A long shadow over America...

[Beet]

America's political system is remarkably balanced compared to other countries. Between 1934 and 2002, no party ever won more than two consecutive election cycles in a row, and the last century has seen near parity in the number of Republican and Democratic presidents. There is a constitutional prohibition against serving more than 8 years, and White House controlled has always switched within 12 years since WW2. The only exception to this has been the Democrats' near continuous control of Congress from 1933-1995 with the exception of 1947-49, 1953-55, and the Senate in 1980-86. However, this has been balanced by the diversity of the party (they were actually 2 parties, the Democrats and Dixiecrats, and without the latter the GOP would have taken Congress several times between '55 and '94) and the fact that undivided government control lasted relatively short periods (1961-69, 1977-81, 1993-95).

Contrast this to Japan, which has had one-party role for all but 1 year since 1955. Germany and the UK, where Kohl and Thatcher-Major recently stood at the head of unified parliamentary majorities for 16 and 18 years, respectively. Until Willy Brandt's election in 1970, no leftist had ever won in Germany. And prior to 1964, Conservatives/Tories ruled for all but about 10 years. In France, the Gaullists had continuous control of the Fifth Republican from its inception until 1981. In Canada, the Liberal party has simply dominated the 20th century. The same goes with the Australian Liberal party. In Paraguay, leftist governments had never been elected in the nations' entire history until this year. In Mexico of course, the PDP-I ruled continuously until 2000. The list goes on...