Page "Bipartisanship" Paragraph 2

According to political analyst James Fallows in The Atlantic, bipartisanship is a phenomenon belonging to a two-party system such as the political system of the United States and does not apply to a parliamentary system such as Great Britain, since the minority party is not involved in helping write legislation or voting for it.

Fallows argues that in a two-party system, the minority party can be obstructionist and thwart the actions of the majority party.

However, analyst Anne Applebaum in The Washington Post suggested that partisanship had been rampant in the United Kingdom and described it as " a country in which the government and the opposition glower at each other from opposite sides of the House of Commons, in which backbenchers jeer when their opponents speak.

" Applebaum suggested there was bipartisanship in Britain, meaning a coalition in 2010 between the opposing major parties, but that it remained to be seen whether the coalition can stay together to solve serious problems such as tackling Britain's financial crisis.