Discussion about this post

User's avatar
TGGP's avatar

The monarch serves for life, which is what Hamilton wanted for the US president (and what we have for the Supreme Court). That's a less democratic setup, of the sort Garett Jones recommends in "10% Less Democracy". The 6 year terms of the senate and their initial indirect election by state governments was intended to be less democratic than the lower house, but it's still greater compared to the House of Lords (which mattered more at the time the US achieved independence).

Expand full comment
Andrew Luscombe's avatar

Yeah - that's what I said. But the imporant thing was it depended on monarch motivation and was under control of parliament. When the monarch was not very persuasive or liked they exercised little power and the prime minister more power. It was similar in degree of democracy to appointment of the US president by electoral college.

Expand full comment
21 more comments...

No posts