Divided Government of the USA
Elise Brady, Emin Akyar, Baran Aras Kelav
What is Divided Government?
● A divided government is a government where different parts of the central government are controlled by different parties.
● It means that while the legislative body might be controlled by Party A, the executive body is controlled by Party B.
● It occurs due to the division of political powers, and hence, a considerable amount of political systems can actually allow such a government.
● Although more common in presidential systems, it can also occur in a parliamentary system (and would be the equivalent of a minority government)
● We can see examples of it in countries like the United States and France.
Divided Government in the US
● The United States has three main branches: legislative (House of Representatives and the Senate), executive, and judicial
● Divided government in the US would be considered over the majority party in the House, majority number of senators from one party in the Senate (it is an absolute majority if one party has 60 compared to 40 in the other), and the party of the President of the US.
● If President and the Senate are unified, the Supreme Court can also be more inclined to tend towards the same party.
Traits of a Divided Government
● Limitation of powers of governmental branches
● Creation of a checks and balances situation
● Generally slower law-making process
● Success of a presidential candidate usually leads to the success of the electoral and sometimes the congress candidates
● The voter turn-out is much higher for the presidential elections and considerably low for the non-presidential elections.
● The congress members are elected every two years, senate members are elected every 6 years (2 years for a certain portion), and presidents are elected every 4 years and respectively different term limits
Historical Examples of Divided Government and Significant Legislation
● post-WWII America→ defined by divided government
● What is Significant Legislation?
○ Is it important in a historical context?
○ Was the legislation viewed as important/controversial during the time of its introduction or creation?
● Notable eras of divided government
○ Ronald Reagan (R) (1981-1989)
■ 1981-1987→ Senate (R) House (D)
■ 1987 → Senate (D) House (D)
■ “Reaganomics” legislation → to stimulate economic growth - Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981
■ Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986
○ Bill Clinton (D) (2001-2009)
■ 1993-1995→ Senate (D) House (D)
■ 1995-2001→ Senate (R) House (D)
■ Largest crime bill in US History- Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1984 (The Crime Bill of 1984)- Federal Assault Weapons Ban, variety of new crimes defined in statutes (hate-crimes, sex crimes, gang related crimes)
○ Barack Obama (D) (2009-2017)
■ 2009-2011→ Senate (D) House (D)
■ 2011-2015→ Senate (D) House (R)
■ 2015-2017→ Senate (R) House (R)
■ Affordable Care Act- most significant expansion of healthcare in US History since enactment of Medicare and Medicaid-increased healthcare for the uninsured and implemented reforms to health insurance market-strong political opposition to this act- did not end up having a public health insurance option as originally proposed
Historical Examples of Unified Government and Significant Legislation
○ Notable time periods of unified government (starting 1860)
■ 1897-1911→ Mckinley to T. Roosevelt→ Republican
● Roosevelt-leader of the progressive era- “Square Deal” → Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906 and Federal Meat Inspection Act of 1906-eventually aided in the creation of United State’s Food and Drug Administration
■ 1933-1947→F. Roosevelt to Truman→ Democrat
● New Deal(s) series of reforms and legislation in response to Great Depression
○ Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA) (1933)- boosted Agricultural Prices
○ The Social Security Act (1935)-creation of Social Security Program- still used today (with Amendments of Medicare and Medicaid)- insurance for unemployment and old age benefits for the elderly
● World War II- War Powers Act of 1941- emergency act that gave significant authority to the executive branch during WWII- censorship of mail and other forms of communication between US and foreign countries, allowed reorganization of independent government agencies
Is a Unified or a Divided Government More Productive?
● How do we measure productivity of Congress?
○ Legislation?
■ Criticism→ current events, failure rates, do we look at significance or amount of legislation passed?
● Ambiguity on whether there is any difference in productivity between unified and divided government
○ Scholarly Studies
■ Mayhew-Divided We Govern (1991)- “unified versus divided control has probably not made a notable difference during the postwar era”
■ Many notable articles have disputed Mayhew- Divided Government and Significant Legislation:
A History of Congress from 1789 to 2010- Divided government in the 19th century passed 1 fewer piece of legislation to unified governments and in the 20th century 4 few pieces of legislation to unified government ”
Positive Consequences
● More democratic
● Sharing power creates incentives to compromise
● Existence of divided government requires commitment to bipartisanship.
● Less federal spending (Rate of growth of per capita federal spending is lower)
● Examples: Civil Rights Act of 1964, Great Society Programs (1965), The Americans with Disabilities Act (1990) and the McCain-Feingold Act (2002)
Negative Consequences
● Delays in pushing through legislations and a higher occurrence of gridlocks.
● Increasing party polarization.
● Decrease in the public trust towards the government while increasing dissatisfaction.
● Examples: 21 day shutdown between 1955-56 and 16 days shutdown in 2013 as no agreement between parties which caused a gridlock regarding the passing of the appropriation bills.
● It doesn’t allow for clear accountability on policies
Comparison of Divided Government and Contrasting Systems
Divided Government vs Unified Government
- According to some scholars like Lohmann and O’Halloran, divided government leads to more protectionism in trade and produces higher budget deficits while being slow to tackle deficits.
- Legislation with broad, bipartisan appeal can pass under both, however unified
government is more efficient in passing legislation that requires strong partisanship.
- Responsiveness of the government is better under unified government.
- Divided Government works and it is wrong to claim that gridlocks are unavoidable, but its less efficiency may create public unrest.
- Current Party Polarization?
References
Ansolabehere, Stephen, et al. “Divided Government and Significant Legislation: A History of Congress from 1789 to 2010.” Social Science History, vol. 42, no. 1, 2018, pp. 81–108., doi:10.1017/ssh.2017.42.
Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. "Ronald Reagan". Encyclopedia Britannica, 2 Feb. 2022, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ronald-Reagan. Accessed 10 March 2022.
Coleman, John J. “Unified Government, Divided Government, and Party Responsiveness.” The American Political Science Review, vol. 93, no. 4, [American Political Science Association, Cambridge University Press], 1999, pp. 821–35, https://doi.org/10.2307/2586115.
Cooper, John Milton. "Theodore Roosevelt". Encyclopedia Britannica, 2 Jan. 2022, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Theodore-Roosevelt.
Accessed 10 March 2022.
Freidel, Frank. "Franklin D. Roosevelt". Encyclopedia Britannica, 31 Jan. 2022, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Franklin-D-Roosevelt.
Accessed 10 March 2022.
Pessen, Edward , Handlin, Oscar , Rollins, Reed C. , Unit, Economist Intelligence , Bradley, Harold Whitman , Naisbitt, John , Donald, David Herbert , Robinson, Edgar Eugene , Hassler, Warren W. , Winther, Oscar O. , Wallace, Willard M. , Oehser, Paul H. , Lewis, Peirce F. , Pole, J.R.
, Beeman, Richard R. , Owen, Wilfred , Flaum, Thea K. , Zelinsky, Wilbur , Link, Arthur S. , Freidel, Frank , Harris, James T. , Weisberger, Bernard A. , O'Neill, William L. , Schmidt, Karl Patterson and Gopnik, Adam. "United States". Encyclopedia Britannica, 8 Mar. 2022, https://www.britannica.com/place/United-States. Accessed 10 March 2022.
Mayhew, David R. Divided We Govern. Yale University Press, 1993.
References
Baumgartner, F., Brouard, S., Grossman, E., Lazardeux, S. and Moody, J., 2013. Divided Government, Legislative Productivity, and Policy Change in the USA and France. 1st ed. [ebook] Wiley Periodicals, pp.1-15. Available at: <https://fbaum.unc.edu/articles/Div-Govt-Governance-2014.pdf>
[Accessed 7 March 2022].
Web.archive.org. 2022. Party In Power - Congress and Presidency - A Visual Guide To The Balance of Power In Congress, 1945-2008. [online]
Available at: <https://web.archive.org/web/20121101145605/http://uspolitics.about.com/od/usgovernment/l/bl_party_division_2.htm> [Accessed 8 March 2022].
Alesina, Alberto, and Howard Rosenthal. “A Theory of Divided Government.” Econometrica, vol. 64, no. 6, [Wiley, Econometric Society], 1996, pp. 1311–41, https://doi.org/10.2307/2171833.
