American and Westminster Systems

There are two kinds of democratic systems, the American system with a strong presidency full of checks and balances, and the Westminster system, where central governments are quickly created with powerful mandates to effect nationwide change.

As both Europe and the United States grapple with the fall out from the financial crisis, many political elite have begun to compare the virtues of the two systems.  Peter Orszag, former director of the Office of Management and Budget in the Obama Administration, writes that there is such a thing as being too democratic in ‘Too Much of a Good Thing,’ in The New Republic.  He favors giving more power to automatic, unelected federal commissions.  Harold Meyerson in, ‘Did the Founding Fathers Screw Up?’ in The American Prospect seems to think that it is the American presidential system which is to blame rather than democracy in general.  Meyerson even manages to compliment Chinese central planning in the process and lay the blame of America’s Civil War on the presidency.

So it is an interesting debate which seems to be occurring among American political elite where avowed liberals argue for less and different democracy.  Certainly, the American system is imperfect, but the criticisms seem exaggerated.  The American system, while allowing change, but discouraging political vacillation, has created the oldest democracy in the world with the largest economy, the greatest cultural influence and a sphere of influence to rival the greatest of empires.  European parliamentary systems seem at least as diffident when it comes to good governance, especially if we consider the plight of Greece, Italy, Spain, Portugal and Ireland and even when we consider the economic potency of France and Germany.  And it is, after all, the role of the Federal Reserve, an independent institution meant to be largely independent of electoral politics, to control monetary policy and inflation in America.

So it would seem that America does not have the wrong mix of democracy in it’s government, but perhaps the wrong amount of patience in its people.