Divided Government Pros And Cons

Divided States of America, is a film that largely focuses on the history of our nation's political, social, and economic events. The film was named Divided States of America for a specific reason. Throughout the movie, it reveals the disagreements that have occured between the two parties: republican and democratic. There is a constant divide between the two political sides. There are evident occurrences of polarization, a division between two completely contrasting groups or sets of beliefs, within The United States of America government (Klein). Early on, Barack Obama makes it clear, he is striving to make our nation one, “We are not just red and blue states we are one” (Obama). Obama constantly speaks about how the only way America will be successful is to work together and put our differences aside. As mentioned in the

Generally speaking, anyone who lives in the United States of America knows that there are two main political parties—the Republicans and the Democrats. Having two main parties has its advantages and, of course, its disadvantages. For example, in By the People James E. Monroe and Rogan Kersh (301) point out having this type of system creates “predictability and stability.” However, they also declare (301) it can “lead to a gridlock.” This is not a new concept either as there has been a divide since the beginning of both parties. The two parties more often than not disagree on various issues, while rarely agreeing on what is best for the country.

Does divided or unified government produce more laws than the other? In many circumstances, our government will be divided amongst each other either with the Senate, Representatives, or the President themselves. If just one of these three groups majority is a different political party than the other groups it makes the government divided. Whereas if the Senate, Representatives and the President all have the same political party the government is unified. An example of a divided government would be the Senate majority being Republicans, the House majority being Democrats, and the President is a Republican. By taking a closer look we can see how well our government is able to work with a unified or divided government, it shows which way is the best for a more improved functioning government. For a large majority of American history our government was mostly unified, but now as our society has been faced many changes divided government is becoming more common. A divided government will produce an equal amount of laws as a unified government.

There were many events that lead to America splitting into two political parties in the 1790’s. The two parties are the Federalists and the Democratic Republicans and when it comes to the government they have completely different views. The Federalists were lead by George Washington, Alexander Hamilton and John Adams and lived mainly in the north. They strongly supported the central government because they believed that the government should be big and strong. The Democratic Republicans lived mainly in the west and south and were lead by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. The Democratic Republicans were against a big government and believed the states should have more power. Political parties were created in the 1790’s because of the war between

In his speech George Washington warned the people that political parties would divide the country and they did. Most people argued that political parties and government were inseparable, however as political parties became more different the nation began to split. The major split in the country came after the constitution was ratified in 1787. Many geographical areas disagreed on whether it would be beneficial to the country to leave Britain, however a decision was made to leave Britain, and many people disagreed. National unity during this time was the idea that people with differing views could come together to accomplish a shared goal.

The two-party system is said to promote governmental stability because a single party can win a majority of political offices and, with less bickering between differing and partisan legislators, govern more efficiently. In a multiparty country, on the other hand, the formation of a government depends on the maintenance of a coalition of parties with enough total strength to form a political majority. The weakness of the ties that bind the coalition may threaten the continuance of a cabinet in power. The stability shown by the government of the United States has not been entirely due to its party system, it has been argued, but has been promoted also by the fixed tenure and strong constitutional position of the president, as well as checks and balances built into the constitution to prevent one branch of federal government from becoming too powerful.

Our nation had been divided since it was Established. We have been though a lot of trials and tribulation . Our nation has been divided though race and Political parties.

The gaps have grown larger between Republicans and Democrats based on fundamental political beliefs. America’s two political parties have become so divided that it has come to be known as polarization. Divided government has been extremely common after World War II. Political polarization has increased intensely since the New Deal in the 1930s. The New Deal coalition emerged during the 1932 presidential election and had launched a partisan realignment in American politics, allowing the Democrats to become the majority party in US Politics.

Before the 1820s, there wasn’t many problems as far as political parties. There was a single-party system, a system where only one political-party formed the government. This party was known as the Democratic-Republicans. However, with the nation beginning to split between interests, the one-party system became difficult. In the late 1820s the U.S. political system split the party into two parties, the Democrats and the Whigs.

Whenever there is a divide in houses, it makes deal-making almost impossible, and can even lead to gridlock. When parties are in a gridlock, it means that nothing is getting done because votes are evenly dived between both majority parties (Theriault). Building large majorities becomes harder when electoral and policy interests of Congress are going in different directions. Polarization often shifts the balance of the powers among our national institutions at the cost of the Congress. And often, judges and executives act irrationally and make decisions without consulting the legislative bodies for their input, basing their decisions solely on party affiliation. A recent example of how polarization has affected the United States was during the government shutdown. The shutdown was caused by dissatisfaction among judges and other elected officials in the Congress, which caused wide spread political fallout among the Republican Party. Republicans were unsatisfied with Congress, elected officials, and the workings of the political system. Polarization in Congress has gone to such extremes that the Republican Party chose to completely shut down in order to get what they wanted out of the Democratic Party. The fact that Democrats and Republicans could not come up with some sort of compromise that would be beneficial towards both Parties is very concerning, and it lets us know that there might be a little too much partisanship among both parties and not enough work

has divided into two major groups. Republican and Democratic. Each party has different views and beliefs on how the US should be and how it should live. “But once every four years, they successfully bury their differences and come together to choose a candidate for the presidency” (Walton).

The political system in this country is heavily influenced by special interests that undermine what is beneficial to society. When the corporate agenda meets politics, profit takes priority. There is a mutual desire between politicians and businesses to maintain power. Getting re-elected and achieving donor’s goals just like a company does for its share-holders. The governments job is to protect the rights of those with different interests, not to give rights to an entity, making it equal to people. There is a conflict of interest between the profit driven corporate world and the public welfare. Politicians are frequently offered financial benefits for favors, large donations influence decision making. Those relationships are really unhealthy to the political process and the power of the people.

Few can doubt the corruptness and hypocrisy of American politics. Scandals hit the news daily. Senator A takes a bribe. Congressman B serves only lobbyists. President C cheats on his wife. Voters take note of these transgressions and of others within the political environment. They scratch their heads and wonder how things could possibly ever change. After all, all politicians, even those with the best of intentions, seem to debase themselves once in office. Therefore, voters wonder why they should participate in the process. They ask themselves how they could possible make a difference. Sadly, voters cite many reasons for not going to the polls, and these reasons keep true reform from occurring within the political process.

In the last decades, several bicameral States in Europe revised or started to question the functioning or the structure of their second chamber. In many cases, reforms of bicameralism affected both the form of State –i.e. the way the political power is located over the territory– and the form of government –i.e. the relationships between the legislative and the executive powers. Eventually, this reform process transformed the constitutional equilibriums of the EU, deepening its constitutional and political crisis –since in the absence of a formal European Constitution the constitutional essence of the EU legal system is nothing but the intersection of the constitutional frameworks of its Members .

Since the origins of the first constitutional convention calling for the alteration of the constitution, through our American history we have seen the rise of the two party system. Initially however not officially through the opposition of the ratification of the new constitution, we saw the first true political “schism” in the debate of the constitution’s ratification. Creating the birth of Federalist and Anti-Federalist movement. With the simple contrasting beliefs such as the opposition to a strong centralized government (Anti-Federalists) came the growth of those others which we still fight for or against today. However we can call such divisions within our history the baby steps onto to what would become a "natural" phenomena of the two party system. While not during Washington’s first election but not limited to his re-election, within the sidelines of his presidency some tension between Jefferson and Hamilton began to arise. The beginning of the “butting heads” of Federalists v. Republicans and leading to the eventually unfolding what would be the Republicans v. Democrats. Through the power placed within America’s traditional two party system, unlike many countries they are able to keep the equilibrium or a control of their political peoples and voters to be better able to transact new policies and reforms while still keeping each other at a check.