Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Divided Scholarship Over Divided Government: Why Do The President And Congress Seem Unable To Work Together?, Nicholas J. Mcintyre

Politics Summer Fellows

David Mayhew’s book Divided We Govern (1991, 2005) has profoundly affected the way political scientists not only study but also understand “divided government” in American national politics. By analyzing hundreds of congressional statutes enacted during periods of both divided and unified government, Mayhew showed that divided government is not as bad as often thought. The scholarly response to Mayhew’s book has continued to reshape how divided government is perceived and studied by considering the role of other aspects of our political system that Mayhew overlooked, such as the formation of party coalitions in times of divided and unified government, the …