Glossary on the Republic

Gridlock

Union

The word for a government that cannot move comes from the worst kind of traffic jam, where every intersection is blocked and nothing can go anywhere.

Gridlock originally described a specific traffic nightmare: cars stuck in an intersection block the cross traffic, which backs up into the next intersection, until an entire grid of streets seizes up and no vehicle can move in any direction. The term spread from New York traffic talk in the 1970s.

Politics borrowed it perfectly. Political gridlock is when the machinery of government locks up, when no major legislation can pass because the branches or parties are at cross purposes and each blocks the other.

The American system is unusually prone to it by design. Separation of powers, two chambers, the filibuster, the veto, federalism: every one of these is a place where action can be stopped. The framers wanted it hard to pass laws, so that only broadly supported ones would survive.

Divided government makes it worse. When one party holds the White House and another holds a chamber of Congress, the veto and the filibuster can grind lawmaking to a halt, sometimes even shutting the government down entirely over a budget standoff.

Origin

From 1970s traffic slang for a locked grid of intersections; applied to a government unable to act.

Why it matters

Gridlock is the shadow side of checks and balances. The same design that stops any one faction from seizing power can also stop the government from doing anything at all. Whether you call it a feature or a failure depends on whether you wanted the law that just died in the jam.