America and Australia: A Curious Coincidence

Australia seems about, once again, to change its prime minister as the result of an internal coup by members of its federal parliament who belong to the party in power. At the moment this is the Liberals, who equate with our Conservatives. But previously it has been Labour. In other words both parties are at it when in power. Because only members of parliament are allowed to vote in a new party leader, it is just a handful of people switching support that brings down a prime minister. This is not a good system of democracy and works only because Australia has strong State governments which cater for most of the day be day needs of the population.

In America, short of death, a change of president once elected to office is well nigh impossible and has succeeded only once, when Nixon resigned. Since then it has become almost routine for opposition forces to mount a campaign to discredit the president in office, trying to prove via special prosecutors some degree of culpability for something, to enable impeachment proceeding to begin. The actual process has begun only with Andrew Johnson in the period immediately following the civil war, and Bill Clinton. Neither was driven from office. But Reagan ( Iran Contra arms scandal) Clinton (sex and perjury) and now Trump (Russian collusion) have been subjected to major campaigns dominating Washington and hobbling their presidencies for considerable periods. Once again the I word is in circulation on Capitol Hill.

Both countries need to consider reforms. This is not the kind of democracy voters favour, because it appears to place the priorities of politicians above the needs of the voters who put them there.