Beginning with a frame of reference
If you're about to start a comparative course with students in the US, here's a reading that offers some comparative perspectives about the electoral year just begun in the US.A very long and winding road
"Why does the United States, champion of democracy, have a drawn-out presidential electoral system that is a far cry from the 'one vote for all' principle?...
"And I didn't say that the American people will elect their president, because collectively they do no such thing... a presidential contender can actually lose the popular vote across the whole nation, but can still win the Electoral College, as George Bush himself did in 2000...
"The US may have good reason to pride itself on being the world's oldest continually functioning democracy... But it's certainly not a democracy in the sense that most of us would understand that term...
"Kennedy [in 1961] neglected to mention something that may have been self-evident on his side of the Atlantic, but which wasn't at all obvious here: that the inauguration of a new president is more akin to the British coronation of a new head of state than to a general election which may result in a new prime minister...
"So, to put it in Bagehot's terms, while our monarch is expected to be dignified, and our prime minister is supposed to be efficient, American presidents are required to be both dignified and efficient at the same time..."
posted by Ken Wedding @ 8:10 AM
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