Antebellum By Aldrich Summary

Aldrich claims that a series of gradual changes in the political institutions caused the current dysfunction. He discusses five different periods of time beginning with the “Founding”, Aldrich describes the creation of a government founded on separation of powers as one of the first requirements of the gridlock that characterizes modern politics. The second requirement of gridlock is the two-party system which emerged early in the United State’s existence. While these two characteristics, worked for a small, agrarian, and homogenous society that existed in the 1800s, today the two party system coupled with the separation of powers causes legislative gridlock as parties become more polarized and more competitive. Continuing to “Antebellum”, Aldrich points to the increase in voting rights and the rise of more ambitious political actors. Increased voting rights allowed for the mass-based party system. In the “Populist and Progressive period”, Aldrich asserts the developments allowing for more communication between political actors and their constituents with introduction of secret ballots and direct primaries resulted in candidate-centered
The causes of the inadaptability are intellectual rigidities, meaning that people don’t want to change “the way things are done”, and incumbent elites protecting their positions and blocking the necessary changes. Fukuyama also discusses how the separation of governmental roles has been blurred. For instance, he says that the courts are legislating themselves, and this has created confusion and contradiction in our legal system. It places enforcement out of the hands of the bureaucratic institutions, and thus makes them less accountable. In addition, Congress had begun to take on part of the executive role, while also being more influenced by interest groups and lobbyist through “reciprocal