in
gridlock
it's a word that evokes images the frustration in paralysis
for congress gridlock as increasingly become business as usual
partisanship and the ideological polarisation have stymied efforts defined compromise and solve the nation's most
pressing problems
here with me today to discuss the gridlock dilemma is sarah bender
professor of political science a colombian college and a senior fellow in governance studies at
the brookings institute
she specialises in the study of congress political parties and the causes and consequences of
legislative gridlock welcomes their great exactly sarah let's start by defining legislative good how would
you defined and one you find this topic so intriguing
we are when we thinking about layers of stalemate for gridlock we haven't minus sense
that they're the things on the congressional agenda
global warming immigration tax reform time performed they things only gender but they don't get
done in that source sensor paralysis or stalemate right things the majority's agree surely speech
talked about in at the end of the day at the end of the congress
is been a proper
why do i study it oddly enough i wrote a book almost fifteen years ago
about let a set of gridlock right why sometimes congress remarkably productive the great society
the new deal and why we times as it mired in gridlock i the nineteen
nineties of clinton and the republican congress
that i know that was nothing i small potatoes compared to the gridlock that we've
seen today so it's interesting to me why we see increasing levels of gridlock in
why does it become
such a problem around converse a stack
this is absolutely fascinating and must ask
is the level of gridlock worse than ever basically because the based on the number
of lost that are passed
and the legislation has been an active
whether two ways to think about the question one is a big historical view would
one is more sort of resend contemporary congresses the big historical view right today's conscious
which up the number down manually to follow the debt but it that's of the
word error rate is so i think is always important keep in mind we talk
about all unprecedented still made we've seen a lot worse
historically we never wanna read i wanna go we do one go back there having
said that so i'm a measure of deadlock right what a big issues on the
on the agenda from the forties to the present and what percent word deadlocked at
the end of the congress
if you look at that measure over time goes up and down up and down
but incrementally goes up and then when we reach the last congress seventy percent that
lack of the main issues of the da in there actually is unprecedented
we see variation over time but something is that it's off kilter in the extent
to which these parties find themselves unable to come to the table
so serve clearly we've had a government shutdown
so what you see are the long term
well i think they're number reasons why we should care about congresses inability to govern
here are the difficulties it faces
first of all just as from a micro level if you're sitting the department transportation
and you wanna be able planar budget it can't
right in from here to here we might think that cover work better if they
could see the long term in clearly they can't if you can account of budgets
going up and the can't yes even estimate right what about just going to look
like so that's a problem second in a policy world right there are big problems
that get worse by not addressing the
in certainly climate change global warming acts like a prime example you don't address it
now
but problem gets worse and worse and it gets worse and worse because you are
taking any steps at least that's of the sign this tell
and third from a democratic perspective right papa confidence in contrast is really low i
think the number nine percent ten percent and as some people joke like a thousand
folks work on the hill or my brother right there is there is there is
such low approval of congress that there is problematic in a democratic local system where
we count on
people supporting rip local station
based on your research
one is at the root of legislative stalemate
is partitioned
well the couple issues here we see the historically over a long period first of
all party control points and i give divided government one party split gets why have
super i guess the congress sometimes is put the countries
some as unified party control so the first two years about ministrations large democratic majorities
just like we had a new deal just that we have a great society the
pre-tonic the difference right part is can you know i don't parts grounds and on
electro grounds and then make things happen
that's first problem
second we have a problem by cable as a right they tend to the system
but sometimes the house and senate see eye to eye sometimes they really don't include
last two conversation with the republican house in a democratic senate that system but that's
obvious that's constitutional right we have two chambers but it makes coming to the table
really harm
and third the overwhelming reason here is we have the position of the two political
parties write something that we haven't seen like this is probably a good thirty forty
years
and that makes cup finding common shared and logical ground i think there is no
shared ground in the absence of that overlap between the party right
lots of democrats to see oral approach conservatives lots of republicans were liberals and conservatives
we don't have
we have liberal democrats conservative republicans
that makes it very heart
first "'cause" i don't agree and second multi party competition right i'm not gonna green
are not gonna endorse that because that part endorsed it and so some of the
stressed at each week
nobody wants a half a loaf now we want to compromise could prefer to hold
off the whole both when they control cover
that's a recipe for still
is there anyway we can break through
so they're number of ways to think about this
first large-scale electro change one party gains control house senate white house
that will and stick a little bit of what of the logjam right just in
part because the parties then go this is our this is over chance to get
the wanna do and then let voters right can structure on it two or four
years later so one possibility select role big electro change
second possibility a little less sanguine about this second it is it's an issue comes
through that the cats the party and we've seen historically by the was slavery or
whether it was a great society right there that their issues here that could come
immigration reform possibly
i think most people are sky sceptical that the two parties would ever curry be
able to come to the centre
the third way to think about it though is that
never do make progress on issues despite polarisation right
they that they have to have a reason to come to the table right government
shutdown what and it'd republicans had there right tail between their legs because the public
in public said you want to black and one party wins that messaging
parties come to the table and that a very hopeful of some sort of pragmatic
way of thinking about things and but it is what gets the job done right
it gives parties both parties an incentive to come to the table you the one
is not a lot overlap between
well legislative gridlock is certainly a topic that we care about because of its impact
on our daily lives
there would be sharing