Political scientist predicted that the American system of government was unstable and would collapse

[starroute]

14. Parliamentary systems have minor flaws compared to presidential systems

I remember reading decades ago that every other country that attempted to model its system on ours had fallen into dictatorship or failed in some other way. Whoever was making the observation seemed to be suggesting that we were favored in some way by American exceptionalism -- that we were somehow more innately democratic and that this enabled us to thrive in a system that everybody else was doomed to screw up.

That may actually have been true at the time. Certainly there was a period when Americans seemed to actively believe in democracy in a way that nobody else did. But that belief started to waver when it became clear that democratic elections in other countries might produce governments that were unfavorable to US corporate interests -- and from the sphere of foreign policy a willingness to apply non-democratic methods to ensure a desired outcome crept into domestic politics round about the time of the Nixon administration.

We're now living in a society where a significant minority of the population no longer believes in democratic institutions -- no longer believes that elections should be won fairly, that the will of the people is the source of legitimate authority, and that the best policies are those that serve the common welfare.

And under those circumstances, our current system becomes a deathtrap.