[EM] Gilmour's Parliamentary Problem:

[Alex Small]

Kevin Venzke said:
> I think the American checks and balances are off-balance:

Amen!  The current and previous Presidents, especially the current one,
have convinced this American that the President is _too_ independent. 
More importantly, I don't like the idea of giving any individual too much
power.  A collegial executive, e.g. the Swiss system (although other
models are certainly possible) would be much better IMHO.

I wouldn't mind a system like New Hampshire's, where the governor shares
power with a 5-member Executive Council.  New Hampshire elects its Council
from districts, but any reasonable form of election (or legislative
appointment) would be fine with me, as long as power is diffused among
multiple people.

> If parliamentary systems have stability problems, there are other ways
> of addressing them besides completely eliminating the executive's
> responsibility.

The easiest way to solve that is simply to say that the executive branch
serves a fixed term and elections are held at fixed intervals, rather than
every time the Prime Minister has a spat with the legislature (as in some
systems).



Alex