As I read the remarks of Danish journalist Anders Agner Pedersen on the American election at RealClearPolitics, it occurred to me that the political system of the United States has endured longer than any European system other than those of the United Kingdom and Switzerland. I don’t know whether that suggests that our system is more durable than their systems or that ours is obsolete.
The UK is separated from the rest of Europe by water while Switzerland is practically a direct democracy and has a strong inclination to independence.
The British political system and unwritten constitution have changed radically over the last 150 years or so and cannot be regarded as the same system the George III or even George V headed. Britain did not have even universal male sufferrage until 1918.
Switzerland didn’t have women’s sufferage until 1976. That didn’t make any difference to the regime. It was a weak federal system with most issues being decided by direct popular vote from the 13th century to 1976 and it still is.
In France there have been at least 10 drastically different forms of government over the last 300 years. Germany didn’t exist as a distinct country until after WWI and it still has some semi-autonomous states. Italy didn’t exist as a distinct country until the 19th century, it’s had a half dozen different governments since then, and it’s only existed in its present form since WWII. And so on.
In Denmark parliamentary government didn’t begin until 1901.
Currently reading a book about the history of the French/British relationship, which highlights how each looked to the other for their own self-reflection. They were each others most bitter rivals, housed the other’s dissidents and pretenders, but during peacetime, travel flourished and thinkers wrote about each other’s differences.
To the point, I think British stability in governing institutions following the Glorious Revolution owes a lot to the French. Burke would ultimately win the argument that British limited monarchy was better than both French absolute monarchy and French democratic despotism, forming the guardrails of accepted politics.
The French were also in the best position to invade Britain and overthrow the government at various times and failed. Overall though, there is the mutual sense that Britain was a country punching above its weight class, and its success was attributed to its institutions and system of finance, which itself favored stability.
Similarly, the U.S. has one of the most successful political systems in the history of the world and other than for a relatively small class of “intellectual elites” there is no country holding up a mirror that would cause Americans to consider adapting something else.