The relationship between the President and the congress is dependent on a myriad of other relationships, top on it being whether the government is acting in unity or divided altogether. The other dominant factor that cannot be ignored is the prevailing relationship between the President and his or her party. Other relationships worth considering include that of the interest groups and the President’s political party, the public and the President and finally the political parties and the Congress. When a government is divided, the relationship between the President and the Congress is equally affected, sometimes positively, other times negatively. In a divided government, the President and the both houses in the Congress are not likely from the same party.
It is often not possible to unify the views of the President and the Congress when the two are from political parties which are different. As a result, a divided government mostly hampers the relationship between these two parties since they will often clash in terms of ideas related to the enactment of national policies. Either the President or the opposing congress may opt to play politics by discrediting the legislative agenda of the other as part of winning the approval of voters. In the event that there is a two party system, the main role of the opposite party is to oppose the legislative initiative of the President. in addition, a political party cannot be held accountable by voters in a case whereby the policy making process is duly controlled by each party.
On the other hand, there are other scholars who have presented an argument that a government which is divided is beneficial contrary to the popular belief. According to their arguments, no single political party can gain too much prominence whenever a government is divided and consequently the relationship between the president and Congress can never be harmed by opinioned differences. Therefore, a party control will influence the success of a President from the supportive point of view. If the President has full control of his party, it will be possible to marshal support in Congress and outwit much of the prevailing opposition and thus the President will be in a position to not only pursued his legislative agenda well but also remain powerful and successful in his leadership.