Wikipedia:Peer review/Federal government of the United States/archive1

Federal government of the United States

• A script has been used to generate a semi-automated review of the article for issues relating to grammar and house style; it can be found on the automated peer review page for August 2008.

This peer review discussion has been closed.
I've listed this article for peer review because I would like to bring it up to GA, and eventually, FA. Right now it has reference issues and jargon issues (the references I'm going to work on right after I save this page). I'm looking for any problems with the text and any improvements that should be made for this to reach GA. I think it should be noted that I have not done too terribly much to this article, and I wish to stick with from now until FA.

Thanks, Leonard^(Bloom) 01:00, 8 August 2008 (UTC)

Comments by Doncram

• It seems to me that the intro should state the approximate size of the U.S. Federal government in terms of #employees and budget and assets under its control, and perhaps also budget as percent of U.S. GDP. I believe that NYC government, for example, has 100,000 employees and $30 billion annual budget; in the U.S., only NYS and CA and USA are larger governments.
• The current intro comes across as a bit wordy in describing the balance of powers. If it is stated that each of three branches has some authority over each of the others, is it necessary to also state that some of the powers of each are subject to authority of each of the other two?
• The article goes on a lot about high-level balance of powers, and 435 congressional seats, and so on, but does not address the scope and size of program (notably no mention of budgets and employees of large divisions of the Federal government). Here are some questions: the U.S. federal government has operations in how many countries in the world? How many employees abroad vs. domestic?
• Can you provide any rough estimate of the assets under the Federal government's control, or at least give some sense of the vast resources? List of current ships of the United States Navy documents about 444 major ships under Federal control (with some leased). How much land area in National Parks etc. How much land owned in military bases abroad? Does the Federal government own 10% or more of the land in the U.S.?
• Likewise, what is the size of Federal liabilities: explicitly, the national debt, but also obligations like delivering on Medicare and on Social Security pensions on a vast scale. Or protecting the environment? The Federal government has vast obligations and the welfare of people of the U.S. and many other countries is dependent upon it. I guess i would like to see some of this kind of scope in the article. Keep in mind that a wikipedia encylopedia article, while it should be kept readable, can/should address a lot more than can be covered, say, in an elementary school civics lesson. I say go more advanced, include scope and scale stuff and work on trying to make it understandable. doncram (talk) 17:30, 13 August 2008 (UTC)