Gridlock and the Crisis of Leadership in the U.S.

This chapter focuses on the condition of the US democratic system and the central issue of the recent presidency—gridlock. Some faulted the Democratic Congress. Many ordinary voters began to see the way around gridlock as going directly to the people—through the type of electronic "town-hall" democracy which Ross Perot utilized so effectively. In the end, the 1992 election produced a Democratic president and Congress. James Mac Gregor Burns's concerns very much reflected widespread frustrations with the seeming intractability of the US system. In the 1960s, many reformers became anxious that despite nominal control of each chamber of Congress and the presidency, the Democrats encountered an incapacity to move forward rapidly in policy areas they deemed to be in need of timely and comprehensive treatment. US presidents bent on building down the state have struggled with the same fragmented bureaucracy that hobbled their predecessors during the era of expansive governance.