Term limits would actually increase the revolving door problem because it would provide them a career after leaving office. Otherwise you have the problem that being in office would be a substantial disruption to one's career, thus favoring people who didn't have a worthwhile career in the first place.
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Making the US Senate More Representative
- Thread starter lpetrich
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Term limits would actually increase the revolving door problem because it would provide them a career after leaving office. Otherwise you have the problem that being in office would be a substantial disruption to one's career, thus favoring people who didn't have a worthwhile career in the first place.
Elixir
Made in America
I would recommend forbidding all speculative investment transactions (buying or selling stocks, calls, puts etc.) while in office.
I think most of the current crop would rush for the door like the place was on fire.
Tigers!
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This table puzzles me.Demography of the United Kingdom
What
Population
Fraction
Has parl
England
56.6 M
84.3%
Scotland
5.5 M
8.2%
X
Wales
3.2 M
4.7%
X
N Ireland
1.9 M
2.8%
X
Total
67.1 M
100%
X
If England has no parliament then what does that magnificent, old, yellow sandstone building along the Thames with Big Ben house?
(Yes I know that we could come up with facetious comments but i'd rather not be facetious)
lpetrich
Contributor
That building houses the Parliament of the entire United Kingdom, and not just England.This table puzzles me.
(trimmed down) The UK, Scotland, Wales, and NI have Parliaments, but England doesn't.
If England has no parliament then what does that magnificent, old, yellow sandstone building along the Thames with Big Ben house?
The UK has four countries in it, much like US or AU states: England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland.
Swammerdami
Squadron Leader
Consider a U.S.A. analog of this situation. Each of the U.S. states has a legislature which passes state laws, and also is subject to Congress-passed laws, with Congress reporting to the natonwide electorate.
Suppose that only 49 of the states had a legislature and California — like Englsnd — was unique in having no legislature specific to it. Instead the state laws for California were imposed by Congress.
This unfair situation, with the electorate specific to California not having exclusive jurisdiction over state laws, is analogous to England's situation. (It's disguised somewhat since such a large percentage of U.K. population is in England, but the principle is the same.)
Bomb#20
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I.e., it would be analogous and it would be the same principle if the U.S. had 40 million non-Californians and 290 million Californians and 800 California senators. The principle underlying the British system is that countries get devolved parliaments in order to alleviate their problem of being pushed around by the English. England doesn't have a problem with being pushed around by the English.
That would be pretty harsh in some circumstances.
What I would like to see is that investment is limited to:
1) General index funds--top x stocks in one of the major exchanges.
2) Home, vacation home.
Other things that can be held, but voluntary changes are not permitted other than by rules you wrote before taking office:
3) Shares in a company that you are a major shareholder.
4) Real estate.
Jayjay
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One way around this is to have open lists, where a personal vote decides the position of candidates on the list.
I still would not give up on (open) party list systems. Political parties form anyway, even if you try to keep the legislation agnostic about their existence. Like any harmful substances, political parties are safer if they are well regulated.
lpetrich
Contributor
To compare different nations, check on:
On top is the Nordic countries: Iceland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and Finland.
Next in line are the Anglo British Commonwealth countries, the UK, Ireland, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.
About equal are the Central Germanic countries, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.
A bit behind, though still overlapping, are the best of eastern Asia, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan, and the best of Latin America, Costa Rica, Uruguay, and Chile.
Somewhat behind are the Western ex-Roman countries, France, Spain, Portugal, and Italy. A bit behind them are the best of the Eastern European countries, like Estonia and Czechia.
Belgium is not as good as one might expect, because it has a long-running conflict between its Flemish and Walloon populations.
Where is the United States in this list? Not far above the others, as certain chest-thumping American superpatriots might have you believe, but well below the top ones, comparable to the likes of France and Italy, and worse than South Korea and Uruguay.
- List of electoral systems by country
- List of countries by system of government
- Democracy Index
- List of countries by Fragile States Index
- Human Development Index
On top is the Nordic countries: Iceland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and Finland.
Next in line are the Anglo British Commonwealth countries, the UK, Ireland, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.
About equal are the Central Germanic countries, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.
A bit behind, though still overlapping, are the best of eastern Asia, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan, and the best of Latin America, Costa Rica, Uruguay, and Chile.
Somewhat behind are the Western ex-Roman countries, France, Spain, Portugal, and Italy. A bit behind them are the best of the Eastern European countries, like Estonia and Czechia.
Belgium is not as good as one might expect, because it has a long-running conflict between its Flemish and Walloon populations.
Where is the United States in this list? Not far above the others, as certain chest-thumping American superpatriots might have you believe, but well below the top ones, comparable to the likes of France and Italy, and worse than South Korea and Uruguay.
Tigers!
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To compare different nations, check on:
How do they do? Note that members of these categories often overlap in score values.
On top is the Nordic countries: Iceland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and Finland.
Next in line are the Anglo British Commonwealth countries, the UK, Ireland, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.
About equal are the Central Germanic countries, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.
A bit behind, though still overlapping, are the best of eastern Asia, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan, and the best of Latin America, Costa Rica, Uruguay, and Chile.
Somewhat behind are the Western ex-Roman countries, France, Spain, Portugal, and Italy. A bit behind them are the best of the Eastern European countries, like Estonia and Czechia.
Belgium is not as good as one might expect, because it has a long-running conflict between its Flemish and Walloon populations.
Where is the United States in this list? Not far above the others, as certain chest-thumping American superpatriots might have you believe, but well below the top ones, comparable to the likes of France and Italy, and worse than South Korea and Uruguay.
Perhaps you Yanks should not have revolted in 1776? You might be higher up the list with the Commonwealth countries.
lpetrich
Contributor
I doubt it. Most of the Commonwealth countries are lower than the US in these indices, and if the US had not become independent, it would likely have become a "problem child" of the Commonwealth, much like South Africa.
Member countries | The Commonwealth - The British Commonwealth is nearly all the former British Empire.
lpetrich
Contributor
Party-list proportional representation- Closed list - only the parties choose who gets seated
- Open list - voters can have at least some influence on who gets seated
Returning to these scores, there is an interesting composite portrait of the top scorers in democracy and social development.
- Parliamentary system: the legislature is supreme, and it chooses the acting executive leaders
- Party-list proportional representation with open lists
- Weak or absent upper chamber of the legislature
- Mostly ceremonial head of state, either a monarch or a president
In the Economist magazine's Democracy Index, Norway is at the tippy top, and it fits the profile perfectly.
New Zealand has mixed-member proportional representation, and it is at #4. Germany, the prototype of such a system, is at #14.
Canada has a first-post-the-post, single-member-district lower house and an upper house that does not do much, and it is at #5.
Taiwan has a semi-presidential system, a hybrid between a strong-president system and a parliamentary system, and it is at #11. France, the prototype of such a system is at, #24.
Switzerland has a parliamentary system with no separate head of state. It is at #12.
The best nation with a strong president is Uruguay, at #15. The next ones are Chile, at #17, Costa Rica, at #18, and South Korea, at #23. The United States is at #25.
lpetrich
Contributor
Turning to the Fragile States Index, one has to count backwards, subtracting the ranks from 180.
The champion is Finland, and it fits the profile perfectly.
Of countries with mixed-member PR, New Zealand is at #4 and Germany at #14.
Canada is the champion of countries with FPTP single-member-district legislatures, at #9.
Switzerland, a nation with a parliamentary system and no separate head of state, is at #7.
The United Arab Emirates is the highest-scoring non-democracy at #29, with Qatar at #35.
Portugal is the highest nation with a semi-presidential system, at #16, followed by France at #21 and Lithuania at #25.
South Korea is the highest nation with a strong-president system, at #21, followed by Uruguay at #22, Costa Rica at #31, and Chile at #36. The US is at #37.
The champion is Finland, and it fits the profile perfectly.
Of countries with mixed-member PR, New Zealand is at #4 and Germany at #14.
Canada is the champion of countries with FPTP single-member-district legislatures, at #9.
Switzerland, a nation with a parliamentary system and no separate head of state, is at #7.
The United Arab Emirates is the highest-scoring non-democracy at #29, with Qatar at #35.
Portugal is the highest nation with a semi-presidential system, at #16, followed by France at #21 and Lithuania at #25.
South Korea is the highest nation with a strong-president system, at #21, followed by Uruguay at #22, Costa Rica at #31, and Chile at #36. The US is at #37.
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Bomb#20
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Perhaps you British Imperials shouldn't have taxed us without representation. (And yes, I realize you couldn't very well be expected to put up with thirteen of us sitting next to you lot in Parliament...
)
WAB
Veteran Member
Perhaps you British Imperials shouldn't have taxed us without representation. (And yes, I realize you couldn't very well be expected to put up with thirteen of us sitting next to you lot in Parliament...
)
I do notice that *a lot of* people *seem to* leave off that bit I bolded. It's *almost/kinda but not exactly* like the people who say "Ignorance is bliss", when that is torn completely out of context and actually undermines the original meaning of it in the (awesome) poem it was borrowed from. NOT that those people are ignorant. "Ignorance is bliss" has been in common parlance for, what, centuries?
Anyway...
The Sage of Main Street
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What Part of the "United STATES of America" Don't You Understand?
The majority of people wouldn't want to be stuck in an undesirable state just because it has the majority of the power. Population-based representation would be a way to prevent people from leaving.
The Sage of Main Street
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Sadistic statists prefer that we change our name to "United Urban Cesspools of America."
Worldtraveller
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Want to make the senate representative?
Make it a draft.
Make it a draft.
lpetrich
Contributor
Maybe even go the way of Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union. That will get rid of the Federal Government once and for all.
Like how?
Why not visit a city some time? Even if you have to put a clothespin on your nose.