PO111 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Good Governance, Rationality, Patient Protection And Affordable Care Act
Document Summary
Democracy is how we resolve disputes over resources and values. In the us, healthcare is provided as a benefit of your job (if you have a job at higher end of economic ladder) 15% of americans lose out on healthcare because of low paying jobs. Rationality is an assumption of politics that just doesn"t work in this context (it should be the norm but isn"t) In any political system, you have different branches who do different things. People want government cut back: frequently there is split government (different party members at levels like senate, house of representatives and president, need about 60% of senate to pass a bill. Compromise is the essence of understanding the american system. Obamacare is extremely watered down version of what we have in canada. This program is centrepiece of the government shutdown. Far right decides to use the leverage to bring the system down and defund government until the democrats gave up.
