by Neil Deo

Created on: July 13, 2008

Americans and other observers of political systems seem to waver between opting for the Congressional and Parliamentary systems. Depending on what is expected of government by whom, it may be possible to argue that the British Parliamentary system offers more popular democracy, and the American Congressional system offers an indirect or representative democracy. However, history itself, the constitutional amendments and recent practice do cloud the more important differences between these two systems of democracy.

The British Parliament did not offer enough democracy for the American colonies, which, after 1776 sought to improve on the British and their own experiments. The Constitution of the United States therefore begins with the famous words "We the people ...in Order to form a more perfect Union," and then quickly moves on to the first ARTICLE of our US Constitution, which enumerates the powers and election process for its Members. The lesser quoted words "in order fo form a more perfect Union" is a comparison, but not with the British Parliament. After the period after the Stamp Act Crisis in the American colonies, several Congresses of the Poeple were established. In fact the First and Second Continental Congresses (of 1774 and 1775) were the first federal governments of the United States, and it was the latter that appointed General George Washington to conduct the War of Independence against Britain. In summary, the experiment with the Continental Congresses was a radical one, with both the states and its citizens enjoying tremendous power, especially that of veto, over decisions made by the Congress sitting in Philadelphia and New York.

What was wrong with the Parliamentary system according to our Founding Fathers and the revolutionary generation? Opinion varied, and leaders like Alexander Hamilton were Anglophiles who wanted to copy the British system down to making Washington our first King or Emperor. At the other extreme was Thomas Jefferson who wanted nothing to do with the British and their institutions. Our indirect democracy, therefore, is a compromise between the positions of Hamilton and Jefferson. The debates and final votes over the Constitution were really a vote of "no confidence" in the Second Continental Congress and our first Constitution, the "Articles of Confederation." The main complaint was that the central government lacked the power to tax and otherwise compel the states to do anything it asked, begged for, or requested. The compromises

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