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| Fig 1 - Filibusters and Cloture motions 1917-2012. Source - washingtonpost.com |
Although a round-up of the usual suspects, it is a pretty useful run-down of a variety of causes, including the polarization of the political parties (the graph below shows this pretty well), the Tea Party, gerrymandering in the House and the filibuster.
The conclusion it comes to is pretty startling, but on the whole, a very useful article for anyone contemplating the US government, Congress and the power of the President in unit 4C.
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| Fig 2 - Average party political position Source - washingtonpost.com |
In a long article in the New York Review of Books, Elizabeth Drew discusses the impact that low turnout has had on US politics - the short version is that it has encouraged the extremist wings of the parties to get out the vote and this in turn has made the political system more polarized. It does have some extraordinary tales of political skulduggery, but in general it has some of the same thrust as the earlier post in the Washington Post.
Esteemed economist Paul Krugman in the Washington Post describes the Republican Party "incompetence", and links to a review of a book by Mann and Ornstein called "It's even worse than it looks". G & P students may have come across the idea of Congress as "the Broken Branch" - these are the two authors who came up with the phrase. They have some very unpleasant things to say about the Republicans:
Food for thought, and probably essential reading for the 2013 exams.
Update - 10th October 2013
RollingStone Magazine has published a very long article putting the current division between political parties into historical context. Essential reading for anyone contemplating the different party positions for Unit 3C, and because it explains some of the finer points of the debt crisis.
Esteemed economist Paul Krugman in the Washington Post describes the Republican Party "incompetence", and links to a review of a book by Mann and Ornstein called "It's even worse than it looks". G & P students may have come across the idea of Congress as "the Broken Branch" - these are the two authors who came up with the phrase. They have some very unpleasant things to say about the Republicans:
Today’s Republicans in Congress behave like a parliamentary party in a British-style parliament, a winner-take-all system. But a parliamentary party — “ideologically polarized, internally unified, vehemently oppositional” — doesn’t work in a “separation-of-powers system that makes it extremely difficult for majorities to work their will.”
Food for thought, and probably essential reading for the 2013 exams.
Update - 10th October 2013
RollingStone Magazine has published a very long article putting the current division between political parties into historical context. Essential reading for anyone contemplating the different party positions for Unit 3C, and because it explains some of the finer points of the debt crisis.
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