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News Tip: Fear of Compromise Behind Potential Government Shutdown

The federal government could shut down Oct. 1 without a budget deal.

The federal government could shut down Oct. 1 if Republicans and Democrats do not agree on a budget. The fight illustrates that the policy goals of each party's base make it nearly impossible to compromise on legislation, says a Duke University political scientist. David Rohde Ernestine Friedl Professor of Political Science, Duke University rohde@duke.edu http://polisci.duke.edu/people?Gurl=&Uil=4159&subpage=profile Rohde specializes in American politics, including political institutions, behavior and identities. Quote: "The potential of a government shutdown in the fight over the federal budget illustrates the main characteristic of modern American politics: the policy goals of each party's base -- and especially the Republicans' -- make it difficult to impossible to secure the compromises necessary to pass significant legislation. "Our system was designed to depend on the desire of office holders to be reelected to induce them to be responsive to what voters want. Today most politicians feel more electoral threat from primary voters who pull them toward extremes than from the larger electorate of general elections. "Moreover, candidates for office increasingly hold personal views on policy that are characteristic of the extreme sentiments of the base. A recent Pew poll indicates that a plurality of GOP primary voters think that Republican leaders have already compromised too much with Democrats. "These circumstances can only be overcome when participants are convinced that failing to compromise is a greater threat to them than to compromise."                                     _        _        _        _ Duke experts on a variety of other topics can be found at http://newsoffice.duke.edu/resources-media/faculty-experts.