American exceptionalism; the p
American exceptionalism; the pJoshua Cohen and Joel Rogers illustrated, in American Exceptionalism: The Politics of Fragmentation, that although collective action is the most effective means of being heard, our country has become structured to prevent this from happening. The nation has been fragmented in several different ways on many different levels over the coarse of its history.
The design of the constitution, the first fragmentation, guarantees a split government. It mandates a separation of powers to allow each of the three branches checks and balances over the each other. It also prohibits the leader of one branch to simultaneously be the leader of another. The constitution also grants states their own rights to govern, instead of only having one centralized nation government. "… [T]he clear effect of constitutional fragmentation has… been to limit the potential for political cooperation among people of ordinary means…" This shows how the "founding federalist" believed the common person should not be part of political actions. On one hand you have the constitution fragmenting the government. On the other hand you have the constitution separating people from the government. The goal of the authors of the constitution was to create a system of government that existed in complete political deadlock because it never allowed any part of the system to be unified.
Geological characteristics also help to fragment the nation. The U.S. is one of the largest nations in the world. As the country was being formed, the availability of land made it possible for almost anyone who was not comfortable where they were, to pick up and move. This encouraged extreme diversity as people could operate in relative isolation from each other. "Size would encourage a diversity of interests, and that diversity would in turn pose barriers to the existence and coordination of any stable popular majority." This shows how the nation has become segregated by political interest, such as environmentalists in the northwest, or Mormons in Utah. This creates several different voices of the people, each, generally too small to pay much attention to.
The nation is separated into economic groups, which have competed for power throughout the history of the U.S. Whoever leads the country from an economic standpoint also has the biggest political influence. The Northeast has predominately been the driving economic region for the majority of the time. "Regional economic differences continue to slow concerted national responses to problems, and to divide ordinary people with potentially shared interests from one another." This shows how money can drive our nation apart. The mostly upper-middle class politicians can tend to agree more with fellow class members because they feel equal; and also disagree more the with lower classes because they feel superior;...
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