CONFLICT AND COLLABORATION AS PERENNIAL STRATEGIES IN AMERICAN DEMOCRATIC GOVERNANCE: A POLARITY MANAGEMENT APPROACH

Abstract

The recent political debacle in the US Congress that led to the removal of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy was seen as emblematic of the rather dysfunctional current interplay of the conflictual and collaborative strategies at the center of the American system of democratic governance. Applying Johnson’s (1992/1996) polarity management approach and Benet’s (2006) polarities of democracy theory, the paper presents conflict and collaboration as a strategic polarity to be leveraged rather than a problem to be solved and offers a preliminary assessment of their current state of (mis)management.