Now that you have gained a basis understanding of the US Constitution, the structures, and the functions of the American political system, we can move on to look at the processes that drive our political system.  All of these processes are the INPUTS that animate the POLITICAL SYSTEM.

There are many interacting processes and we can make each the starting point for our analysis.  Like the proverbial Leviathan, we can describe the State from the front, the side, or the tail. We will begin this process by looking at the demographic characteristics of the United States.

US CENSUS.  Every ten years since 1790, the United States Bureau of the Census has conducted a headcount of the population of the United States.  The latest Census was conducted in 2010 and the results are just being published.