Congress, the Presidency and Domestic Policy

Paper Summary:

This paper examines why it is so difficult for the president of the United States to pass his domestic policy through Congress. It attempts to show that the composition and bicameralism of Congress, the strong formation of political parties and partisan effects and the prominent wars that have plagued the country all contribute to this difficulty.

From the Paper:

"When the original 13 colonies declared independence from Great Britain in 1776, it served as an unyielding announcement to the world that they were no longer going to abide by British rule and gave birth to a new and vastly nontraditional form of government. At the time most governmental structures were monarchial based and centralized on strong governmental powers. The framers of the Constitution created a system of checks and balances that would bring to an end to tyranny and fashioned three branches of government, each with its own "mechanisms by which the actions of any single branch could be blocked by either or both of the other branches" (Greenberg and Page 42). Congress, known as the legislative branch, and the president, or executive branch, were given the task of working together to form the laws and policies of the country. As was intended by the framers, it is difficult for these two bodies of government to pass domestics policy agendas due to the pure make up of Congress, the United States as a divided government, times of war, and the system of checks and balances."

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