In case you hadn't noticed, the US Federal Government has been shut down because of policy differences between two branches of the government. Said shutdown affects only non-essential government workers at this time, but if it continues too long, we may all notice it.
What is really surprising is how many federal government shutdowns there have been over the last 40 years. I certainly hadn't been aware of that many, and if asked, I might have guessed 5. The chart above quickly dispels that notion.
PBS has an in-depth article that discusses these shutdowns, their causes, and their outcomes. Quite a bit of information is available in tabular form and makes for deucedly interesting reading. Meanwhile, place your bets as to how long this current shutdown will last. My money's on a new record.
Everyone else either has presidents without political power or monarchy without political power. Power usually resides with ministry of state or prime minister, which needs a majority to form a government. No deadlocks between the democratic chambers.
Sweden _is_ currently without central part of the government, but we have a shadow government and a budget ANYWAY. Nothing stops working, budget is still passed... And the king is, of course, without political power.
sure girls might not want to date you because you work at taco bell
but other than that it's not so bad