahoma   Oregon   Pennsylvania   Rhode Island   South Carolina

South Dakota   Tennessee   Texas   Utah   Vermont   Virginia   Washington   West Virginia   Wisconsin   Wyoming

 

 

 

Map

 

 

Federal power

The Supreme Court of the United States has interpreted the Commerce Clause of the Constitution of the United States which has expanded the scope of federal power. The Cambridge Economic History of the United States says, "On the whole, especially after the mid-1880s, the Court construed the Commerce Clause in favor of increased federal power." In Wickard v. Filburn 317 U.S. 111(1942), the court expanded federal power to regulate the economy by holding that federal authority under the commerce clause extends to activities which are local in character.  For example, Congress can regulate railway traffic across state lines, but it may also regulate rail traffic solely within a state, based on the theory that wholly intrastate traffic can still have an impact on interstate commerce. In recent years, the Court has tried to place limits on the Commerce Clause in such cases as United States v. Lopez andUnited States v. Morrison.

Another source of Congressional power is its spending power—the ability of Congress to impose uniform taxes across the nation and then distribute the resulting revenue back to the states (subject to conditions set by Congress). A classic example of this is the system of federal-aid highways, which includes the Interstate Highway System. The system is mandated and largely funded by the federal government, and also serves the interests of the states. By threatening to withhold federal highway funds, Congress has been able to pressure state legislatures to pass a variety of laws. Although some object that this infringes on states' rights, the Supreme Court upheld the practice as a permissible use of the Constitution's Spending Clause in South Dakota v. Dole 483U.S. 203 (1987).

Governments

States are free to organize their individual governments any way they like, so long as they conform to the sole requirement of the U.S. Constitution that they have "a Republican Form of Government," that is, each state government must be a republic.

Constitutions

In practice, each state has adopted a three-branch system of government (with legislative, executive, and judiciary branches) generally along the same lines as that of the federal government — though this is not a requirement.

Despite the fact that every state has chosen to follow the federal model of government, there are significant differences in some states.

There are also significant similarities. For example, all 50 states allow tax exemptions for religious institutions.

Executive

In all of the U.S. states, the chief executive is called the Governor. The governor may approve or veto bills passed by the state legislature. In forty-three states, governors have line item veto power.

Most states have a "plural executive" in which two or more members of the executive branch are elected directly by the people. Such additional elected officials serve as members of the executive branch, but are not beholden to the governor and the governor cannot dismiss them. For example, the attorney general is elected, rather than appointed, in 43 of the 50 U.S. states.

Legislative

The legislatures of 49 of the 50 states are made up of two chambers: a lower house (termed the House of Representatives, State Assembly or House of Delegates) and a smaller upper house, always termed the Senate. The exception is the unicameral Nebraska Legislature, which is composed of only a single chamber.

Most states have part-time legislatures, while six of the most populated states have full-time legislatures. However, several states with high population have short legislative sessions, including Texas and Florida.

In Baker v. Carr (1962) and Reynolds v. Sims (1964), the U.S. Supreme Court held that all states are required to elect their legislatures in such a way as to afford each citizen the same degree of representation (the one person, one vote standard). In practice, most states choose to elect legislators from single-member districts, each of which has approximately the same population. Some states, such as Maryland and Vermont, divide the state into single- and multi-member districts, in which case multi-member districts must have proportionately larger populations, e.g., a district electing two representatives must have approximately twice the population of a district electing just one.

If the governor vetoes legislation, all legislatures may override it, usually, but not always, requiring a two-thirds majority.

Judicial

States can also organize their judicial systems differently from the federal judiciary, as long as they protect the federal constitutional right of their citizens to procedural due process. Most have a trial level court, generally called a District Court or Superior Court, a first-level appellate court, generally called a Court of Appeal (or Appeals), and a Supreme Court. However, Oklahoma and Texas have separate highest courts for criminal appeals. New York state has its own terminology, in that the trial court is called the Supreme Court. Appeals are then taken to the Supreme Court, Appellate Division, and from there to the Court of Appeals.

Most states base their legal system on English common law (with substantial indigenous changes and incorporation of certain civil law innovations), with the notable exception of Louisiana, a former French colony, which draws large parts of its legal system from Frenchcivil law.

Only a few states choose to have the judges on the state's courts serve for life terms. In most of the states the judges, including the justices of the highest court in the state, are either elected or appointed for terms of a limited number of years, such as five years, eligible for re-election or reappointment if their performance is judged to be satisfactory.

Relationships

Among states

Under Article Four of the United States Constitution, which outlines the relationship between the states, the United States Congress has the power to admit new states to the Union. The states are required to give full faith and credit to the acts of each other's legislatures and courts, which is generally held to include the recognition of legal contracts, marriages, and criminal judgments, and before 1865, slavery status. States are prohibited from discriminating against citizens of other states with respect to their basic rights, under thePrivileges and Immunities Clause. Under the Extradition Clause, a state must extradite people located there who have fled charges of "treason, felony, or other crimes" in an other state if the other state so demands.

With the federal government

The states are guaranteed military and civil defense by the federal government, which is also required to ensure that the government of each state remains a republic.

Four states use the official name of Commonwealth, rather than State.^[9] However, this is merely a paper distinction, and the U.S. Constitution uniformly refers to all of these subnational jurisdictions as "States" (Article One, Section 2, Clause 1 of the Constitution, concerning the U.S. House of Representatives, in which Representatives are to be elected by the people of the "States"; Article One, Section 3, Clause 1, concerning the U.S. Senate, allocates to each "State" two Senators). For all of these purposes, each of the four above-mentioned "Commonwealths" counts as a State.

Admission into the union

Since the establishment of the United States in 1776, the number of states has expanded from the original 13 to 50. The U.S. Constitution is rather laconic on the process by which new states could be added, noting only that "New States may be admitted by the Congress into this Union" and forbidding a new state to be created out of the territory of an existing state, or the merging of two or more states into one, without the consent of both Congress and all the state legislatures involved.

In practice, most of the states admitted to the union after the original 13 have been formed from Territories of the United States (that is, land under the sovereignty of the federal government but not part of any state) that were organized (given a measure of self-rule by the Congress subject to the Congress’ plenary powers under the territorial clause of Article IV, sec. 3, of the U.S. Constitution).^[10]

Generally speaking, the organized government of a territory made known the sentiment of its population in favor of statehood. Congress then directed that government to organize aconstitutional convention to write a state constitution. Upon acceptance of that Constitution, Congress has always admitted that territory as a state. The broad outlines in this process were established by the Northwest Ordinance (1787), which predated the ratification of the Constitution.

However, Congress has ultimate authority over the admission of new states, and is not bound to follow this procedure. A few U.S. states (outside of the original 13) that were never organized territories of the federal government have been admitted:

• Vermont, an unrecognized but de facto independent republic until its admission in 1791
• Kentucky, a part of Virginia until its admission in 1792
• Maine, a part of Massachusetts until its admission in 1820 following the Missouri Compromise
• Texas, a recognized independent republic until its admission in 1845
• California, created as a state (as part of the Compromise of 1850) out of theunorganized territory of the Mexican Cession in 1850 without ever having been a separate organized territory itself
• West Virginia, created from areas of western Virginia that rejoined the union in 1863, after the 1861 secession of Virginia to the Confederate States of America during theAmerican Civil War.

Congress is also under no obligation to admit states even in those areas whose population expresses a desire for statehood. For instance, the Republic of Texas requested annexation to the United States in 1837, but fears about the conflict with Mexico delayed the admission of Texas for nine years.

Once established, most state borders have been generally stable, with exceptions including the formation of the Northwest Territory in 1787 and the Southwest Territory in 1790 from various portions of the original states, the cession by Maryland and Virginia of land to create the District of Columbia in 1791 (Virginia's portion was returned in 1847), and the creation of states from other states, including the creation of Kentucky and West Virginia from Virginia, and Maine from Massachusetts. However, there have been numerous minor adjustments to state boundaries over the years due to improved surveys, resolution of ambiguous or disputed boundary definitions, or minor mutually agreed boundary adjustments for administrative convenience or other purposes. One notable example is the caseNew Jersey v. New York, in which New Jersey won roughly 90% of Ellis Island from New York in 1998.

Possible new states

As of 2012, there are several U.S. territories left that might potentially become new states.

Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico called itself the "Commonwealth of Puerto Rico" in the English version of its constitution, and as "Estado Libre Asociado" (literally, Associated Free State) in the Spanish version.

As with any non-state territory of the United States, its residents do not have voting representation in the federal government. Puerto Rico has limited representation in the U.S. Congress in the form of a Resident Commissioner, a delegate with limited voting rights in theCommittee of the Whole House on the State of the Union, and no voting rights otherwise.

A non-binding referendum on statehood, independence, or a new option for an associated territory (different from the current status) was held on November 6, 2012. 61% of voters chose the statehood option, while one third of the ballots were submitted blank.

Washington, D.C.

The intention of the Founding Fathers was that the United States capital should be at a neutral site, not giving favor to any existing state; as a result, the District of Columbia was created in 1800 to serve as the seat of government. The inhabitants of the District do not have full representation in Congress or a sovereign elected government (they were allotted presidential electors by the 23rd amendment, and have a non-voting delegate in Congress). Some residents of the District support statehood of some form for that jurisdiction—either statehood for the whole district or for the inhabited part, with the remainder remaining under federal jurisdiction. While statehood is always a live political question in the District, the prospects for any movement in that direction in the immediate future seem dim.

According to Article IV, Section 3 of the U.S. Constitution, "New states may be admitted by the Congress into this union; but no new states shall be formed or erected within the jurisdiction of any other state; nor any state be formed by the junction of two or more states, or parts of states, without the consent of the legislatures of the states concerned as well as of the Congress." This was the case when Maine was split off from Massachusetts; and when West Virginia was split from Virginia during the Civil War. When Texas was admitted to the union in 1845, it was much larger than any other state and was specifically granted the right to divide itself into as many as five separate states.

Unrecognized entities

• The State of Franklin existed for four years not long after the end of the American Revolution, but was never recognized by the union, which ultimately recognized North Carolina's claim of sovereignty over the area. A majority of the states were willing to recognize Franklin, but the number of states in favor fell short of the two-thirds majority required to admit a territory to statehood under theArticles of Confederation. The territory comprising Franklin later became part of the state of Tennessee.
• The State of Superior was a proposed state formed out of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Several prominent legislators including local politician Dominic Jacobetti formally attempted this legislation in the 1970s, with no success. As a state, it would have had, by far, the smallest population, and remaining so through the present day. Its 320,000 residents would equal only 60% of Wyoming's population, and less than 50% of Alaska's population.
• The State of Deseret was a provisional state of the United States, proposed in 1849 by the Mormon settlers in Salt Lake City. The provisional state existed for slightly over two years and was never accepted by the United States Congress. Its name was derived from the word for "honeybee" in the Book of Mormon. Its territory included most of what is now Utah and Nevada.
• The State of Sequoyah began in the early 1900s during a meeting of the Cherokee, Choctaw, Creek, Chickasaw and Seminole Native American nations. At the time, the eastern part of what would later become Oklahoma encompassed the Indian Territory. The proposed constitution ultimately failed in the U.S. Congress, which balked at adding two new western states. Instead, the Indian Territory was incorporated into the new state of Oklahoma in 1907, yet many of Sequoyah’s principles lived on.
• The State of Absaroka, aka “state that never was,” grew out of the political discontent of the Great Depression. Frustrated with the U.S. government a group of politicians and businessmen led by a former baseball player named A.R. Swickard hatched a plan to create a new state they called Absaroka. The statehood movement first began in 1939. The would-be state included large swaths of Wyoming, Montana and South Dakota, and encompassed famous landmarks such as the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone National Park. Despite its initial popularity, the statehood movement’s novelty quickly wore off, and an official proposal for secession was never drafted. The story survives today largely thanks to the Federal Writers’ Project.
• The States of Jefferson
• On July 24, 1859, voters defeated the formation of the proposed State of Jefferson in the Southern Rocky Mountains. On October 24, 1859, voters instead approved the formation of the Jefferson Territory, which was superseded by the Territory of Colorado on February 28, 1861.
• In 1915, a second State of Jefferson was proposed for the northern third of Texas but failed to obtain majority approval by the Texas Senate.
• In 1941, a third State of Jefferson was proposed in the mostly rural area of southern Oregon and northern California, but was cancelled as a result of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. This proposal has been raised several times since.
• The States of Lincoln
• Lincoln is another state that has been proposed multiple times. It generally consists of the eastern portion of Washington state and the panhandle or northern portion of Idaho. It was originally proposed by Idaho in 1864 to include just the panhandle of Idaho, and again in 1901 to include eastern Washington. Proposals have come up in 1996, 1999, and 2005.
• Lincoln is also the name of a failed state proposal after the U.S. Civil War in 1869. It consisted of the area south and west ofTexas' Colorado River.