Hacker News Reader

anon102012

A "parliamentary system" means a system where legislative elections are held and the party or coalition of parties that garners a majority then forms the executive branch of the government, and one member of the legislature is chosen to serve as the "prime minister" or head of the executive branch.

Americans would never accept a system that did not allow them to select their chief executives (presidents, governors, mayors).

View on HN

Hackers should hack them into it.

Why? If you want PR, you can have that with a presidential system. See Brazil as an example. Americans have had presidential systems since before the country was founded (the colonial governments), have enjoyed virtually unparalleled stability with them, and show no eagerness to abandon them.

In fact, the UK, one of the oldest parliamentary democracies in the world and the originator of the "Westminster System" used in most Anglophone countries, moved towards presidentialism with the Local Government Act 2003 that allowed directly-elected mayors, such as London's colorful Boris Johnson.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com