Modern America as a Parliamentary Democracy?

Started by mongers, June 11, 2017, 07:01:09 PM

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mongers

What would modern America politics be like it it were a parliamentary democracy rather than presidential republic?

Assume the forces at work in this alternative America have broadly been the same as in the real world, but they play out within a more say UK style of constitution.

For the sake of the giving the thought experiment a focus, let's say it's early 2016 and Donald Trump's MAGA 'movement' is campaigning against the incumbent democratic party, which has recently lost it's prime minister Obama to ill health, his deputy Mrs Clinton has taken over but will be force to call a general election in November because of the four year limit . Up until this point the Republican party has been the main opposition

How do things play out and what situation do we find ourselves in?

Who is now and what have been the first six months of the new government been like, what have been the major challenges and how have these been tackled, if at all?
"We have it in our power to begin the world over again"

jimmy olsen

How many seats are in parliament? The more seats, the better the Democrats will due, simply due to geographical sorting benifiting the GOP.
It is far better for the truth to tear my flesh to pieces, then for my soul to wander through darkness in eternal damnation.

Jet: So what kind of woman is she? What's Julia like?
Faye: Ordinary. The kind of beautiful, dangerous ordinary that you just can't leave alone.
Jet: I see.
Faye: Like an angel from the underworld. Or a devil from Paradise.
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1 Karma Chameleon point

dps

If we had a parliamentary system, we'd probably have fractured into a multitude of small, weak nations years ago, rendering the whole idea moot.

Ed Anger

Stay Alive...Let the Man Drive

CountDeMoney


FunkMonk

Multiparty systems? Coalition governments?

Gross.  :yucky:
Person. Woman. Man. Camera. TV.

mongers

Quote from: FunkMonk on June 11, 2017, 08:40:53 PM
Multiparty systems? Coalition governments?

Gross.  :yucky:

Agreed, you're better off with King Orange.
"We have it in our power to begin the world over again"

crazy canuck

Quote from: FunkMonk on June 11, 2017, 08:40:53 PM
Multiparty systems? Coalition governments?

Gross.  :yucky:

The Westminster model rarely results in coalition governments but when they do they can be quite effective - present circumstances are the exception.

Also, I am not so sure the American system of ensuring only two parties are realistically possible is laudable.


Ed Anger

Foreign cooties in American democracy? Yuk.
Stay Alive...Let the Man Drive

CountDeMoney

Quote from: mongers on June 11, 2017, 08:49:10 PM
Agreed, you're better off with King Orange.

No Trump Meats for you, Mr. Snap Erections.

AnchorClanker

Quote from: crazy canuck on June 11, 2017, 09:09:22 PM
Quote from: FunkMonk on June 11, 2017, 08:40:53 PM
Multiparty systems? Coalition governments?

Gross.  :yucky:

The Westminster model rarely results in coalition governments but when they do they can be quite effective - present circumstances are the exception.

Also, I am not so sure the American system of ensuring only two parties are realistically possible is laudable.

Yep and yep!
The final wisdom of life requires not the annulment of incongruity but the achievement of serenity within and above it.  - Reinhold Niebuhr

DGuller

Quote from: dps on June 11, 2017, 07:14:06 PM
If we had a parliamentary system, we'd probably have fractured into a multitude of small, weak nations years ago, rendering the whole idea moot.
:huh: Why would that be the case?

Razgovory

Parliamentary democracies tend to be more flexible.  The US has pulled off a Presidential democracy, but not without major problems.  We did have a civil war after all.
I've given it serious thought. I must scorn the ways of my family, and seek a Japanese woman to yield me my progeny. He shall live in the lands of the east, and be well tutored in his sacred trust to weave the best traditions of Japan and the Sacred South together, until such time as he (or, indeed his house, which will periodically require infusion of both Southern and Japanese bloodlines of note) can deliver to the South it's independence, either in this world or in space.  -Lettow April of 2011

Raz is right. -MadImmortalMan March of 2017

DGuller

Quote from: Razgovory on June 11, 2017, 10:11:47 PM
Parliamentary democracies tend to be more flexible.  The US has pulled off a Presidential democracy, but not without major problems.  We did have a civil war after all.
US made it through on the strength of strong tradition preventing the fatal weaknesses of our system from materializing.  Without the traditions holding the system together, problems fester indefinitely without resolving.

jimmy olsen

Quote from: DGuller on June 11, 2017, 10:13:54 PM
Quote from: Razgovory on June 11, 2017, 10:11:47 PM
Parliamentary democracies tend to be more flexible.  The US has pulled off a Presidential democracy, but not without major problems.  We did have a civil war after all.
US made it through on the strength of strong tradition preventing the fatal weaknesses of our system from materializing.  Without the traditions holding the system together, problems fester indefinitely without resolving.

If we had the system from the begnining, why wouldn't traditions protect it has well?
It is far better for the truth to tear my flesh to pieces, then for my soul to wander through darkness in eternal damnation.

Jet: So what kind of woman is she? What's Julia like?
Faye: Ordinary. The kind of beautiful, dangerous ordinary that you just can't leave alone.
Jet: I see.
Faye: Like an angel from the underworld. Or a devil from Paradise.
--------------------------------------------
1 Karma Chameleon point