America Under the Westminster System

[DC Al Fine]

What would the American political scene look like under the Westminster system? What would the parties be like?

For the sake of argument the scenario will be a unicameral house with seats allocated like the current HoR. All representatives will be elected by FPTP.

I haven't given too much thought to it yet, but I think there would be huge potential for regional parties.

[TNF]

Progressive Party - center-left. basically the progressive caucus of the Democratic Party and the unions. Strongest in the "blue" states and social democratic in outlook.

Conservative Party - right-wing. the Republican Party, for the most part, but with the Blue Dog Democrats thrown in as well.

Moderate Party - center. The DINOs and RINOs. Tends to ally with the Conservatives on economic policy and the Progressives on social policy.

[Del Tachi]

Under a Westminster system, the HoR would most likely be expanded to about 700 seats.

I've thought about this scenario quite a bit, and I like the idea of keeping the 435 current House seats but then adding 250-or-so "at large" districts allocated under some kind of proportional representation system. 

As far as the parties are concerned, they're probably would not be that many regional parties.  Remember, a House district is almost 700,000 people--much larger than the 70,000 or so for a British constituency--so regional parties would have a harder time getting elected due to the inherently more diverse nature of the electoral districts. 

[Smid]

However, a regional party may find a niche back a hundred years ago or so, when electorate size was smaller, and have been able to hold onto that. For example, a rural based party may have seen the other parties not really contest their core constituency, and therefore it may remain today. You make a strong case, though, as to why it would be difficult for a regional party to win in the US today.

[morgieb]

Read "An unexpected coalition" and "Into the Next Millennium".

[Lief 🗽]

Basically like Canada, though I think the Tories would be the natural ruling party instead of the Liberals. And of course no BQ equivalent, though there might have been a Bloc Dixie a few decades ago.