My hat is off to Russ Goble. Posted on Samizdata ::

It kind of saddens me to think just how enligtened were that the group of men who founded our nation and threw their intellects and support behind the 3 founding documents (the Dec. of Indepence, the Constitution & Bill of Rights). What I mean by that long run-on sentence is that it seems like it was a fluke, it was pure luck that those men were able to get on the same page and create a nation whose principles I think are universal, but unfortunately are not universally shared.
They created a government not only “of the people, by the people & for the people” (yes, I know we are republic as opposed to a pure democracy), but created one that for most of it’s history was meant to be limited in power.
Everything that they put on paper between 1776 and 1787 was motivated by the idea of preventing tyranny. Some wanted a King. They said NO! Some wanted a National Bank. THey said NO! They wanted the president to be directly elected. They wanted one house of Congress to represent the people. They wanted another house to represent the states equally. They gave separate powers to each knowing that they’d have to comprimise to get anything done. No one could run roughshod over the place.
Then they made the Supreme Court the arbiter of the whole thing. But, then they gave the States their own powers SEPARATE from the federal government. And then they came up with the bill of rights that put forth the idea that we are BORN with rights that simply can not be trampled on. They gave the president a veto, but one that could be overwritten. And finally, they basically said don’t hurt your neighbor but feel free to take up arms against your government if we get to big of a head.
And it’s been a resounding success despite some damn rough patches. Yet, no one copies us. That may seem like a self-absorbed gripe, but hear me out. Even Germany & Japan went with a parliamentary system that really keeps the power in the hands of political parties on choosing the leader of the country. I know Germany has some of the federalists tendencies that we do, but their governments which we had heavy influence over decided to copy other European models instead of ours.
Even the Eastern Europeans who seem as if they thought highly of the U.S. copied systems of governments from Europe rather than the U.S.
Look at the European Union’s proposed constitution. It’s what? 400 pages long? They believe they have to answer every question from the get go.
The genuis (and some would say it’s downfall) of the U.S. Constitution is it’s ability to evolve with the society governed by it. Despite the Civil War, slavery was also done away with via laws, without having to tear up the Constitution. Our nation has changed dramatically these last 227 years. We’ve had one of the bloodiest Civil War’s in history, we’ve had the great Depression, we had the incredible social upheavel of the 60s, 2 world wars and many small ones and the great idealogical battle of the Cold War. Yet, we still have the same document to look back to as a guide for our laws. It never needed to be re-written, just occasionally amended (which BTW, is damn difficult thing to do).
Yet, over the last century the very idea that the government shouldn’t be all powerful is foreign to a great many people, even those who grew up in or admire the U.S. This is sad. I guess that’s kind of what Samizdata is all about really. We need constant reminding that we should be in control of our own destinies.
I’m not a religious person, but I do sometime’s wonder what brought those group of men together in that place at that time and created something whose genius those men probably didn’t even realize. I genuinely thank whatever God there may or may not be that I live here. I love America with all it’s wrinkles.

That was a very long quote, however, I think that most of it needed to be copied. He points at the pure elegance of the Constitution, and how the Founding Fathers devised that perfect balance of powers. But I always did wonder how other governments functioned under the constant threat of having parliament disolved.
Why haven’t more governments chosen the more stable route of president/congress/supreme court? I know that a few have. When I look at the constitution, I don’t see anything inherently “US American” about it. It is generic enough to be copied verbatim into any other country and used as is. The rights recognized in it are generally universal and not just applied to Citizens.
If anyone is up on it, can you tell me the benefits to the parliamentary system? It seems to me to grant too much power to the Prime Minister for most systems. And why do some countries have both a PM and a President? What powers could the President hold? I know in almost all cases none, but I still wonder the reasoning. Scott, can you shed some light?

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