[454] in libertarians
Re: Term Limits
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Kevin THEOBALD)
Tue Dec 6 10:43:58 1994
From: theobald@duke.cs.mcgill.ca (Kevin THEOBALD)
Date: Tue, 6 Dec 1994 10:39:35 -0500
In-Reply-To: Vernon Imrich's message [Re: Term Limits] as of Dec 5, 21:35
To: Vernon Imrich <vimrich@MIT.EDU>, libertarians@MIT.EDU
| It is difficult to compare other countries' experiences to our own
| anyway. E.g. most other countries have more multi-party systems than
| we do, and don't do that well.
Canada, has, for instance, 5 parties at the national level. The third-
largest, the Reform Party, rose from obscurity in just a few years.
However, while the voters in Canada nominally have more choice than voters
in the US, their representatives are far less representative than US
representatives. The parties exercise far greater control over their
members than in the US. For instance, the Tories expelled two MP's
because they voted against the GST (Goods and Services Tax). Thus,
most votes are faits accomplis, and the parliamentary debate is mostly
for show.
What makes matters worse is that legislative and executive branches are
not separated. This makes gridlock virtually impossible, especially if
the leading party has the majority of seats.
Kevin
