ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews the main institutional arrangements in use in the contemporary American political system, exploring the ways in which they tend to facilitate, hinder, and channel the formation of coalitions in government. It is a commonplace to observe that American national politics is coalition politics. Any political system of much size or scope is likely to contain within it a population sufficiently diverse as to provoke the formation of factions, each pursuing its own interests. Factions are the name for the natural parts of a complex political system such as that prevailing in the United States. Factions organize interests, the felt needs of individuals which are seen to be in some sense capable of satisfaction by means of governmental policy. Factions can be distinguished in three ways: by their regions, by their ideologies, and by the nomination processes that sent them to Congress.
