In
politics
Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that stud ...
, gridlock or deadlock or political stalemate is a situation when there is difficulty passing
laws
Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vari ...
that satisfy the needs of the people. A government is gridlocked when the ratio between
bills passed and the
agenda
Agenda may refer to:
Information management
* Agenda (meeting), points to be discussed and acted upon, displayed as a list
* Political agenda, the set of goals of an ideological group
* Lotus Agenda, a DOS-based personal information manager
* Pers ...
of the
legislature
A legislature is an assembly with the authority to make law
Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its p ...
decreases. Gridlock can occur when two
legislative houses, or the
executive branch and the legislature are controlled by different
political parties, or otherwise cannot
agree.
United States
In
United States politics
The politics of the United States function within a framework of a constitutional federal republic and presidential system, with three distinct branches that share powers. These are: the U.S. Congress which forms the legislative branch, a b ...
, gridlock frequently refers to occasions when the
House of Representatives
House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entitles. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often c ...
and the
Senate are controlled by different
parties
A party is a gathering of people who have been invited by a host for the purposes of socializing, conversation, recreation, or as part of a festival or other commemoration or celebration of a special occasion. A party will often feature ...
, or by a different party than the party of the
president
President most commonly refers to:
*President (corporate title)
* President (education), a leader of a college or university
* President (government title)
President may also refer to:
Automobiles
* Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ...
. Gridlock may also occur within the Senate, when no party has a
filibuster-proof majority.
''Political Gridlock'' by author Ned Witting identifies many of the causes of gridlock in the United States and outlines ways to get government working again.
Law professors such as
Sanford Levinson
Sanford Victor Levinson (born June 17, 1941) is an American legal scholar known for his writings on constitutional law. A professor at the University of Texas Law School, Levinson is notable for his criticism of the United States Constitution as ...
and
Adrian Vermeule
Cornelius Adrian Comstock Vermeule (, born May 2, 1968) is an American legal scholar who is currently the Ralph S. Tyler Professor of Constitutional Law at Harvard Law School. He is best known for his contributions to constitutional law and admi ...
, as well as political commentators such as
Matthew Yglesias
Matthew Yglesias (; born May 18, 1981) is a liberal American blogger and journalist who writes about economics and politics. Yglesias has written columns and articles for publications such as ''The American Prospect'', ''The Atlantic'', and ''Sla ...
and
Debbie Parks, have criticized the U.S. Constitution and Senate voting rules for enabling situations of legislative gridlock. Along these lines, David Brady, a professor of
political science
Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and power, and the analysis of political activities, political thought, political behavior, and associated constitutions and la ...
at
Stanford University, and Craig Volden, a professor of public policy and politics at the
University of Virginia
The University of Virginia (UVA) is a public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia. Founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson, the university is ranked among the top academic institutions in the United States, with highly selective ad ...
, explain gridlock by pointing to two interrelated factors: first, "the preferences of members of Congress regarding particular policies" and second, "
supermajority institutions - the Senate
filibuster and the presidential
veto
A veto is a legal power to unilaterally stop an official action. In the most typical case, a president or monarch vetoes a bill to stop it from becoming law. In many countries, veto powers are established in the country's constitution. Veto ...
". As a result, they argue, gridlock is not determined by party control of the government, but rather by an interplay between the existing policy and the spectrum of individual preferences held by congressional representatives. They maintain, in essence, that "the policy preferences of Members of Congress at or near the median are among the crucial determinants of policy outcomes."
Marcus Ethridge, an emeritus professor of political science at the
University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee
The University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee (UW–Milwaukee, UWM, or Milwaukee) is a public urban research university in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It is the largest university in the Milwaukee metropolitan area and a member of the University of Wiscon ...
, argues in a 2011 policy analysis published by the
libertarian Cato Institute
The Cato Institute is an American libertarian think tank headquartered in Washington, D.C. It was founded in 1977 by Ed Crane, Murray Rothbard, and Charles Koch, chairman of the board and chief executive officer of Koch Industries.Koch Ind ...
that the
U.S. Constitution
The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the United States of America. It superseded the Articles of Confederation, the nation's first constitution, in 1789. Originally comprising seven articles, it delineates the nation ...
was designed to foster gridlock in order to increase "the likelihood that policies will reflect broad, unorganized interests instead of the interests of narrow, organized groups." Ethridge presented an extended version of his analysis in ''The Case for Gridlock: Democracy, Organized Power, and the Legal Foundations of American Government'' (2010), which argues that "progressive reformers sought to shift the power to shape policy from the legislative branch to the executive bureaucracy" in an attempt to limit the power of special interests, but that this strategy backfired because of "the ability of interest groups to infiltrate the bureaucracy and promote their interests, often in ways diametrically opposed to the reformers' intentions" and "the capacity of Congress to overcome the influence of groups and generate policy change." In order to counter this, Ethridge suggests a "return to the 'constitutional principle' of gridlock, in which special interests must compete in a legislative forum".
Researchers such as David R. Jones blame ‘higher party polarization increase
the likelihood of encountering gridlock’. When looking at figures of
polarization within U.S. politics ‘partisan antipathy is deeper and more extensive – than at any point in the last two decades’ with 92% of
Republicans being to the
right
Rights are legal, social, or ethical principles of freedom or entitlement; that is, rights are the fundamental normative rules about what is allowed of people or owed to people according to some legal system, social convention, or ethical ...
of the median
Democrat
Democrat, Democrats, or Democratic may refer to:
Politics
*A proponent of democracy, or democratic government; a form of government involving rule by the people.
*A member of a Democratic Party:
**Democratic Party (United States) (D)
**Democratic ...
, and 94% of Democrats aligning to the
left of the median Republican voter. This modern polarization paired with a system designed to operate on
Burkean representation, not today's
party-line voting, leads us to seemingly inevitable gridlock.
Westminster systems
In parliamentary systems based on the
Westminster system, parliamentary deadlocks may arise when an election results in neither or none of the major political parties having the numbers in the
lower house (the house where the government is formed) to form a government, or when the votes in a lower house of parliament are so close that a government cannot be sure of getting its legislation passed through the house, or when another party (usually referred to as the opposition party) controls a majority of votes in the
upper house
An upper house is one of two chambers of a bicameral legislature, the other chamber being the lower house.''Bicameralism'' (1997) by George Tsebelis The house formally designated as the upper house is usually smaller and often has more restric ...
.
(Example: two friends in a group of two both have different ideas but neither one wants to do the others idea; that is what you could call political deadlock).
A recent innovation has been to remove the power of the upper house to block supply, as well as some other bills.
The
Australian Constitution provides a mechanism for breaking a deadlock between the two houses of
Parliament
In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: representing the electorate, making laws, and overseeing the government via hearings and inquiries. Th ...
, by means of a
double dissolution and, if the deadlock is still not resolved, by a
joint sitting
A joint session or joint convention is, most broadly, when two normally separate decision-making groups meet, often in a special session or other extraordinary meeting, for a specific purpose.
Most often it refers to when both houses of a bicamer ...
of both houses of parliament.
[Section 57 of the Australian Constitution.]
See also
*
Budget crisis
A budget crisis is an informal name for a situation in which the legislative and the executive in a presidential system deadlock and are unable to pass a budget. In presidential systems, the legislature has the power to pass a budget, but the e ...
*
Cabinet crisis
A cabinet crisis, government crisis or political crisis refers to a situation where an incumbent government is unable to form or function, is toppled through an uprising, or collapses. Political crises may correspond with, cause or be caused by ec ...
*
Constitutional crisis
In political science, a constitutional crisis is a problem or conflict in the function of a government that the political constitution or other fundamental governing law is perceived to be unable to resolve. There are several variations to this ...
*
Government shutdown
A government shutdown occurs when the legislative branch does not pass key bills which fund or authorize the operations of the executive branch, resulting in the cessation of some or all operations of a government.
Government shutdowns in the Un ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gridlock (Politics)
Political terminology