4 ms·

Sometimes I wonder about that. The US as a whole has the same setup (DC isn't the biggest metro area), and the way the legislative houses and executive branch a

Sometimes I wonder about that. The US as a whole has the same setup (DC isn't the biggest metro area), and the way the legislative houses and executive branch are usually not controlled by a single party at once. Having that separation of power certainly sounds nice, but if you compare it to other countries where the capital IS the biggest city, and where there's always one party/coalition in control of the entire legislative and executive branches...well, they seem to actually function better, on average? Like, I'm not seeing the practical benefits here. Does anyone look at how Congress and the Presidency behave in the year 2018 and think, "ah yes, this clearly has the results we want"? It seems to me like the problem of splitting up power too much is that you get fragmentation, and situations where each party just blames the other and it's hard to tell who actually deserves responsibility for anything.

dsfyu404ed 8y ago
Making it harder to do things makes it hard to do dumb or bad things as well as good things. Not everything government does is good. Americans generally prefer be protected from bad government at the expense of making good government less effective rather than enable good government to do things quickly and risk that it does things they consider bad. I'm not sure how can you look at the US government and 2018 and say we need to enable these people to get more things done. I think the current administration is a relatively harmless (compared to alternatives) lesson in the importance of checks and balances and not concentrating too much power in one branch of government.
ameister14 8y ago
They function more efficiently, sure - but longevity remains to be seen. Our system is by design not the most efficient one.
mcphage 8y ago
> but if you compare it to other countries where the capital IS the biggest city, and where there's always one party/coalition in control of the entire legislative and executive branches...well, they seem to actually function better, on average? > Does anyone look at how Congress and the Presidency behave in the year 2018 and think, "ah yes, this clearly has the results we want"? Here in 2018, we have the executive branch, and both houses of congress controlled by the same party. And as you point out, it's not going well.
- TulliusCicero 8y ago
  Ha, touche. Although in this case, the legislative and executive branches are still separated more than they are in typical parliamentary systems of government, with differing incentives.
barrow-rider 8y ago
DC may not be the biggest metro area, but it's arguably the richest overall in terms of per household or per capita incomes. 5 of the top 10 richest counties in the US are DC 'burbs: 1 Loudoun Co, VA 2 Fairfax Co, VA 3 Howard Co, MD ... 5 Arlington Co, VA 6 Stafford, Co, VA With Montgomery Co, MD and Prince William County at 11 and 12 respectively. https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/richest-counties-in-the-united-states.html https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/richest-counties-in-the-...

dsfyu404ed 8y ago

Making it harder to do things makes it hard to do dumb or bad things as well as good things. Not everything government does is good. Americans generally prefer be protected from bad government at the expense of making good government less effective rather than enable good government to do things quickly and risk that it does things they consider bad. I'm not sure how can you look at the US government and 2018 and say we need to enable these people to get more things done. I think the current administration is a relatively harmless (compared to alternatives) lesson in the importance of checks and balances and not concentrating too much power in one branch of government.

ameister14 8y ago

They function more efficiently, sure - but longevity remains to be seen. Our system is by design not the most efficient one.

mcphage 8y ago

> but if you compare it to other countries where the capital IS the biggest city, and where there's always one party/coalition in control of the entire legislative and executive branches...well, they seem to actually function better, on average? > Does anyone look at how Congress and the Presidency behave in the year 2018 and think, "ah yes, this clearly has the results we want"? Here in 2018, we have the executive branch, and both houses of congress controlled by the same party. And as you point out, it's not going well.

TulliusCicero 8y ago
Ha, touche. Although in this case, the legislative and executive branches are still separated more than they are in typical parliamentary systems of government, with differing incentives.

barrow-rider 8y ago

DC may not be the biggest metro area, but it's arguably the richest overall in terms of per household or per capita incomes. 5 of the top 10 richest counties in the US are DC 'burbs: 1 Loudoun Co, VA 2 Fairfax Co, VA 3 Howard Co, MD ... 5 Arlington Co, VA 6 Stafford, Co, VA With Montgomery Co, MD and Prince William County at 11 and 12 respectively. https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/richest-counties-in-the-united-states.html https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/richest-counties-in-the-...