WHAT IS POLITICS?| 11Finally, we are not arguing that all confl ict is good. For example, obstruction
for the sake of obstruction in Congress does not serve the greater public good. Our
point here—as it is throughout this book—is simply that confl ict and compromise
are inherent parts of politics.
Key Idea 2: Political Process Matters
The political process is often described like a sporting event, with a focus on
strategies and “winning.” In fact, a politics news show on CNN has a daily segment
titled “The Play of the Day.” This focus overlooks an important point: politics is the
process that determines what government does, none of which is inevitable. Public
policy—everything from defending the nation to spending on Medicare—is up for
grabs. And the political process determines these government actions. It is not just
a game.
Elections are an excellent example of the importance of the political process.
Elections allow voters to give fellow citizens the power to enact laws, write bud-
gets, and appoint senior bureaucrats and federal judges—so it does matter who gets
elected. After the 2008 election, when Democrats captured control of Congress
and the presidency, they enacted a massive economic stimulus package and new
policies for alternative energy, global warming, education, health care, regulation
of the mortgage and fi nancial sectors, and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. But if
the 2008 election had gone the other way (with Republicans controlling Congress
and the presidency), policies in these important areas would be signifi cantly dif-
ferent. As it turned out, the Republican takeover of the House in the 2010 midterm
election and Republican gains in the Senate ended the Democrats’ ability to pass
similar proposals—unless they could craft them in a way that gained Republican
support. Clearly, elections matter.
Yet politics is more than elections. Many members of the federal bureaucracy
have infl uence over what government does by virtue of their roles in developing
and implementing government policies. The same is true for federal judges, who
review government actions to see if they are consistent with the Constitution and
other federal laws. These individuals’ decisions are part of the political process,
even though they are not elected to their positions.
Ordinary citizens are also part of politics. They can vote; donate time or money
to interest groups, party organizations, or individual candidates; or demand action
from these groups or individuals. Such actions can infl uence government policy,
either by determining who holds the power to change policy directly or by signal-
ing which options have public support.
Another important element of politics is the web of rules and procedures that
determine who has the power to make choices about government policy. These
rules range from the requirement that the president must have been born in the
United States, to the structure of debates and voting in the House and the Sen-
ate, to the procedures for approving new federal regulations. Seemingly innocuous
rules can have an enormous impact on what can or does happen, which means that
choices about these rules are actually choices about outcomes.
Consider the cloture rule for ending debate in the Senate. It states that 60 votes
out of 100 are needed to enact a new law, not just a simple majority of 51. For the
last half of 2009, the Democrats controlled the 60 Senate sets needed to stop a
Republican fi libuster. (A fi libuster is a way to extend debate and thereby pre-
vent a vote on a proposal.) However, the Democrats’ fi libuster-proof majority was