Essay 12

A divide government is when different parties take primary control over the house and senate. For example, if the House of Representatives is ruled by Democrats and the Senate is ruled by Republicans, a divided government is created. A divided government is not beneficial to either party or the people. Checks and balances is a system that makes sure no one party can completely take over and pass any law they want. In order for a law to be passed, it has to be accepted by the other two branches of the system. When one party predominately controls the house and senate; laws get passed, promises fulfilled, and efficiency of the system is optimal. When a divided government occurs, policy grid lock ensues and trust in government is lost. This is all due to the fact that when neither the House nor the Senate agree on an issue, they have to hash it out and even if they do decide on a mutually beneficial agreement, the law still has to be approved by the executive branch. This makes congress extremely inefficient and nothing ends up getting done. Because of this, trust in the U.S. government is constantly declining. People want their congressmen and congresswomen to get bills passed that benefit them, thats the whole reason they voted for their representative after all. If none of the beneficial bills get passed or if no bills get passed in general, people see congress as a huge joke.

As the years progress, it takes more and more money to run a successful campaign. Although not always true, the person who spends the most normally walks away victorious. Politicians know this, and do what ever it takes to secure their position, primarily from campaign contributions. Most of these campaign contributions come from Political Action Committees or P.A.C.S. They donate to try and get their respective representative into office. Once they do, the politician feels a certain need to payback the P.A.C.S. He does this by listening to their problems and passing laws that benefit them. In essence, The P.A.C.S are buying the politician and this is no secret. In fact, much of the population of the U.S. knows about these sly and underhanded tactics. The American population feels a deep disconnect when they vote. They feel that no matter how they vote, or where their politician stands, laws will be passed that benefit the P.A.C.S rather then the people. This problem in the U.S. political system has led to a decline in trust and confidence in government. If the people don't trust their government, things are not in good shape. The political system needs peoples participation to stay legitimate. Without it, all the congress is, is a group of people who make changes to and add new laws. In addition, if people don't chose to vote due to the belief that policies are out of their hands, the government can spiral out of control and loose the democracy that we know and love today.

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3) Trust and confidence in government have declined in recent decades.
(a) Explain how divided government has contributed to the decline in trust and confidence in government. Be sure to include a definition of divided government in your response
(b) Explain how the increased cost of election campaigns has contributed to the decline in trust and confidence in government.
(c) Explain two specific consequences of the decline in trust and confidence in government for individual political behavior.

Scoring Rubric:
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