Understanding the relationship between the president and congress is key in understanding American politics. Congress and the president cannot avoid engaging with one another, with a constitutional set up that demands they work together constructively. Congress has its roles to play in policy making as does the president. The president and congress are given certain powers in the constitution, that power is divvied up, so that neither one of these branches has too much power at one time (Fisher 2007). The founders of the constitution were very distrustful of the presidency and feared if the president was given too much power it would lead to demagogy (Dickinson 2008). This fear led to the creation of two other branches one being the congressional
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For example, the appointment powers given in the constitution. Congress must undergo three steps after they create an office, they need the president to nominate someone to head the office, and then the senate must confirm this nomination and finally commissioning of the appointee by the president (Fisher 2007, 21). This is a perfect example of the president and congress needing to work as one to get something accomplished. It is easy to see how if the president and congress didn’t agree on a nominee, it would create serious gridlock. There are many other enumerated powers that tend to cause gridlock in the legislative process in …show more content…
The Democratic Party and the Republican Party. The founders did not consider the development of this ideological divide when they were writing the constitution. These political parties have instigated ideological separation and polarization among the nation and the people (Taylor 1996). Today nearly every level of American politics has been polarized to point where people in the middle aren’t being accurately represented (Jones 2001). Over the years research shows that each party have become increasingly stronger and more cohesive, and there for separated from each other. The Republican Party is moving in a more conservative direction and the Democratic Party staying consistently liberal on major issues of public policy (Jones 2001). Particularly in congress empirical research shows the parties in our government are becoming more homogenous in their political positions, while the differences among the party’s on policy issues continues to magnify (Jones 2001). In congress alone, polarization is visible by that fact that “since 1990 more than half of the congressional votes have featured a majority of one party opposing a majority of another” (Jones 2001). This intense polarization has had major effects on the relationship between congress and the president in particular. Looking at the theory of divided government it explains that legislation is less likely to get passed when the
For example, the appointment powers given in the constitution. Congress must undergo three steps after they create an office, they need the president to nominate someone to head the office, and then the senate must confirm this nomination and finally commissioning of the appointee by the president (Fisher 2007, 21). This is a perfect example of the president and congress needing to work as one to get something accomplished. It is easy to see how if the president and congress didn’t agree on a nominee, it would create serious gridlock. There are many other enumerated powers that tend to cause gridlock in the legislative process in …show more content…
The Democratic Party and the Republican Party. The founders did not consider the development of this ideological divide when they were writing the constitution. These political parties have instigated ideological separation and polarization among the nation and the people (Taylor 1996). Today nearly every level of American politics has been polarized to point where people in the middle aren’t being accurately represented (Jones 2001). Over the years research shows that each party have become increasingly stronger and more cohesive, and there for separated from each other. The Republican Party is moving in a more conservative direction and the Democratic Party staying consistently liberal on major issues of public policy (Jones 2001). Particularly in congress empirical research shows the parties in our government are becoming more homogenous in their political positions, while the differences among the party’s on policy issues continues to magnify (Jones 2001). In congress alone, polarization is visible by that fact that “since 1990 more than half of the congressional votes have featured a majority of one party opposing a majority of another” (Jones 2001). This intense polarization has had major effects on the relationship between congress and the president in particular. Looking at the theory of divided government it explains that legislation is less likely to get passed when the