When the Republican speaker of the House of Representatives in the U.S. Congress threatens to sue the Democrat president over his alleged abuse of power while enforcing healthcare reforms, as he did in July, it is time to examine the problems that American democracy is confronting.
Does the fault lie in the design of the American federation, or in the practice of necessarily confrontational two-party politics? Or is it located in the rapid socioeconomic changes wrought by globalisation? These questions can be asked of most democracies, including India, which shares several features with the American political system.