Broken government? : American politics in the Obama era / edited by Iwan Morgan and Philip John Davies.

"British Library, Eccles Centre for American Studies"--Cover.

"This volume is based on a conference held at the British Library in December 2010."--P. [1].

Includes bibliographical references.

Introduction : broken government? / Iwan Morgan -- 'Hail gridlock?' : Hamiltonian energy, Madisonian institutions and American dissensus / Andrew Rudalevige -- What's wrong with Congress and what should be done about it? / James A. Thurber -- Singularity, separation and sharing : Richard Neustadt's lessons for politicians and political scientists / Nigel Bowles -- Tenure reform and presidential power : the single six-year term proposal / Niall A. Palmer -- The politics of the US budget : a metaphor for broken government / Iwan Morgan -- Losing voice, losing trust : the partisan dynamics of public evaluations of government in an era of polarisation / Brian F. Schaffner and John A. Clark -- Two years of achievement and strife : the Democrats and the Obama presidency, 2009-10 / Alex Waddan -- The rise of the Tea Party movement and American governance / Edward Ashbee.

Barack Obama's election as president in 2008 generated widespread hope that the United States was entering a new era whereby government, in a reversal of Ronald Reagan's famous dictum, would be the solution to the nation's manifold problems amid the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. The Obama election slogan of "Yes We Can" seemed to voice a hope that new leadership would put right what had gone wrong with America. Anticipating a new era of government activism, some commentators read the death rites on "The Age of Reagan," the post-1980 anti-statist trend of American politics. Within a short time, however, "Yes We Can" gave way to "No We Can't," as America's government became enmeshed in gridlock and political polarization.