Perks of the Westminster system

There are a two aspects of the British parliamentary system of government I would like to see here in America. The first is the practice of having a shadow government. In the Westminster system of government, the ruling party gets to decide which members of parliament will hold important positions in the government- who will be Prime Minister, who will receive positions in the cabinet, etc. Taking the U.K. as an example, Labour won the last election, therefore their leader, Gordon Brown, is the current Prime Minister, and Labour MPs hold all the cabinet positions. This is not that far removed from our own system in that traditionally the President draws on members of his own party to fill cabinet positions.

A shadow government allows for the opposition party to have their say in how they would run the government were they in charge. Sticking with the U.K., the Conservatives, after placing in second during the last election, are now the official opposition party. As such, their leader, David Cameron, is the shadow Prime Minister. He has filled a shadow cabinet with fellow Tories. This provides the Conservatives with an opportunity to give the public a clear picture of what a Conservative government would look like: which policies it would endorse; which MPs would head each department; how it would be different than the current actual government.

It's obviously not a perfect translation to our system of government. Lots of details would have to be hammered out. The benefits are alluring though. Instead of focusing all their energies on trying to make the party in charge fail, the opposition party could have an outlet to promote their own policies and show the public what the alternative choice would be. The increase in dialogue between the parties and the people they want to represent would be fascinating.

Part deux of my hypothetical British invasion would be starting something similar to Prime Minister's questions. Every Wednesday for half an hour, the British Prime Minister stands in front of his fellow MPs and takes questions. Any topic. No prior knowledge of the questions. For starters, it's highly entertaining; Involving much wit and quick thinking. More importantly though, it keeps the Prime Minister accountable for his actions and decisions.

During the presidential campaign, John McCain promised to institute something similar if he became President. It wouldn't be too difficult a proposition. Once a week (or every two weeks, or every month) the President could appear before the Congress and answer questions from both parties regarding new plans and initiatives, or the state of the government. Anything really. Think of it as a State of the Union address, except not mind-numbingly boring.

The biggest benefit is the excitement a President's Questions could bring. It's not just policy wonks who are interested in Prime Minister's Questions in the U.K. Everyday people watch and discuss the weekly verbal sparring. There seems to have been a surge in interest regarding politics in this country (though I'm not sure if it's due more to people loving Obama, or hating Bush), and something informative, interactive, and entertaining like President's Questions could really capitalize on the momentum gathering right now in this country.