Abstract
This article proposes a framework for the comparative study of divided government and applies it to the U.S. cases. A recent theory of comparative politics, comparative analysis of political institutions, emphasizes there are many variations of the presidential systems. They come from two institutional arrangements: electoral and executive rules. These rules lead to the variations of divided governments by making differences in party systems and organizations. In the case of American divided government, it had been a combination of two-party competition and weak intra-party unity until the 1970s. Since the 1980s, however, American two-party system has been with a strong intra-party cohesion. This transformation has also changed the policymaking process of the divided government. By some data and a case study, the author finds that confrontations between the President and Congressional majority party become sharper, although these are continued not so long.
