Legislative gridlock may stop a President Trump or a President Clinton from doing anything

On the evening of President Barack Obama's inauguration, Republican legislators met over dinner to form a pact to oppose everything he put forward. Congress went on to stonewall the President on a number of significant measures, including improvements to Social Security, reform of the tax code, changes to gun laws, a reduction of the national debt and action on climate change. For a few weeks in the fall of 2013, the political deadlock was so absolute that it led to a federal government shut-down. About 800,000 public servants were sent home. More than a million others were told to report to work, with no idea of when they would be paid.

It is a sad state of affairs when Washington is so polarized, presidents can't pass laws. And in President Obama's final State of the Union address in January, he lamented that one of his regrets is that during his term, rancour and suspicion between Democrats and Republicans worsened.

If there is to be a President Trump, will he actually be able to implement any of the wild ideas on which he has campaigned? Or would the Democratic party, possibly joined by those Republicans who have vowed to refuse to support Mr. Trump, block his every move?

To get a better understanding of the situation in Washington, Michael speaks with two experts:

Sarah Binder studies the phenomenon of partisan intransigence; she wrote a book about it called Stalemate: Causes and Consequences of Legislative Gridlock. She teaches political science at George Washington University and is a Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution.

Clifford Orwin teaches political science at the University of Toronto. He is also a Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Hoover Institution of Stanford University