An American Parliamentary system?

My understanding of European Politics is not great at all. So I was wondering if people here think that a Parliament would ever form here in the US. I believe that we Americans would never go for such a system because of our bad feud we had with England. Now, I realize England has grown up a lot since then and there system is in the same playing field as ours. What do you think?

Could America ever adapt such a system? Would many Americans want this? Or do we still hate parliaments?

reply to post by jjf3rd77


Thats a complicate issue, and I'm not entirely sure that I could describe the German government in all details, so I will leave that to another volunteer.

But I will try to point to a major difference between the USA and Germanys governmental constitution: it's the difference between a federal state (Germany) and a federation (USA). The first describes a political system in which the provinces give up a large amount of their powers and form a powerful governance. The latter describes a political system in which the states keep much of their powers to sign most of their laws on their own.

For example, in Germany there is only one law for the maximum speed on autobahnen (none, hehehe ). In the USA, every state has the power to pass a bill about that states maximum allowed speed on highways.

Same goes for many other ambits. Maybe both systems work equally well for its citizens because of the sheer difference in landsize - Germany is smaller so it is more rational that all provinces have about the same laws.

reply to post by ManFromEurope


So could the parliament work here? Or is a parliament only for smaller countries because its more sustainable?

reply to post by jjf3rd77


Don't know. It's working fine for us.

Germany consisted of about 300 or 400 bigger and smaller principallities before 1871, they were fused together in a process about which I will just quote wikipedia: "Occupied during the Napoleonic Wars, with the rising of Pan-Germanism inside the German Confederation resulted in the unification of most of the German states into the German Empire in 1871 which was Prussian dominated." Wikipedia

I highly doubt that this transition is possible wherever you have powerful states which are of course used to their powers and sovereignty and which aren't threatened by an outside enemy.

That would never work due to the individual states giving up a lot of there authority to a central .gov. I would hate that, for one it move our local powers further away from the people. Its much easier to get something done in local .gov then federally.. Also its not how the US was formed. We are a republic. We will remain a republic.

Originally posted by Arkansas
That would never work due to the individual states giving up a lot of there authority to a central .gov. I would hate that, for one it move our local powers further away from the people. Its much easier to get something done in local .gov then federally.. Also its not how the US was formed. We are a republic. We will remain a republic.

Of course, they would have to give up a lot of their authority (thats the word I was looking for..).
But otherwise you get a system which is capable to perform projects on a much larger scale - for example, if you want to build something which would cross several states, I imagine that there would be much hassle about details.

With a more centralised system you just start working on it, without so much bothersome discussions from the states in question "why? why we? could you please deposit the nuclear waste somewhere else?" etc.

Okay, it's not as easy as I said above, of course every province has its rights, but we see the advantage in easier ways to perform large, for the whole of the country important projects. The provinces do have authority, but its more limited.

Btw: Germanys official name is "Federal republic of Germany" - we are a republic too
You might want to look up the words "republic" exact definition.

Don't you guys call your parliament congress?

I was attacked and called a F'in idiot when I stated (on another forum) that US would never adapt a Parliament system because the constitution was born from that system. A Parliament is against everything our constitution stands for. I was also attacked for saying America will never have a King or Queen like in England.

reply to post by jjf3rd77


Quote from Wikipedia:

Legislatures called parliaments operate under a parliamentary system of government in which the executive is constitutionally answerable to the parliament. This can be contrasted with a presidential system, on the model of the United States' congressional system, which operate under a stricter separation of powers whereby the executive does not form part of, nor is appointed by, the parliamentary or legislative body.

Could you describe how the powers of executive and legislative are separated in the congress, maybe even compare that the the parliamentary system? I am not so sure about the differences right now, I couldn't point them out.

Edit: Okay, we don't have a "president", we do have a "chancelor"..