What matters above all else is that the people are engaged and vigilant. You’ve pointed that out yourself. The trouble is they so often aren’t.

I think that direct democracy like referenda and actually asking them who they think the head of government should be (instead of their local legislator) are a means to address this. Other countries take different routes: like mandatory voting.

I particularly like the idea of a rolling election where people can changevtgeir affiliation any day they like, instead of waiting 4 or 5 years, and the government can be taken out of power directly. But then I would want Web 2.0 democracy, I know!

The real problem in America is, as you point out, the way so many people are so ably misled. I don’t think Congress seizing the President’s powers for itself would help that one bit. But there we differ.

You mean he didn’t win his riding? You should report that to your electoral commission, they take this kind of thing seriously.

Canada has ongoing troubles with the Quebec independence issue.

And the yanks have problems with independence movements in Texas, California, and Puerto Rico. And this matters how?

Australia has a raucus democracy, which seems to match their boisterous culture. Of course, there are still great elephants in the room regards Aboriginal rights and the racial tensions in many Australian communities to the very sizeable influx of far eastern immigrants of late. It’s also said that the previous government set back their universal healthcare by a whole generation with his I’ll considers reforms Strange isn’t it how The People will often vote for that!

So they aren’t perfect either. It’s still better than the American political system in my opinion. Change can and does occur, where the American system has reached a point where change is virtually impossible.

Imagine for a moment that the US had no president, but was ruled directly by congress instead (like all of us parliamentary democracies). Don’t you think the lobbyists, the big corporate interests, the Neo Cons and the Evangelicals would all still be there? Only even less accountable!

That’s why the public has to remain vigilant.

It is not the present administration that I admire in America. It is the fact that such a wildly diverse and crazily argumentative country can exist all – without Balkan style ethic cleansing and without the torpor which European politics and our sluggish innovation – goodness! Although from the outside it so often seems all that talk of We The People and all the rest is a load of horse shit, I always find myself amazed that it is the US and not progressive Europe, industrious China, or meticulous Japan which has Silicon Valley and will remain for the second century running the most powerful and innovative country on earth.

Um, you obviously haven’t been watching some of the things that have happened in the USA, such as removal from the voting roles of inhabitants of poor neighborhoods. Or the fact that the percentage of black and hispanic males in prison is far higher than their level in the general population.

Seriously: I grew up with Northern Ireland next door (and friends in both communities). Far less arguments than you see alive in America can lead to war. McVeigh the Oklahoma bomber is considered a nut job by all but a pitious few in America. Martin McGuinness a fellow bomber was a republican hero and now runs the government of Northern Ireland. We talk a lot of war and hate on the Internet, but over there it was really like that. It took none other than Bill Clinton to bring it all together, including both the British and Irish governments. Funny how America is always there in the end…

So you are saying the Martin and George Washington have something in common. Along with Yassar Arafat, and Menachem Begin.

There is no perfect government. I am of the opinion that a parliamentary democracy is the best type of government available at the present time, and that a Presidential system is too open to abuse.

Canada has ongoing troubles with the Quebec independence issue. Unlike my own Scpttish countrymen, the Quebeckers seem to almost mean it. The fact they vote en masse for the same supposedly single issue movement doesn’t do much good for the fundamental principle of popular representative democracy. Although that is of course a problem with the people’s tactics and not the system!

Australia has a raucus deonocracy, which seems to match their boisterous culture. Of course, there are still great elephants in the room regards Aboriginal rights and the racial tensions in many Australian communities to the very sizeable influx of far eastern immigrants of late. It’s also said that the previous government set back their universal healthcare by a whole generation with his I’ll considers reforms Strange isn’t it how The People will often vote for that!

Imagine for a moment that the US had no president, but was ruled directly by congress instead (like all of us parliamentary democracies). Don’t you think the lobbyists, the big corporate interests, the Neo Cons and the Evangelicals would all still be there? Only even less acountable!

It is not the present administration that I admire in America. It is the fact that such a wildly diverse and crazily argumentative country can exist all – without Balkan style ethic cleansing and without the torpor which European politics and our sluggish innovation – goodness! Although from the outside it so often seems all that talk of We The People and all the rest is a load of horse shit, I always find myself amazed that it is the US and not progressive Europe, industrious China, or meticulous Japan which has Silicon Valley and will remain for the second century running the most powerful and innovative country on earth.

Seriously: I grew up with Northern Ireland next door (and friends in both communities). Far less arguments than you see alive in America can lead to war. McVeigh the Oklahoma bomber is considered a nut job by all but a piteuous few in America. Martin McGuinness a fellow bomber was a republucan hero and now runs the government of Northern Ireland. We talk a lot of war and hate on the Internet, but over there it was really like that. It took none other than Bill Clinton to bring it all together, including both the British and Irish governments. Funny how America is always there in the end…

Only because they’ve been lied to continually and consistently by those who have a vested interest in the status quo. Just like Microsoft lies about the value of their operating system as compared to OSX, Linux, BSD, or Open Solaris. Microsoft says that Windows is better than those four, but anyone with experience in other operating systems will tell you that it’s worse.

As to your examples of systems that are worse, I notice that you don’t mention Britain, Canada, New Zealand, or Australia. Wonder why?

The reason the US still doesn’t have universal health care is because the people are still against it. Ask a red state Republican about the idea and count how many seconds until they say “socialism”. The idea is still far from universally popular with the American electorate. Blame the media, corporations and lobbyists for that if you like. The electoral system however is just accurately reflecting that.

The same goes for women’s suffrage – deeply unpopular for a long, long time – and of course civil rights. The US has a history as a reactionary, comparatively conservative country much more than it does a trapped one, dogged by a broken electoral system.

Where there is a problem is indeed I’m the electoral college. It’s an ancient kluge, originally designed to appease the South as New England was seen to rise. But it has still only stolen a handful of elections: only one of which in the last 100 years. That’s too many. Yet we have stolenelections over here too. 1974 saw the wrong party with a plurality, and the nature of our “two and a half party” system is to steal votes from the third and bloat the statistically luckier of the big two.

I think most nations would be better off with Instant Runoff Voting, allowing outside cobtenders a chance yet still demanding majority support for the final winner (all on the same day too) but then I have a European liking for proportional representation quite out of place in America!

As for examples of worse systems: the democratic world is littered with them:

1. The mess which is France’s presidential elections (recall Le Pen (fascist) versus Chirac (conservative) in 2002 where half the country was denied a candidate they could stomach thanks to a botched first round). Imagine a US presidential election without a Democrat!

2. The perpetual government of Japan where Prime Ministers come and go on an annual basis (now 3 of them since the last good man, Koizumi, who broke records by actually staying in for a decent term) yet ALL OF THEM are from THE SAME PARTY! That’s even with proportional representation and a wide gamut of viable alternatives from socislists to Buddhists. The LDP have run it almost without interruption since World War Two.

3. Turkey with its constitutional mandate to block any parties below a threshhold explicitly designed to racially descriminate against the sizeable Kurd minority, thus pernanently keeping them out of power. This came to bite a recent governent on the ass when they did poorly enough in an election to lose every single one of their seats! Their successors were vastly overrepresented as a result. The Kurds continue to have less democracy there than they do over the border in Iraq, yet Turkey is in NATO so American, British and Canadian lives are sworn to protect it in war.

The US is an imperfect country. They all are. Even my favourite of all systems – the referendum empowered direct democracy of Switzerland – is stagnated by a frankly Jurassic permanent coalition. But to blame the US its irascible, domineering and downright defiant streak simply for its voting system is mistaken. In the broadest sense, that’s its people!

There’s an old saying: people get the government they deserve.

My examples

You want to see an oligarchy: look at Britain. Our present Prime Minister was put in charge by default, without any kind of election at all, after he finally hounded Tony Blair out of office after 10 years as his number two. Unsurprisingly: Brown finds himself the least popular leader in living memory and looks doomed cone 2010 when Blair’s old mandate runs out. The economy is his true Achilles Heel after using “no more boom and bust” as his catchphrase for a decade. No more Gordon Brown, more like.

Actually I have looked at Britain. I’m Canadian, our system is very much like yours.

Americans have three things we don’t.

1. The presidency. Elected directly by the people – although sadly the electoral college gets in the way.

In other words, it’s not elected by the people, the President is elected by the Electoral College, WHO HAVE THE OPTION OF IGNORING THE PEOPLE.

2. Primaries. The people can choose the candidates they will finally vote between on November.

That sounds like our leadership conventions, where we get to vote for who leads the party.

3. Congress. It may have a poor reputation but it has power. Our parliament is a weak poodle in comparison at keeping our leaders in check.

I’m not sure that having power is an endorsement. I’ve meet several Congress Critters, and was not impressed. Quite frankly, they’d be better off with less power.

4. The constitution. It enables all if the above. (Okay so that’s a bonus to the three!)

Constitutions can be over rated. The US Constitution for example has been set up so that it is almost impossible to amend. Say for instance you wanted to add something allowing Women to vote, well it could take half a century to get it through.

Over here, we the people get a vote as to who is our MP, like a congressman. That’s it. The Prime Minister is indirectly elected by the MPs among themselves. There are no primaries so we have no say who it actually is. And there is no written constitution to prevent travesties like what happened with Blair being ousted for Brown.

We have a written Constitution. It doesn’t prevent abuses. What prevents abuses is an active, engaged electorate, who scare the shit out of the politicians.

Also: our parties are much more prominent in every aspect of politics here. They have the power. We voters do not.

So I’d love the American system, thanks. There are far worse.

If you want to move to the US, feel free, I don’t stop you. As to there being worse systems, where are they? Give us some examples.

And then think. The only industrialized country that doesn’t have universal health care is the one you like. The reason it doesn’t have universal health care, is that the people of the United States are totally without power, and the politicians treat them with contempt.

You want to see an oligarchy: look at Britain. Our present Prime Minister was put in charge by default, without any kind of election at all, after he finally hounded Tony Blair out of office after 10 years as his number two. Unsurprisingly: Brown finds himself the least popular leader in living memory and looks doomed cone 2010 when Blair’s old mandate runs out. The economy is his true Achilles Heel after using “no more boom and bust” as his catchphrase for a decade. No more Gordon Brown, more like.

Americans have three things we don’t.

1. The presidency. Elected directly by the people – although sadly the electoral college gets in the way.
2. Primaries. The people can choose the candidates they will finally vote between on November.
3. Congress. It may have a poor reputation but it has power. Our parliament is a weak poodle in comparison at keeping our leaders in check.
4. The constitution. It enables all if the above. (Okay so that’s a bonus to the three!)

Over here, we the people get a vote as to who is our MP, like a congressman. That’s it. The Prime Minister is indirectly elected by the MPs among themselves. There are no primaries so we have no say who it actually is. And there is no written constitution to prevent travesties like what happened with Blair being ousted for Brown.

Also: our parties are much more prominent in every aspect of politics here. They have the power. We voters do not.

So I’d love the American system, thanks. There are far worse.