PARIS (Reuters) -France's new Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu and his government resigned on Monday, hours after Lecornu announced his cabinet line-up, making it the shortest-lived administration in modern French history and deepening the country's political crisis. The unexpected resignation came after allies and foes alike threatened to topple the new government, with Lecornu saying that meant he could not do his job. Opposition parties immediately urged President Emmanuel Macron to resign, or call a snap parliamentary election, saying there was no other way out of the crisis.
I know what you mean, but I’d argue that the balance of powers principle in the US giving the president so much power has done the opposite of what it’s supposed to do. Instead of the executive being restrained by the other branches, it has completely taken over them because the other branches are worried that they would lose too much by resisting.
Whereas in a PR parliamentary system, it is extremely rare for any one party to have a majority, so they need to compromise with other parties to elect a prime minister. Even during war time, it’s common practice to use a unity cabinet that includes all major parties. The judiciary seems to be more independent and can enforce the basic law. Also, 50% of MPs or the president/king can call an election at any time if the PM is getting too spicy.
Tyranny of the majority is tricky though. Most of the responses to that seem to be devolution or international cooperation.
I don’t think that’s true. In Canadian elections majority governments are more common than non-majority governments. In Australia it looks like every government has been a majority government since the non-labour parties merged in 1910.
Canada and Australia are Fptp, not PR
Ah, I was just looking at parliamentary systems. You’re right that FPTP really screws a lot of stuff up.