Although we are only getting started, we aim to progressively extend our coverage of countries around the world.
The United States of America, often dubbed the "leader of the Free World",
is being challenged as its institutions and its democratic culture are facing existential threats
from Russia, China and especially from within with Trumpism and the MAGA cult movement.
Throughout its history, America has been an example of the best and the worst of humanitarian and democratic principles.
It has always been flawed in its policies and institutions.
In 2024, its main challenge is to preserve the best that it already has.
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Full democracyFlawed democracyHybrid regimeAuthoritarian regime
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The United States is a federal republic whose people benefit from a vibrant political system, a strong rule-of-law tradition, robust freedoms of expression and religious belief, and a wide array of other civil liberties. However, in recent years its democratic institutions have suffered erosion, as reflected in rising political polarization and extremism, partisan pressure on the electoral process, bias and dysfunction in the criminal justice system, harmful policies on immigration and asylum seekers, and growing disparities in wealth, economic opportunity, and political influence.
The internet in the United States remains vibrant, diverse, and largely free from government censorship, and the country’s legal framework provides some of the world’s strongest protections for free expression online. However, a proliferation of electoral content that is false, misleading, and conspiratorial has created an unreliable online environment, seeping into the political system and undermining public confidence in American democracy. The country also lacks a comprehensive federal privacy law, and Congress has failed to adequately regulate disproportionate surveillance practices in which government agencies bypass judicial oversight by simply purchasing personal data from private companies.
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The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America,
is a country primarily located in North America and consisting of 50 states, a federal district,
five major unincorporated territories, nine Minor Outlying Islands, and 326 Indian reservations.
The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the United States of America.
It superseded the Articles of Confederation, the nation's first constitution, in 1789.
In the United States, politics function within a framework of a constitutional federal republic
and presidential system, with three distinct branches that share powers:
the U.S. Congress which forms the legislative branch, a bicameral legislative body
comprising the House of Representatives and the Senate;
the executive branch, which is headed by the president of the United States,
who serves as the country's head of state and government;
and the judicial branch, composed of the Supreme Court and lower federal courts, and which exercises judicial power.
In the United States, human rights comprise a series of rights which are
legally protected by the Constitution of the United States (particularly the Bill of Rights),
state constitutions, treaty and customary international law, legislation enacted by Congress and state legislatures,
and state referendums and citizen's initiatives.
The Federal Government has, through a ratified constitution, guaranteed unalienable rights to its citizens
and (to some degree) non-citizens.
In the politics of the United States, elections are held for government officials
at the federal, state, and local levels.
Voter ID laws in the United States are laws that require a person
to provide some form of official identification before they are permitted to register to vote,
receive a ballot for an election, or to actually vote in elections in the United States.
Electronic voting in the United States involves several types of machines:
touchscreens for voters to mark choices, scanners to read paper ballots, scanners to verify signatures on envelopes of absentee ballots,
and web servers to display tallies to the public.
Election Day in the United States is the annual day for general elections of federal public officials.
It is statutorily set by the U.S. government as "the Tuesday next after the first Monday in November",
i.e. the Tuesday that occurs within November 2 to November 8.
Voter suppression in the United States consists of various legal and illegal efforts
to prevent eligible citizens from exercising their right to vote.
Such voter suppression efforts vary by state, local government, precinct, and election.
Voter suppression has historically been used for racial, economic, gender, age and disability discrimination.