Divided Government: Weak Party Discipline

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It is difficult for our federal government to make policies due to the separation of powers that are in place, on top of other factors such as weak party discipline and the growth of PAC’s and interest groups in our country. They all play a role in making it difficult to create and implement policies because of the vast amount of differing wants/needs of the people and the powers that keep everyone in check. “Without “legislating together” in such a coalition, either nothing will happen, or the intentions of policymaker will be modified substantially in the policy process.(6) Divided government occurs when different parties control the House and the Senate or when the President is from one party and the majority of Congress is not from the …show more content…

(7). Party’s have an agenda and the members agree on what policies to vote on, members stay within the party line which is voting for policies that will push forward that parties wants and ideals. Each senator must try to stay true to his own views and ideals as well as try to appeal to the voters. So if we are looking at Weak party discipline we would explain to be the inability of a party leader to have enough influence on how the members of their party will vote. Having members that don’t follow the party agenda can be a problem for parties trying to pass bills. A majority vote is needed to pass bills and opposing parties try to stop each other from having their way, when crossover voting occurs and the party members from one side vote against their party policy agenda it can cause parties to become weaker, less stable. Policies will go into gridlock and there is always a chance they wont go through at that point. Having loyal, disciplined party members is crucial for parties to get their way in implementing their views and ideals through policy in this …show more content…

Our government is supposed to carry out the wishes of its people and senators that are elected by the people to elect policies to do so. With the increase in interest groups candidates try to appeal to the voters and to PAC’s, which are the ones that are going to be supporting the individual party members and can donate funds to certain campaigns they choose. When you are trying to appeal to so many interest groups and PAC’s who are trying to push their own special wants or needs it puts increased pressure on the members of congress. Everyone wants a chance to have their policies heard by congress and they will back up and support any senators or members of parties that can make it happen. This all makes the governments job to enact policies harder cause they don’t know which policies to prioritize. On top of interest groups can fight against policies that they don’t approve of. This all causes policy gridlock within our government, PAC’s have the power to turn senators against their party’s agenda due to money, they can cause policies to get delayed or terminated from weak party disciplines. There are issues right now such as the gun control issue that I mentioned, you can bet that the NRA is funding the move against the democrats trying to get gun control this has caused a policy gridlock, Democrats want control but a Republican congress will not let that happen.. Another example could

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