Keith

From up here in Canada I have always been amazed at how much government that the US has.

The three parts, President, House of Representatives and Senate seem unable to come to a consensus in the last few years.

The US system gets bogged down by petty arguments and seems to be in a continuous re-election state.

Isn't it about time the system was streamlined. The founding Fathers wrote the book but does it work in todays world?

HumphreyC

Does it work? - not very well at the moment one has to say, mainly because we have a 'lame duck' congress in which the House of Representatives is heavily influenced by the Tea Party. I think the present system works fine if you look at the broad swath of history. Hence in normal times it would work fairly well. The Democrats would push for increased spending to stimulate the economy and the Republicans would try and temper that with cuts. However due to partisanship and an unwillingness to compromise we end up with a complete mess. The present jobs bill will most likely fail.

another bloody yank

Which two parts should we get rid of?

kimilseung

There are lots of options that do not necessarily mean getting rid of anything; I would suggest harmonizing the election cycles, to avoid division and weak institutions.

rpjs

You've got to give the Americans their due, there isn't anywhere else in the world operating with the same Constitution as 200 years ago[1], and for all it's faults the US system seems to work tolerably well most of the time.

Personally I don't mind a bit of grid-lock now and again: it shows that power in the US system is more distributed than in most, and I'd say that's a good thing. In the UK, it might be easier to "get things done" but Parliamentary supremacy makes it more like a five-year elected dictatorship than a democracy sometimes.

[1] Yes, in theory the UK does, but I'd argue that the UK constitution has changed far more over the last two centuries than the American.

Octang Frye

Checks and balances, my hoser friend, checks and balances.

Keith

The problem is too many checks written and a negative balance.

materialcontroller

This issue of inertia within the American government system was touched on in Mark Mardell's BBC Blog at the time of the recent credit-downgrade. Mardell concludes that it's worth asking whether or not the American system is, indeed, still fit for purpose.

Octang Frye

Zzzing!

Octang Frye

Lobbyists. Get rid. Term limits. Problem solved.

robin1234

Problem with term limits is that you could end up with a load of no-nothing representatives with radical ideas who have no care for the future.

Brit3964

We already have them. They are the Tea Party.

robin1234

There you go!

robin1234

Anyone for Weimar Germany? Maybe we should have the Reichstag fire now and have done.

Tarkak9

"The three parts, President, House of Representatives and Senate seem unable to come to a consensus in the last few years." - That is because its not about "We, the People," its about "We, The Political Party" and "We, The Corporations," ...

... and not protecting corporations with rulings like independent expenditures by corporations in federal elections violate the First Amendment.

I heard that there are something like 30,000+ state and federal lobbyists... something like 12.5k federal ones in DC.