Since there is freedom of movement within Europe, you can think of the national governments as 32 local governments [1] that have their own systems and compete.

Since there is freedom of movement within Europe, you can think of the national governments as 32 local governments [1] that have their own systems and compete. Populations are a bit more sticky than with U.S. states, due to significant cultural/language/etc. differences. But on the other hand, you also have a more meaningful choice of systems, precisely because the countries differ much more than U.S. states do. [1] Freedom of movement applies within the EU (28), the EEA (+3), and Switzerland (+1).