Tom

Canada and USA have similar electoral systems in that the elections are "first-past-the-post." This British feature has led to the two-party system in the USA and strategic voting in Canada, which favors the Liberal Party.

I just checked Wikipedia. Netherlands has proportional representation in its main legislature. This system allows voters to cast a vote towards a party and know that vote will contribute to the party's strength in that legislature. There is no strategic voting and has led to multi-party democracies which gives voters more choice. And parties have learned how to co-operate with each other.

Canada does not have a presidential system. Our prime minister is indirectly elected. Ten years, I would have said Canadian and American systems are equivalent, but I think the Canadian system is showing its superiority in these times. Which is strange because the Canadians in 1867 really didn't think much about how we want to be governed after independence. We just borrowed the British model.

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Western democracy is an amazing system. So many parts working together. If I were to ask you to describe it in 15 minutes, could you do it? I couldn't.

I have been asked to provide a brief explanation of the TDG. Two years ago, I put up a 15-minute essay on Medium:

https://medium.com/discourse/tiered-democratic-governance-3f36a8f45660

A 15 minute read really doesn't do this topic justice. I can easily debunk this essay with: "That ain't gonna work." One needs to read my book to find out how all the pieces fit together.

http://www.tiereddemocraticgovernance.org/tdg.php

I guess it is up to you whether to spend the three or four hours. BTW, it is a free read from my website.