The Guardian: Six reasons why the United States of America is not the bees' knees when it comes to

[Horse with no Name]

democracy:

1) A system of representation that gives the same number of seats in the most powerful chamber of the legislature (the Senate) to a state with a population of 600,000 (Vermont) as it does to one of 36 million (California);

2) An electoral system which allows State legislatures to pass laws that keep people off the electoral roll (as opposed to the practice in some European states where it is an offence not to be on the electoral roll);

3) An electoral system which puts partisan officials (think Katherine Harris in Florida 2000) in charge of the electoral process with the power to make decisions which can affect the outcome;

4) An electoral system dependent in many places upon unreliable or un-trusted technology (in the US of all places!);

5) An electoral mind set that permits gross personal attacks upon the characters of candidates (in Tennessee one advertisement attacking the Democrat candidate was so beyond the pale that even his Republican opponent called for its withdrawal);

6) An electoral system which permits the election as Head of State of a person of woefully inadequate political experience and intellectual capacity (and I'm not talking about his political preferences which is a different argument).



Most excellent comment.

http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/simon_jenkins/2006/11/post_588.html

[Greeby]

1. Umm, Mr Jenkins, we can't talk

We've had President Tony for nigh-on a decade :(