AUSTIN – Kathleen Hunker, policy analyst with the Texas Public Policy Foundation's Center for Economic Freedom, article titled Britain's Road to Constitutional Gridlock, American Style appears in today's Cornell International Law Journal Online. The piece discusses how the United States government shutdown was the predictable, if not intended, result of a constitutional system that views competitive struggles between government actors as necessary checks to power.
"International criticism of the federal shutdown failed to appreciate the role intra-government competition plays in the United States' constitutional tradition," said Kathleen Hunker, policy analyst at the Foundation's Center for Economic Freedom. "Whereas a majority of constitutions structure their political system around collaboration, the US Constitution encourages divided government and jealous competition among political actors. Ideally, this prevents any one political body from accumulating too much power and becoming a threat to liberty. Thus, the shutdown and other challenges facing the Affordable Care Act did not indicate a breakdown in American politics, but rather a sign that the system is working as intended. Gridlock is not a flaw–it's a feature."
The article can be read in its entirety here: http://bit.ly/1cyHmT5.
Kathleen Hunker is a policy analyst with the Center for Economic Freedom at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, a non-profit, free-market research institute based in Austin.
The Texas Public Policy Foundation is a non-profit, free-market research institute based in Austin.
Primary website: www.TexasPolicy.com
Facebook page: www.Facebook.com/TexasPublicPolicyFoundation
Twitter feed: www.Twitter.com/TPPF
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