Government
American Samoa is an unincorporated and unorganized territory of the United States. Officials from the U.S. Department of the Interior administer the territory. Through Congressional legislative action, the Samoans drafted their own constitution and from that constitution their government exists.
A non-voting Congressional delegate is sent to represent the Territory of American Samoa. The 2008 Congressional delegate is Eni Faleomavaega.
The American Samoan constitution was written to incorporate a governor, lieutenant governor and the legislature. Both the governor and lieutenant governor are elected every four years. The legislature, known as the Fono, is bicameral. The Samoan Senate consists of 18 members chosen from the 14 Samoan counties. The House of Representatives consists of 20 members who are elected through popular vote. Swains Island residents select one representative to serve as a non-voting member in the House of Representatives.
From 1900 until 1929, American Samoa was known as a U.S. Naval coaling station. In 1929, the U.S. Congress passed legislation that officially recognized the eastern islands as, American Samoa. Until 1951, the United States Navy selected the governor for American Samoa. In 1956, the U.S. Department of Interior took over that responsibility. In 1977, the governor was elected by popular vote.
Read more about this topic: Samoans
Famous quotes containing the word government:
“The newspapers, I perceive, devote some of their columns specially to politics or government without charge; and this, one would say, is all that saves it; but as I love literature and to some extent the truth also, I never read those columns at any rate. I do not wish to blunt my sense of right so much.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“All forms of government symbolize an immortal government, common to all dynasties and independent of numbers, perfect where two men exist, perfect where there is only one man.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Vanity is as advantageous to a government as pride is dangerous. To be convinced of this we need only represent, on the one hand, the numberless benefits which result from vanity, as industry, the arts, fashions, politeness, and taste; and on the other, the infinite evils which spring from the pride of certain nations, a laziness, poverty, a total neglect of everything.”
—Charles Louis de Secondat Montesquieu (1689–1755)