The American Political System Is The Most Effective Constitution

The concept of power is a divisive matter in the American political system, as the actors holding it are sometimes unable to impose it as a result of their limited authority to do so. The legislative, executive, and judicial branches in the national government depend on each-others point of view. Part of the Constitution was designed with the purpose of making it impossible for either of these three to become more powerful than the others. Each of them has the ability to check and balance the way that the other two function. In spite of the fact that this system was created with the intention of preventing power from being shared unequally in the country, it sometimes serves as a tool for political gridlock, considering that the judicial branches can debate in regard to a particular topic for unlimited amounts of time before actually reaching a conclusion regarding the respective issue.

Manifestations of political gridlock are everywhere in our country. They can go from failure of Congress to pass a budget for the United States, Congress not confirming enough judges to fill any vacancies in the federal courts, states continuing conformations about roles of labor unions in representation of state employees, or the standoff over the affordable care act. New political players and movements tend to highlight the increasing inability to compromise of find common grounds to stop the political gridlock on pressing issues for the United States and its citizens. Gridlock is progressively getting worse because of things like gerrymandering. Gerrymandering is the manipulation of boundaries of an electoral area so it can favor one particular party or class more than the other. This results in most

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.

“It matters enormously to a successful democratic society like ours that we have three branches of government, each with some independence and some control over the other two. That 's set out in the Constitution.”(Sandra Day O’connor). In order for a government that is for the people and by the people to survive the government has to change with its people. This is seen by the United states government. While it still has the three branches originally established, the branches have changed with themselves and with how they interact with each other.

The American government has many powers that are given to, and checked by each branch. This is done by a system of Checks and Balances. The system of Checks and Balances states that the different branches have powers but the other branches have methods to stop each branches powers. But there are many argument that the system is broken or it isn’t. The system is broken because of many reasons involving the President, Congress and the Supreme Court.

Ultimately, it appears that the framework of a separation of powers put into place within the constitution can be seen to result in a limited government, however it does encounter problems such as gridlock. Although, it seems apparent that the system does mostly create a spirit of bipartisanship with branches of government working cooperatively in order to achieve success, leading arguably to more consensus seeking. Moreover, it can be argued that the checks and balances ensure limited government and retain the liberty of citizens due to the provision of more levels of

The political system of America is very different from other developed and developing democracies. Most notable is the increased power bestowed on the upper house of the parliament, the extensive power held by the Supreme Court and the dominance demonstrated by only two major parties. In the United States, third parties have the least influence on the world’s most developed democracy’s political structure. In this democracy, people are under the US Constitution of the governmental system as well as state government and other units of local government. Local government entails counties, districts and municipalities. The evolution of the American political party system has come a long way; with Hamilton and Jefferson being regarded as the founder fathers of the modern party system. These were heads of the Federalist and Anti-Federalist groups in the 18th century of American politics. Ever since, the country has maintained a party system that has two main parties that are relatively stable. These are Democrats and Republicans and have remained in contest for election every time since the 1860 presidential elections. Initially, the Republican Party was the dominant party but the Democrats later gained dominance. However, the two parties became closely competitive and neither of them has been notably dominant since the 1970s (O'Connor & Sabato, n.d).

The two-party system needs to be changed or completely abolished, because it offers limited ideas and opinions to run the country. The two parties have their own perspectives on issues such as gun control or abortion; Craig Goodman of the University of Houston claims he“doesn’t think it’s very democratic. Why should you exclude someone because they are a small number, and they don’t get to express themselves?” (Cargo 1). The two-party does not allow the middle ground or smaller parties to really have a say (Mathias 4).  Most voters only know the leading independent and the two party nominees. Kate Cargo describes “the two-party system leaves voter with low-quality ideas and frankly, low-quality candidates” (Cargo 1) while the third party candidate could have a great compromise on a hot issue, it will never see the light of day. While the two-party system does allow people to have easy access to the opinions of the parties on these issues, it does not make up for the limited options we have. As a country we need to have as many options as possible even if they are extreme. Accessibility is important, but it should never limit our options.

John Adams, one of the founding fathers, wrote that “There is nothing which I dread so much as a division of the republic into two great parties, each arranged under its leader, and concerting measures in opposition to each other. This, in my humble apprehension, is to be dreaded as the greatest political evil under our Constitution” (“Quote by John Adams”). The Two-Party system has been around since the start of America. The Two-Party system is a system that has two parties that the government, or America in this case, has that lead the government or America. At the current time, the two parties are the Republican and Democrat parties. It was created with the idea that everyone can be represented within either of the parties. Even though it does create some representation of the people, the two-party system does not create an equal policy in society because it does not allow people to get far if they are not within either of the two parties, does not allow the idea of having more than two parties, and because it doesn't represent everyone.

The American government is a government that the three branches limit the power of each other equally, so one branch does not get too much power through the system of Checks and Balances. In 1775, the American Revolutionary War broke out. The results showed that America was finally an independent country. With some ideas from the British history, such as philosopher John Locke, the Founding Fathers established our first government. However, the Framers had a complex time figuring out how to balance and separate powers between the three branches. As a result, the Founding Fathers instituted the Checks and Balances. The Checks and Balances works well with our government because it manages to keep all three branches’ power equal.

The American government, although currently one of the strongest in the world, started out very shaky. It all started with the articles of confederation, also known as the article of confusion. The US was desperate for some type of authentic government. At the current

The United States’ political system has become very biased, which in the end could lead to their fall. Gerrymandering, which means to “manipulate the boundaries of (an electoral constituency) so as to favor one party or class”, has become very popular in the US. In simple terms, it is the process by which states are divided up unevenly, therefore making a biased vote. This has put the power of who gets elected in the power of a few people, the ones who draw the lines. The people drawing the lines can draw them in such a way that they can control who will win based on what people believe in that particular section. This is a very dangerous idea, as this concept has happened in the past and has only led to bad things. For example, the Roman empire shows signs of a version of gerrymandering. The Roman empire had always had trouble choosing new leaders, or emperors. Eventually, the choice of who the next emperor would be became completely up to the Praetorian Guard, which was the empire’s private army. This was a horrible idea, because first off, the choice was of a few people, not many, and secondly because the emperor was happy with the guard for choosing him, he rewarded them. This caused the guard to become more even influential. This is proof that the United States will fall like empires in the past because just as the Romans put the power of choosing the emperor in

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.

So what if the problem really isn’t the politicians, or the parties? Perhaps our system is broken. Our system currently is at a constant battle between the two parties. No matter who is running for each party the problem is still

Why is it so difficult to accomplish anything in American government? The answer lies within three features of American government: the Hyperpluralist theory, separation of powers with checks and balances, and divided government. All these aspects of government result in gridlock, “a condition that occurs when interests conflict and no coalition is strong enough to form a majority and establish policy, so nothing gets done” (19).