Divided Government

Abstract

The chapter explains the meaning of divided government and introduces the king-and-council template of governance characterizing territorial governments where responsibilities for choosing the policies of an organization are divided between a single person (“the king”) and a committee (the “council”) of more or less equal members, who make important decisions by voting. The chapter analyzes the advantages of this system to resolve problems of information, power sharing, and succession. Next, it presents historical examples of the reallocation of power between the king and the council, including the emergence of modern democracy, and demonstrates the theoretical intuition behind those constitutional exchanges. The chapter also examines the ability to define political property rights and how constitutional courts assist in this respect, and shows why, contrary to doctrines of the separation of powers, control of policymaking is in practice shared among different branches of government.