The American political system is peculiar compared to Europe, but it has been sustainable and guarantees voters a direct influence on everyday politics, says researcher Jani Kokko.
16:11•Updated 16:38
In the United States, all the votes for this week’s elections have not yet been counted, and the power relations in Congress have not been resolved, but speculation about the 2024 presidential election is already heating up.
President From Joe Biden we immediately asked if he intends to try for the next season. of the Governor of Florida From Ron DeSantis painting a new hope for Republicans. Donald Trump has hinted that he will announce his candidacy as early as next week. The vetting of all other possible presidential candidates has started now at the latest.
In the US, there is always an election campaign going on. The pace may sound breathless, but the US expert interviewed by reminds us that the American political system and tradition are very different from the European one.
– In the United States, we are used to always campaigning. Maybe it keeps citizens interested in politics when there is a principle of continuous campaigning, says the doctoral researcher Jani Kokko from the University of Jyväskylä.
Elections every two years
The House of Representatives of the US Congress has the shortest parliamentary term in Western-style democracies, says the economic newspaper The Economist (you are moving to another service). A congressman’s term is only two years.
Every other year, all 435 congress seats are therefore re-elected in elections. All congressmen elected this week will have to defend their seats already in the 2024 elections.
– It is an understandable question, how much they achieve there or whether they achieve anything. The two-year period is almost spent on collecting election money for re-election, researcher Kokko says.
In practice, many congressmen sit in the House of Representatives for years and even decades, when at least their achievements are measured in the long term.
However, the president was already worried about the situation in the 1960s Lyndon B. Johnson, which proposed extending the term of the House of Representatives to four years. According to the Economist, Johnson, who himself sat in Congress for 25 years, said that representatives do not have enough time for legislation or campaigning.
– From a European perspective, it seems strange that they have such a short season. On the other hand, in Europe, the parliament can be dissolved [kesken kauden] and organize new elections, which is not possible in the United States, Kokko reminds.
The Senate should bring stability
According to the Economist, the “founding fathers” of the United States wanted to enshrine short electoral terms in the constitution because they feared that too long would lead to tyranny. The founding fathers refer to the men who in the 18th century participated in the independence of the United States and the drafting of the constitution.
– We want citizens to have a direct influence on everyday politics. That’s why they are able to express their opinion on the functioning of the House of Representatives every two years, researcher Kokko says.
Already in the 18th century, however, people were worried about the “excessiveness of democracy”. So a sort of compromise was created out of Congress.
Unlike, for example, the Finnish parliament, the US Congress is divided into two chambers: the lower house, i.e. the House of Representatives, and the upper house, i.e. the Senate. Senators bring continuity to Congress, as their terms last six years.
However, every two years one-third of the seats in the Senate are up for re-election. Thus, control of the Senate can swing from one party to another every two years. This undermines persistence, especially today, when cooperation between parties is minimal.
The style has worked for 250 years
In the United States, election panic is reduced by the fact that in the elections held every two years, all possible things are voted on at once.
In Finland, the different levels of government are generally voted on in separate elections. In US elections, the ballot can include the president, senators, congressmen, governors, sheriffs, and local school board representatives at the same time.
– The United States has a very strong direct democracy. There, citizens have the opportunity to influence even the composition of the local administration’s civil service, says Kokko.
– Legislation has been based on this system for 250 years, and it has lasted.
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