Reading up on the French system of government as they are going through rounds of runoff votes to determine whether Macron continues as President or the right wing, Putin-supported Le Pen gets in.
Did you know they’ve changed systems of government multiple times? They’re currently on the Fifth Republic, which started in 1958 and shifted from the Fourth Republic’s parliamentary system to a dual-executive model where the President, formerly more of a ceremonial role, got a lot more power.
While government institutions need to stay stable to provide continuity of services, the form of government itself should be updated periodically, lest it become sclerotic and unresponsive to the needs of the people.
I think a multiparty Westminster parliamentary democracy is pretty good. Canada should expand it by finally implementing proportional representation, as promised by Justin Trudeau in 2015.
I think the US is overdue to rewrite, update and clarify the Constitution in modern language, because a bunch of rich white slaveholders in 1787 could not have predicted the world we live in today.
We need to close the 13th Amendment loophole on involuntary servitude; and rather than lean on the 9th and 14th Amendments’ wording implying a right to privacy, it would be better to codify bodily autonomy more explicitly.
It’s also overdue to include the ERA, but I would remodel it based on the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, Section 15 which states that every individual is to be considered equal regardless of religion, race, national or ethnic origin, colour, sex, age or physical or mental disability.
Subsequent case law expanded this to sexual orientation (which led to Canada passing same-sex marriage laws in 2005), and I would add provisions for gender identity as well.
