Blame the Constitution

As Scott Lemieux says there is a real obstacle to "getting things done" legislatively in the United States, and it's not partisanship, it's the institutions of American government which are specifically designed to operate in a small-c conservative manner. Many people think this is a good thing. My view is that it's a bad thing. But either way, it's a fundamental aspect of our politics -- we operate in a system with many more veto points than exist in many other countries. If you worry that not enough "gets done" that's where you need to point the blame.

This article available online at:

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2007/12/blame-the-constitution/47666/