Contemporary Political Reforms in a Multi Party Democracy

In a system with political parties, you need candidates who are aligned with parties. Parties choose their candidates who, if not members, are at least generally in agreement with the party, will join their legislative group if elected to a legislative position, and will generally vote to advance the interests of the people who comprise the party.  Parties do this in a wide variety of means around the world.  Some can be literally appointed by their leader, which happens in Canada in some instances, particularly in the case of an early election caused by the collapse of legislative confidence in a parliamentary system, or in areas where the party is weak or their local branches are corrupt.  Some are chosen by a panel which acts for the purpose of considering candidates. New Zealand Labour uses this method using a few different selection groups to hold basically a job interview, advisory votes by the members, and the panel makes the final selection for each constituency, and for the Ne

Hopefully before you read this, you will have read the previous post, explaining the structure of revenue and spending of the American federal system. It is important to keep that context in mind.  Long before Britain was a parliamentary system, generally considered to be in place during the premiership of Robert Walpole and firmly established as independent of the will of the monarch by the time the Reform Act of 1832 was enacted, Britain did have relatively pluralistic inclusion of a parliament that could have strong power over the forces of the monarchy. For centuries, the power to spend and tax had to be approved by Parliament. The Parliament also happened to have the power to impeach and convict and ergo throw out royal ministers as well.  All around the world, even when the executive is legally independent of the legislature, as presidential republics are, their powers of taxing and spending are often significantly constrained.  As the Congress can create any law witho

It's been a while. In a presidential republic, the president, or more specifically in the United States, the Federal Treasury and the Secretary of the Treasury spends money on behalf of the United States and borrows any money necessary to do this. But it is illegal to spend any money in the United States as part of the federal government unless authorized for by law. That doesn't necessarily mean that all spending comes to a close in any fiscal period provided for by a budget but they do need to be rooted in a statute. There is no way a president can collect without this. A few important constitutional caveats. Military spending expires at least once every two years, as per Article I Section 8, where the Congress can raise and support armies but appropriations of money to that use last no more than two years. The salaries of the Congresspeople themselves cannot be changed without an intervening election to the House of Representatives, as per the 27th amendment. The sal