The Economy and the Government (Revised)

Winston Churchill once said, "It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried." However, not all forms of democracy are the same, there are single party systems and multiparty systems, there are federal systems and parliamentary systems. .Our own government is a two party democracy, and it as proved more enduring than many other democracies. This does not mean it is the best type of democracy. For example, a parliamentary democracy allows for the removal of a chief executive when the people lose confidence in him or her, where our own only allows for removal when that executive has committed "High Crimes and Misdemeanors”. In a parliamentary democracy, there would be a process to remove under-performing or unpopular presidents. In my opinion, the executive branch has become too strong, especially during the Bush Administration, and it needs to be made more accountable to the legislature and the people.
Another potential danger with the U.S. system is the possible weakness of the Supreme Court. There are many who denounce "Judicial Activism," including some judges. They seem to have forgotten that the Judiciary are one of the three coequal branches of government, and that its duties are to interpret the Constitution. While what many call judicial activism is not part of the constitution, it has played an important role throughout or nation's history, John Marshall, the chief justice in the early 18th century made many decisions, not least the decision establishing judicial review, that, today, would be condemned as judicial activism. Judicial activism is not a problem with the supreme court as some would have us believe, but a crucial part of its powers. Expand this idea more please.
One final issue rests with the legislature. It is very rare for an incumbent of either party, anywhere in the nation to lose an election, something which seems to be in stark contrast to Congress's terrible approval rating. The fact that the boundaries are drawn by the party in control of each state leads to protection of incumbencies, results in districts with bizarre boundaries. Perhaps a neutral unaffiliated group would be better suited to this task. While the districts boundaries may not be the only reason for incumbent Senators and Members of Congress, it is by far the most most blatant. Another method to possibly limit incumbent advantage would be to reduce or eliminate member items.
One could easily apply Winston Churchill's statement to capitalism as well, Capitalism is the worst economic system, but all of the others have been tried. Our American system of capitalism is one of many that falls in between pure capitalism and socialism. The problems of pure capitalism are many, as the theoretical competition necessary for capitalism sometimes fails to materialize, or if sometimes materializes but then fades away. A key example of this took place in America in the late 18th century, when beginning with the rail roads, and spreading across American industries, huge monopolies and trusts formed. It took a step away from pure capitalism, to government intervention under presidents Roosevelt, Taft and Wilson to fix the trusts’ many problems. Furthermore, the greatest economic crisis in American, if not world history, The Great Depression was solved not by the free market, but by the massive government interventions of the New Deal. However, the other side of the coin, communism, has its own more numerous problems. The Soviet Union had huge economic problems throughout its history, chiefly due to the problems underlying it entire economic system, especially the lack of motivation for individuals, as unlike in a capitalistic system, they had no vehicle for improving their standard of living. Our current system, may have swung too far towards pure capitalism. Our current president, and the last two chairs of the Federal reserve, have been of the laissez-faire school, This decrease in regulation has arguably worsened or even led to the current economic crisis. The banks and other investors began to put their money in under regulated, little understood parts of the markets, derivatives and CDOs. Furthermore, there was nothing to stop or even slow the mortgage brokers from issuing mortgages to the least suitable candidates. If these had been better regulated perhaps the crisis could have been lessened or even avoided completely.The American governmental and economic systems present many advantages, they have proved resilient, and mostly effective, however, just because something is good does not mean it cannot be improved. Our leaders in Washington, whoever they may be come January 20th should make an effort to eliminate the bad while keeping the good.While our government and economic system may be better than many alternatives, they are not the best out there.