In the American system citizens vote for a slate of policies - the major negotiations happen between the voter and the parties. In many-party / proportional systems people vote for a party they like and that party then goes and negotiates with other parties and forms coalitions.
In the end compromises and deals have to be made, but in a parliamentary system you've delegated your negotiation power to party apparatchiks.
What is a Pirate Party's policy on abortion? They may not even tell you. What are they going to trade to keep VPNs legal? No idea.
Lots of Americans would vote for a Border Wall Party, but what other policies would the BWP have? Don't know. The more narrow the party is the more voters are abdicating all their other positions. The American system doesn't always produce the best results on a specific issue, like a border wall, but on the whole it represents voters better than proportional systems.
In the American system citizens vote for a slate of policies - the major negotiations happen between the voter and the parties. In many-party / proportional systems people vote for a party they like and that party then goes and negotiates with other parties and forms coalitions.
In the end compromises and deals have to be made, but in a parliamentary system you've delegated your negotiation power to party apparatchiks.
What is a Pirate Party's policy on abortion? They may not even tell you. What are they going to trade to keep VPNs legal? No idea.
Lots of Americans would vote for a Border Wall Party, but what other policies would the BWP have? Don't know. The more narrow the party is the more voters are abdicating all their other positions. The American system doesn't always produce the best results on a specific issue, like a border wall, but on the whole it represents voters better than proportional systems.