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[Evangelical]

Originally Posted by ZNPaaneah

More and more I am seeing the wisdom in a parliamentary system. One reason our elections are so expensive and out of reach for the ordinary citizen to be a candidate is that we have a 2 party system.

In theory yes, but in practice parliamentary systems usually revert to a two or three major party system anyway. So no real advantage there. But the interests of the citizens would be better represented, in theory. In practice, the interests of minor parties and those who voted for them are always overshadowed by the major parties unless the minor party finds itself in a situation where it holds the "balance of power". This is a rarity however and usually occurs when the country cannot decide between two or more major parties because it does not like any of them or through disillusionment. The unwanted side effect of this is that minor parties can hold more power than they should (such as the Communist Party for example). This in turn means citizens may choose to vote for a major party not because they support it but because they don't want an extreme minor party to hold any sort of control over government. So it ends up being a situation where minority parties and their supporters feel like they are being represented and heard, but they will never play a major role in government.