Redesigning the United States Government from the ground up - What would a "sensible" government structure look like for America?

See Professor Juan Linz’s article, “The Perils of Presidentialism”. He was a poli-sci prof coming to issues with a Hispanic political viewpoint, rather than the traditional Anglo-American viewpoint.

He pointed out that all of the presidential-congressional systems in the western hemisphere, except the US, had fallen to authoritarianism and dictatorship, and attributed that pattern to the rigid separation of powers in presidential-congressional systems.

He argued that the parliamentary system is better at diffusing executive power (a cabinet collectivity rather than a unitary executive), and also better at allowing more dissentient voices in the legislature.

He also argued that what had kept the US from falling that way was the strong commitment to bipartisanship. If that failed, he predicted the US would join the other presidential-congressional systems in authoritarianism.

It was a chilling read, in light of political tendencies in the US over the past two decades.

Earlier thread on that topic: