Three cultures

However, another factor is the sheer diversity and size of the United States. In many senses, the United States is not one nation culturally, but three. I'd like to take credit for the theory, but I can't: it was first promulgated by the late Political Science Professor Daniel Elazar in American Federalism, A View from the States.

I've adapted Elazar's incisive framework to provide a slightly different take on the United States, one which may further help explain why it's hard for the U.S. to pass public policies, particularly economic ones.

In my framework, the U.S. has three distinct economic cultures: The Northeast, called "The Enlightened," The South, called "The Morals," and The West, called "The Mavs," which is short for 'mavericks.'

Further, although the three cultures or 'nations' have overlapping values, many values are in conflict or clash, and it's this clashing of values, particularly economic ones, that often stalls and prevents public policy.

Briefly, The Enlightened favor most classic liberal public policies, The Morals oppose most of them, and argue that they have the more-virtuous value system, and The Mavs, encompassing social/environmental liberal Americans who might also be economically conservative, are free-spirits/independents, with an outlook that's at home in the west and on the frontier.

Now, the above is not to say that there aren't moral citizens in the east, or enlightened citizens in the south, or that free spirits/independent are only found in the west, but to argue that these 'nations' frequently clash and the clashes stall public policy. And one doesn't have to look far to test the theory: you're seeing it played out right in front of you in the current federal universal health care debate.

Financial Editor Joseph Lazzaro is writing a book on the U.S. presidency and the U.S. economy.