logo

Is the U.S. Senate Aiding Economic Inequality?

image
Created: 03 April, 2015
Updated: 15 October, 2022
1 min read

If there is one issue that both Republican and Democratic lawmakers continue to evoke it is the jarring economic inequality of the United States. Although they disagree on the remedy, lawmakers almost universally agree that economic inequality is a serious problem.

So why, then, has no meaningful action been taken to address a problem that impacts a majority of Americans?

In a recent article, the New Yorker examined the relationship between the government systems in democratic nations and the amount of economic inequality in these countries. What they found was that in addition to having the highest amount of economic inequality, the United States has the most number of veto players.

A veto player is defined as a person or entity that can block legislation. In the U.S., the Senate and the House of Representatives are two veto players.

More than half of the twenty-three countries Stepan and Linz studied have only one veto player; most of these countries have unicameral parliaments. A few countries have two veto players; Switzerland and Australia have three. Only the United States has four.

The study also observes that when taking into account the number of seats and the total U.S. population, the Senate is the least representative chamber among the democracies studied. The study reveals that in countries where there are more barriers to enact changes in existing laws, intrenched interests have a unique advantage of delaying or killing legislation aimed at mitigating social ills.

Read the full article here.

Latest articles

votes
Wyoming Purges Nearly 30% of Its Voters from Registration Rolls
It is not uncommon for a state to clean out its voter rolls every couple of years -- especially to r...
27 March, 2024
-
1 min read
ballot box
The Next Big Win in Better Election Reform Could Come Where Voters Least Expect
Idaho isn't a state that gets much attention when people talk about politics in the US. However, this could change in 2024 if Idahoans for Open Primaries and their allies are successful with their proposed initiative....
21 March, 2024
-
3 min read
Courts
Why Do We Accept Partisanship in Judicial Elections?
The AP headline reads, "Ohio primary: Open seat on state supreme court could flip partisan control." This immediately should raise a red flag for voters, and not because of who may benefit but over a question too often ignored....
19 March, 2024
-
9 min read
Nick Troiano
Virtual Discussion: The Primary Solution with Unite America's Nick Troiano
In the latest virtual discussion from Open Primaries, the group's president, John Opdycke, sat down ...
19 March, 2024
-
1 min read
Sinema
Sinema's Exit Could Be Bad News for Democrats -- Here's Why
To many, the 2024 presidential primary has been like the movie Titanic - overly long and ending in a disaster we all saw coming from the start. After months of campaigning and five televised primary debates, Americans are now faced with a rematch between two candidates polling shows a majority of them didn’t want....
19 March, 2024
-
7 min read