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INTRODUCTION TO THE AMERICAN CONSTITUTION
7_4_2014
The idea is that there must be a tension between the different branches of the State power.
This differs from the European style system because when you think about the normal situation where you have a prime minister, the reality is that in most countries, the PM becomes PM because he holds the majority in the legislative branch.
So almost necessarily, the party who has the majority in the executive power also has it in the legislative power.
In fact, Americans typically LIKE divided governments. If you want an example of that, just look at the last presidents of the US. Bill Clinton e.g. was a member of the Democratic Party while the congress was held by the Democratic Party as well. However, interestingly enough, that situation lasted only 2 years, after which the Americans decided to elect a republican president: Bush. The same happened more or less to Bush, and after that to Barack Obama. This is called the Fundamental Split between political parties.
As part of that, what happened is that American people were able to express their ideas. They often like to have one party at power in the Congress and another party at power in the Government.
What if a third party develops himself? One of the two parties will try to move towards the same ideas. They do have third party candidates in Congress, but their power is very small.
It’s an idea that is embraced by the American people: there’s a uniform trust in the government. They have a real debate going on right now in the US: on the left, you have people who think that the government should do more and more/be involved in more things. The left doesn’t like Barack Obama because they think he’s not envolved enough in giving governmental solutions. On the other hand, the right doesn’t like Obama neither because