Can someone explain me the following things.

How laws get passed in the states i.e the fuction of the senate, the congress and such ?

What's democrats and republicans view points on how to control USA ?

How does the education program of USA work and what would the european equivalent be ?

Well those are extremely broad questions, but I can give you a simplified version.

The US has two legislative bodies, the house of representatives and the senate. Each state has 2 senators that are elected to 6 year terms so there are 100 senators. To pass a bill you need 51 votes in theory. In reality because of the filibuster, which is the stupidest invention known to man, it takes 60 votes to get anything passed. The house has 435 representatives, and each state has a proportional number of representatives to its population. So Alaska has one representative, whereas California has 53. These people are elected to 2 year terms. When either body passes a bill it gets sent to the other for a vote, if it passes there also it goes to the president. He can sign it and it becomes law or he can veto it, which then a 2/3 majority vote can overturn and it becomes law. If both bodies pass similar bills there is a process called reconciliation, in which the bills are combined and altered and then voted on again.

I'll get to the rest of these later.

Thanks for the answer so far

son_ov_hades wrote:

In reality because of the filibuster, which is the stupidest invention known to man, it takes 60 votes to get anything passed.

Stupidest invention known to man? That must make the authors of the constitution the stupidest people to have lived, then?
The filibuster ensures that a slim majority cannot force its will onto the minority. The Democrats are bitching and moaning about it now because it makes it nearly impossible to pass their healthcare monstrosity, but 5 years ago they were singing a very different tune: http://www.breitbart.tv/obama-dems-in-2005-51-vote-nuclear-option-is-arrogant-power-grab-against-the-founders-intent/

Ziegenbartami wrote:

son_ov_hades wrote:

In reality because of the filibuster, which is the stupidest invention known to man, it takes 60 votes to get anything passed.

Stupidest invention known to man? That must make the authors of the constitution the stupidest people to have lived, then?
The filibuster ensures that a slim majority cannot force its will onto the minority. The Democrats are bitching and moaning about it now because it makes it nearly impossible to pass their healthcare monstrosity, but 5 years ago they were singing a very different tune: http://www.breitbart.tv/obama-dems-in-2005-51-vote-nuclear-option-is-arrogant-power-grab-against-the-founders-intent/

The filibuster as it was intended makes perfect sense, but since the 1960s it hasn't been used that way. It makes passing anything impossible without 60 votes, which brings Washington to standstill. But to say that democrats, or republicans for that matter, in the past have abused the filibuster as badly as what's going on now is just plain wrong.

Peter wrote:

What's democrats and republicans view points on how to control USA ?

This lends itself to a somewhat biased answer, I'm really liberal so just keep that in mind.

The main difference between the two is what purpose government serves. Democrats believe that government should be the solution to problems the country faces, Republicans believe government is the problem. So therefore Democrats use the full ability of the government to pass things like healthcare, economic stimulus, and welfare programs. Republicans do everything they can to keep government out of those, believing that the private sector is much better equipped to handle such things. In reality both parties are big government parties though, just in different ways. The Bushes and Reagan grew government by spending huge amounts on defense, wars and other military expenditures. Carter, Clinton, and Obama grew government by spending domestically on social welfare and infrastructure programs.

There are other important differences also. Democrats are liberal and Republicans are conservative. So Democrats are generally more pro worker, and Republicans are pro corporation; dems are for abortion, reps are against it; dems are secular, reps are religious; I could go on forever.

son_ov_hades wrote:

Peter wrote:

What's democrats and republicans view points on how to control USA ?

This lends itself to a somewhat biased answer, I'm really liberal so just keep that in mind.

The main difference between the two is what purpose government serves. Democrats believe that government should be the solution to problems the country faces, Republicans believe government is the problem. So therefore Democrats use the full ability of the government to pass things like healthcare, economic stimulus, and welfare programs. Republicans do everything they can to keep government out of those, believing that the private sector is much better equipped to handle such things. In reality both parties are big government parties though, just in different ways. The Bushes and Reagan grew government by spending huge amounts on defense, wars and other military expenditures. Carter, Clinton, and Obama grew government by spending domestically on social welfare and infrastructure programs.

There are other important differences also. Democrats are liberal and Republicans are conservative. So Democrats are generally more pro worker, and Republicans are pro corporation; dems are for abortion, reps are against it; dems are secular, reps are religious; I could go on forever.

Isn't there more than the those 2 ? I mean in Denmark we have the following: "Left" (a right-wing party), Liberal Alliance, Conservative People's Party, Radical Left (which is in the middle generely pro EU,the euro, and organic food i.e modern), The Socialist People's Party, The Socialdemocrats, Danish People's Party (i.e the racist, working class party and the old people party) and the last is the Red-Green Alliance, which is basically is people who have electric cars and ex-communists.

There are tons of parties in the US, but the only ones that ever hold elected office are Democrats and Republicans. Currently there are a few independents, who don't belong to any party in congress but that's it. The US is just so entrenched in the 2 party system that other parties basically stand no chance.

The reason that its so hard for there to be more than two parties in the U.S is the winner-take-all method in each district rather than some form of proportional representation, which I believe is more common in Europe.

Sign of the Black Mark wrote:

The reason that its so hard for there to be more than two parties in the U.S is the winner-take-all method in each district rather than some form of proportional representation, which I believe is more common in Europe.

Exactly. In the US independent or 3rd-party candidates only have a realistic chance in municipal elections, though there is one independent senator from Vermont IIRC.

Sign of the Black Mark wrote:

The reason that its so hard for there to be more than two parties in the U.S is the winner-take-all method in each district rather than some form of proportional representation, which I believe is more common in Europe.

I think it also has to do with the presidential rather than parliamentary system. The head of government is elected independently of the legislature, which gives his party a great deal of power and name recognition. In a parliamentary system the head of government is made up of a coalition of the legislature, which means he needs have support from a wide range of parties and interests.

Peter wrote:

How does the education program of USA work and what would the european equivalent be ?

It varies from state to state but I'll generalize.

Kindergarten - 5 or 6 year olds, one year, I'm assuming Europe has the same thing as the word itself is German.

Elementary School - 1st through 5th grade, Primary school is the closest thing I can think of but I have no idea what it would be in Denmark.

Middle School/Junior High - 6th through 8th grade, sort of bridges the gap between elementary and high school, I don't know if this exists in Europe

High School - 9-12th grade, this level is the last compulsory education in the US, roughly equivalent to Gymnasium if I'm not mistaken

College - Undergraduate is 4 years to earn a Bachelor's degree, this is called University pretty much everywhere else in the world

Graduate School - Varies depending on the degree(Masters, MD, JD, PhD, etc.), this is generally only available to those who already have a Bachelor's degree, I know in some European countries they call it Postgraduate School or something like that.

Most countries in Europe start nursery (as its called here at least) at age 3 (non-compulsory, though its more common to adopt it than not). Then there's "reception" which is age 4-5. Rest looks good; there is such a thing as a middle school here following a system similar to yours (except starting a year earlier) but I couldn't tell you of any. I've never heard of "post-graduate school" either, and since we're essentially starting a year earlier we have a year (grade) 13, which marks the end of high school (compulsory only up to year 11), but this qualification I think is why you have the extra year at university compared to here. I don't know if our system is too popular across the rest of Europe though.

son_ov_hades wrote:

High School - 9-12th grade, this level is the last compulsory education in the US, roughly equivalent to Gymnasium if I'm not mistaken

In the German system, Gymnasium actually encompasses 5-12th grades (there is no longer a 13th grade, or is in the process of being done away with in the individual states). The other two school types, Realschule and Hauptschule are 5-9th or 10th grades. Also, Gymnasium only refers to the top level of the educational system, that which prepares students to potentially study at a university. Though since American high schools often are geared more towards sending students to the university than manual labor or trades, I suppose Gymnasium would be most analogous to the American high school.

Hmmm... I've always wondered why America is so centered on the 2 parties. I don't think there's any other country that has only 2 parties that really contend for power. Very interesting situation you have there.

Back at the filibuster thing, it's actually the founding fathers attempt at bringing government to parsimony, as in, keeping the government from changing unless absolutely necessary, showing a favor to stability over progress, which bleeds over into lots of aspects of the government.