Racial issue and social divisions are testing the governance capacity of the US political system. An African-American man was shot dead after killing three police officers and wounding three others in Baton Rouge, Louisiana on Sunday, within two weeks of the killing of a black man by police in the same city, which sparked protests nationwide in the US and unremitting unrest in Louisiana's capital. At a time when the country is in urgent need of unity, it is once again on the verge of falling apart.

Just as Charlie Beck, chief of the Los Angeles Police Department described, the US has broken into tribes where "all of a sudden, it becomes more important who your parents are, what the color of your skin is, than whether you are American."

Although US President Barack Obama keeps convincing himself as well as his country that "we're not as divided as we seem," the truth is at odds with his wishful thinking. What's worse, the racial divide is only one of the prominent issues among many other puzzles in the US. The division in the country has long gone beyond races or parties, but reached into ordinary people's lives. Over the years, a growing number of controversies and even demonstrations involving gay marriage, abortion, religions, and transgender toilet use have constantly emerged. And US citizens are not simply divided into two groups, but a variety of small circles like those in social networks nowadays, where one group's consensus can be in sharp contrast to the consent of another and nobody is willing to give and take or even talk to opposing groups.

In the end, while dealing with the worsening divisions between black and white, the nation has to confront a continuous stream of new problems, including the growing divergences between young and old, elites and the grass roots, liberals and conservatives.

This year's US presidential election is the best example. Take Donald Trump, who has literally won support by promoting hatred and division against Muslims, Latinos, women, and people with disabilities, but has also spoken the public's mind. His support rate can well-illustrate that the sentiment of a great many people can be easily instigated by divergences, without thinking of trying to compromise or fix it.

Such divisions are present globally, but have turned into a more severe challenge to the Western system. In the multi-party system, bashing ones opponents and fighting for "change" or to "make our country stronger" seems to have become a priority in political games, which aggravates social divisions and provides more living space for extremism.

Many countries in the world are hence seeking for better governance systems to adapt to increasingly diversified societies through reform. And upcoming US and European political reforms and adjustments are worth our close attention.