Vile wrote:
] We are pretty good in our system, tom, but I wish you would
] have offered some examples for us to compare to.

I don't have good examples. I don't know how other systems of government work. But lets underline that. You're not taught in school how other systems of government work. Most people who live here have no idea. And yet almost everyone here will tell you that America's system of government is the best, the most free, the most democratic. How do we know that? Do we ever spend time thinking about it?

The only other system that I understand well enough to discuss is the parlimentary governments in the UK, Canada, Australia and some other places. These are technically monarchies, but in practice this makes little difference. As I see it they offer one critical advantage over the U.S. system and one critical disadvantage. The advantage is that our system is structured to support two parties, period. Three or more just doesn't work well. In these countries you've got a lot of different parties. This means you might make a political choice which more closely reflects your actual thinking then red/blue. The disadvantage is that in our system you can vote for one party for the legislature and another for the executive. In their case these are one in the same. This means that you have to vote along party lines rather then making more general decisions about the aptitude of particular people for particular work. In the end it really doesn't amount to a lot of difference.

I also don't have a lot of recommendations. There are two things that I think are excellent ideas which we do in some places but not everywhere:
1. Ballot referendum. (At the federal level this is difficult, but we could be doing it in more states.)
2. Voter information booklets. Before every election in California every registered voter receives a booklet with a complete description of every candidate and pro and con arguments on every referenda item. The press does a terrible job of informing voters, particularly about local elections. This does it better.

In addition to these items, I think there are some process changes that might make more parties more sustainable. Even a ballot in which voters are allowed to make multiple choices for president would be a communications tool that would give the government more feedback on what people really think without dramatically changing the results we're likely to see in elections.

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