Member-only story
In the USA, checks and balances are written into the US constitution and are designed to ensure the power is shared and controlled by the rule of law. One weakness in the constitution and the founders’ desire to control power is the development of the executive presidency and the growth in size of the United States. In order to win a presidential election one needs to put together a very large coalition, and when one takes into account that there is only one president, and the winner takes all nature of American politics, the checks and balances seem more translucent than expected as illustrated by the behaviour of the Trump presidency.
This tendency to monarchy is aggravated by the informal fashion in which the law and constitution regulates political parties within the United States and incidently the UK. A party cannot and will no longer hold a president of its own party to account and when one looks at the degradation of the Republican Party in Congress and the capture of the Supreme Court it becomes clear that US style constitutions cannot hold a rogue president to account.
Fixed terms are equally a problem, the electorate cannot change its mind. Political theory suggests that a parliamentary system solves this problem, but it would seem only if proportional voting systems are used. Proportional voting systems ameliorate the need for voters to participate within coalitions…
