The center has weakened dramatically, and political extremes are much stronger. The internationalist trade-liberal coalition that linked both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue and both sides of Congress is much diminished. Policy today is less often framed by strategic interests than shaped by special interests. America's system based on the separation of powers and federalism has always been highly permeable to interests. Developments from Watergate to the end of the Cold War opened the policy process to interest involvement even more, and the social and economic changes of the past decades have vastly enlarged the number of groups that seek to influence policy and the intensity of their demands.
Permeability is magnified in economic and trade policy.
As America's economy has become more interdependent with those of other nations, and as U.S. firms face greater competition from foreign firms both at home and abroad, trade policy has become increasingly a center of interest politics. The President, individual members of Congress, and even state governments, all say different things. The fragmentation of power and the breakdown of leadership have, however, heightened inwardness. Even more than isolationism, however, these developments encourage unilateral actions driven at times by a single member of Congress who can bend policies or hold them for ransom. Democrats in the House have widely opposed President Clinton's trade policies.