Unorthodox Law Making Theory

When Representative John Boehner resigned as Speaker of the House and Congressman Paul Ryan was elected to replace him, he vowed to bring an end to gridlock in Washington D.C. Shortly after Democratic Congressman Rangel stated that he has no reason to believe that Ryan would be any more successful than John Boehner at dissolving gridlock. There are many reasons gridlock cannot be solved these include the fact that there is currently a Republican majority in the house, the design of Congress is slow, elites act under the rational choice theory and the unconventional rules and regulations in Congress. By looking at the makeup of Congress, the institutional design, elite behavior and unorthodox lawmaking, it will not be possible for Speaker …show more content…
Unorthodox lawmaking can result in gridlock because all the Congresspeople are trying to push their legislation through the loopholes and not be able to get anything done. Unorthodox lawmaking is essentially loop holes in the law making process that allows policy to be blocked or put into law. These informal rules are a result of the gridlock in Congress; gridlock can be a result of the design, makeup, the actors themselves and the informal rules they apply to get around the other barriers. One way party leadership might try and avoid gridlock is sending a bill to multiple committees in hopes that one committee can vote the bill to the floor. Bills may never leave committee because one actor may put a hold or threaten to filibuster. As a result, the party leadership or committee may add an earmark to the legislation that is favorable to the actor so they will remove the hold or not filibuster. Another way to avoid gridlock is through omnibus legislation. This is a bill that is relatively large and has a varied of topics; it is easier to get a majority vote on omnibus legislation because there is usually something within the bill that favors everyone. Even with all the loopholes, there are still ways not to get things done with filibusters and holds. Because all the elites are pushing for their own policy to be passed, it is often held up creating …show more content…
The Congress is currently controlled by the Republicans, but not enough for a supermajority, so gridlock is very possible due to Congressional makeup. There is also gridlock in the design; the founders were frightened about the general public, so they made it harder to elect officials when the public is unable to elect directly officials and vote on policy, it creates gridlock because the elites have to argue over what is best. Also, they way elites act create gridlock because they are always making choices under the rational choice theory with the motive also to become reelected. Finally, because Congress has the power to create informal rules it leads to unconventional rules that elites use to pass or deflect policy. As a result, these rules block legislation resulting in gridlock. Because of all these reasons, there will be disagreements, and resulting in gridlock. There are very few things that Paul Ryan can do to end gridlock but to start there needs to be comprehensive election reform. If the Congressional lines were redrawn, so their elections were more competitive between parties, there would be a higher likely hood of moderate candidates that are willing to work together. Also, if we allow the people to elect their own President, officials and vote on policy, there will be fewer arguments