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Divided Government, Legislative Productivity, and Policy Change in the USA and F rance
Author(s) -
Baumgartner Frank R.,
Brouard Sylvain,
Grossman Emiliano,
Lazardeux Sebastien G.,
Moody Jonathan
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
governance
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.46
H-Index - 76
eISSN - 1468-0491
pISSN - 0952-1895
DOI - 10.1111/gove.12047
Subject(s) - legislature , government (linguistics) , productivity , democracy , corporate governance , divided government , public administration , production (economics) , political science , business , economics , law , politics , economic growth , finance , macroeconomics , philosophy , linguistics
The concept of “divided government” is more complicated than scholars have allowed. In the USA , truly unified government, where the president enjoys a filibuster‐proof majority in the S enate as well as a majority in the H ouse, is rare. In F rance, truly unified government has been more common, but divided government has also occurred several times. Democratic governance requires that parties address important issues and they do so regardless of the patterns of institutional control. Nevertheless, policy changes or important laws are affected by the higher level of institutional friction associated with divided government. Looking at both the USA and F rance, we find that periods of unified government show higher levels of production of important laws in the USA , but we find no difference for overall legislative productivity.