Doing Democracy: Should America Adopt a Parliamentary System of Government?

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KQED

News Commentary, News, Politics

4.2 • 727 Ratings

🗓️ 10 April 2024

⏱️ 56 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Constitutional law professor Maxwell Stearns doesn’t think the U.S. is headed for a constitutional crisis…he thinks we’re already deeply in one. And it’s our constitution itself that’s a big part of the problem. In his new book, Parliamentary America, he maps a way out of the crisis, calling for the country to adopt a parliamentary system of government, like most other democracies in the world. As part of Forum’s Doing Democracy series, we’ll talk to him about his plan, and why he says it would help ease political gridlock and prevent an authoritarian taking power in the U.S. Guest: Maxwell Stearns, professor of law, University of Maryland Carey School of Law; author, "Parliamentary America: The Least Radical Means of Radically Repairing Our Broken Democracy" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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0:29.6	From KQED.
0:32.6	KQED in San Francisco, I'm Alexis Madruble.
0:47.3	There's a story about America that centers the Constitution.
0:52.3	It sees its framers as men who came up with the best political system in the world, a system
0:58.0	of checks and balances and coded in this nearly holy document, this piece of paper, this
1:03.9	set of ideas and institutions, the House, the Senate, the presidency.
1:09.1	But what if it's just a bad system? No other country has copied it,
1:13.2	opting for parliamentary democracies of different sorts, and maybe we should too, argues
1:18.3	constitutional law professor Maxwell Stearns. For the latest in our doing democracy series,
1:23.7	we'll hear him out that's right after this news. Welcome to Forum. I'm Alexis Madrigal. For our doing democracy series, we've looked at a bunch of different reforms for making our politics and governance better here in the United
1:44.6	States. Some can work at the local level, like ranked choice voting. Others are about the system
1:50.1	overall, like the very idea of holding elections in a democracy. But today we bring you a new book,
	...

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