How can legislative gridlock occur?

Gridlock, in politics, refers to a situation in which very
little in the way of laws can get passed by a
government.

In the United States, gridlock is most likely
to occur in periods of divided government.  The current situation in the US is a perfect
example of this.  The House of Representatives is strongly controlled by Republicans
while the Senate is controlled by Democrats.  The President is a Democrat.  As a result,
measures that are passed by one house of Congress are quite likely to be rejected by the
other house.  This is certainly the case with House measures such as the one repealing
the health care program.

Gridlock can also happen even in
periods when government is not divided.  One major reason for this is the fact that
small groups of Senators have so much power to hold up
legislation.

Our system was designed by the Framers to
promote gridlock.  They feared a powerful government and so they set up a mulit-part
government in which many different parts have to agree in order for anything to get
passed.  This is an intentionally inefficient system that lends itself to
gridlock.