(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . American exceptionalism: Other democracies don't have to deal with shutdowns and debt ceiling fights [1] [] Date: 2023-10-07 There is something rotten at the core of American democracy, and the fault lines are increasingly being exposed now that one of the two major political parties has gone completely off the rails and proven incapable of governing. You’ve probably heard the term “American exceptionalism”—it’s a belief, often espoused by the right, that the United States is morally superior and holds a special place in the world as a role model for other nations in constructing their own democratic societies. But do other democracies view the United States as a role model these days? Absolutely not. That’s because other democracies do not have to deal with recurring problems such as raising the debt ceiling or averting government shutdowns which threaten a global financial meltdown. And there’s no other country where a single senator can put a hold on hundreds of military promotions as Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville has done due to archaic Senate rules. RELATED STORY: Tuberville's racism on display in new comments denigrating US military After Congress reached a last-minute deal this past weekend to avoid a shutdown by passing a stopgap spending bill to keep the government running until Nov. 17, the BBC published an article headlined: “Why government shutdowns seem to happen only in US.” It began as follows: The US government has shutdown ten times over the past 40-plus years. Meanwhile, in other countries, governments keep functioning, even in the midst of wars and constitutional crises. So why does this uniquely American phenomenon keep happening? For most of the world, a government shutdown is very bad news—the result of revolution, invasion or disaster. That leaders of one of the most powerful nations on Earth willingly provoked a crisis that suspends public services and decreases economic growth is surprising to many. [...] So why does this keep happening? America's federal system of government allows different branches of government to be controlled by different parties. It was a structure devised by the nation's founders to encourage compromise and deliberation, but lately has had the opposite effect. Authoritarian governments mock the U.S. for its inability to avoid government shutdowns. Five years ago, during a three-day shutdown in January 2018 due to a dispute between President Donald Trump and Senate Democrats over immigration policy, China’s official news agency Xinhua blamed “chronic flaws” in U.S. politics for the budget impasse. “The Western democratic system is hailed by the developed world as near perfect and the most superior political system to run a country. … However, what’s happening in the United States today will make more people worldwide reflect on the viability and legitimacy of such a chaotic political system,” Xinhua wrote. But China’s dismissal of Western democracy is wrong. Such shutdowns are pretty much uniquely American. Government shutdowns are practically impossible in other democratic nations because most European democracies as well as Canada and Australia have a parliamentary system, as the BBC notes. That means that the executive and legislature are controlled by the same party or governing coalition, and the prime minister submits his budget for the parliament to approve. And on the rare occasions when a parliament refuses to pass a budget proposed by the prime minister such an action would be seen as a vote of no confidence in the government. That would likely trigger a snap election, but not shut down government services. That is a strong motivator for legislators in the ruling party to approve a budget. In a 2018 story about why governments in other countries don’t have shutdowns, Rick Noack of The Washington Post wrote: Elsewhere in the world, constitutions or political systems prevent scenarios that would be comparable to the U.S. impasse, even though parliaments have a say on budgets there, too. The difference, however, is that most countries have installed specific mechanisms to escape a U.S.-style deadlock so that citizens don’t pay for partisan disagreements. In some countries, government budgets are even more associated with the fate of those in power themselves than in the United States — which, perhaps unexpectedly, often ends up helping to reach consensus or results in a more permanent solution. In Australia, for instance, budgets have to be passed or else the government is usually forced to resign or Parliament gets dissolved. What’s different in Australia and other countries is the threshold of lawmakers needed to confirm spending, though: an absolute majority, with over 50 percent of all members of Parliament, is sufficient. Hence, a failure to pass the budget usually only occurs when a government has lost the support of its own party or of the parties backing it. The inability to pass a budget also does not lead to an immediate funding stop but rather to a mere delay in planned investments, amounting to up to 25 percent of the annual budget. But in the U.S., a budget must be approved by the gerrymandered House where Republican lawmakers consider compromise a dirty word, then get passed by the Senate with a filibuster-proof 60 votes, and be signed into law by the president who has veto power. And unlike their counterparts abroad, U.S. presidents can’t be forced from office due to budget impasses. And there’s another problem—midterm elections, which are unique to the U.S. Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, and Joe Biden all entered office with Democratic majorities in both chambers of Congress, only to lose control of at least one chamber in the midterms. That resulted in government shutdowns in the second half of Obama’s and Clinton’s terms, and Biden faces the threat of a shutdown in November. The BBC and Washington Post offered several examples of how other countries dealt with budget crises without shutting down the government: CANADA: In 2011, opposition parties turned down the budget proposed by then-Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Conservative Party, which lacked a majority of seats in parliament. The House of Commons passed a motion of no-confidence, resulting in an election, yet government services continued. BELGIUM: The country didn’t have an elected government in place for 589 days between 2010-2011 due to tensions between its Flemish and French-speaking parties, but a caretaker coalition presided over the country and money still flowed to keep the government running. IRELAND: Ireland had a minority government from 2016-2020 but avoided a government shutdown. The parties not in power agreed to support spending bills and confidence votes. BRAZIL: The South American country is not a parliamentary democracy. Like the U.S., Brazil has separate executive, legislative, and judicial branches. In 2008, the Congress rejected President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s spending plans. But even though there was no budget, there was no reduction in government services. GERMANY: In 2004, the government faced resistance to its budget bill for the first time in contemporary history. A blockade of the spending bill by the upper house of the parliament was defeated in a vote by the government-dominated lower house. Even if the upper house’s decision had not been overturned, German employment law makes it impossible for government workers to be furloughed because of political disagreements. The Washington Post wrote: When European coalition talks fail or drag on for months … the most recent budget usually continues to apply and is administered by the previous government that is in place until a new leadership takes over. Hence, civil servants continue to be paid and government-funded construction projects are not halted. And then there is the growing polarization in the country that Trump has encouraged. Other countries don’t have a bunch of political nihilists like the MAGA cultists in the House Freedom Caucus who have no interest in compromise or cooperation. The BBC wrote: [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/10/7/2197461/-American-exceptionalism-Other-democracies-don-t-have-to-deal-with-shutdowns-and-debt-ceiling-fights?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&pm_medium=web Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/