Текст песни Voice of America — American Civics

Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I'm Bob Doughty with Faith Lapidus. Our subject this week is American civics.
Civics is a subject that deals with the rights and duties of citizens. It brings together law, history and political science.
In the nineteen sixties, a nonprofit group called the Center for Civic Education got started. Its job is to help people in the United States and other countries learn about the ideas of democracy. Its work includes an international civic education exchange program, Civitas.
In nineteen ninety-four, the Center for Civic Education developed five questions for teaching about civics and government. We will use these questions to guide our program. The answers will combine our own reporting with information from the center.
Question one: "What are civic life, politics and government?"
The simple answer is that people have their personal life, but they also have a civic life. This involves issues that affect their community and their nation.
Politics is a process. It is a way for people with opposing interests and beliefs about issues to reach decisions.
Government is the organization in society with the power to put these decisions into effect. It also has the power to enforce them.
In the United States, the Constitution limits the power of government. The founders of the nation wanted to protect individual rights. At the same time, however, they also wanted to work for the common good.
Under the Constitution, government officials must follow the rule of law. This means they must follow the same rules as everyone else. The Constitution is the highest law in the land.
Constitutions are also vehicles for change. One example involves the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. The Fourteenth Amendment took effect in eighteen sixty-eight, after the Civil War.
It guarantees all citizens equal protection under the law. It meant that former slaves had the same rights as other Americans. Black Americans used this amendment to seek better treatment during the civil rights movement of the nineteen fifties and sixties.
The second question presented by the Center for Civic Education asks: "What are the foundations of the American political system?"
The system is built on the Constitution, which guarantees the right to life, liberty and property. The Constitution also establishes a system of checks and balances on government power.
Congress passes bills for the president to sign into law. If the president refuses, Congress has the power to reject the veto. The Supreme Court has the power to strike down laws if it finds they violate the Constitution.
The Constitution also recognizes the powers of the states. In fact, the American political system is built on the idea that states have any powers not given to the federal government. The system was also built on the idea that the different groups in society would all share a common identity as Americans.
And several intellectual traditions have influenced the American political system. One is classic liberalism. Classic liberalism represents the idea that governments are created by the people, for the people.
This theory had its roots in Europe, through writers like John Locke. The American Declaration of Independence is an example of a document that supports the main ideas of classic liberalism. It guaranteed the right to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."
Another theory that influenced early America is classic republicanism. A republic is a state governed by elected representatives instead of directly by the people. The United States is known as a constitutional representative democracy.
Classic republicanism links the idea of civic virtue to the common good. Civic virtue means that people put the interests of society before