There's so much that's broken in the US system, that it's hard to pinpoint anything in particular. It's a…

I don’t think it’s too bad here, but the US 2 year…

Silly Little Girl

Could remove a lot of distractions from cabinet ministers – and shadow ministers – if they all knew they had a better chance of…

The referendum is not automatic, though?

I’m finding that more than a little creepy

Me too. There aren't a whole lot of times I can think of when I've gone "If only…

Well, apparently a change can also be dismissed by a popular vote (i.e. referendum) coinciding with the election.

No referendum, but as it was a change to the constitution (or the closest thing Sweden has to a constitution – fundamental law) it required:

To amend or to make a revision of a fundamental law, the Parliament…

This was not done by referendum, so far as I can tell. Nor, however, was the drop to 3 years. I can't find much information on the whys of that one, but it coincided with…

Sweden reverted back to 4-year terms in 1994 after having had 3-year terms since 1970.

But is the problem the…

And yet the constitution has been amended many times.

The UK has moved to fixed terms which is effectively an increase (because governments usually called elections tactically 6-18 months before they were due). Labour and others wanted to move to a four-year fixed term,…

Not sure, to be honest. They need to be "given a space", definitely. But that's not the same as "given more space". They get an extremely long space already, by comparison to practically any other…

A little from column a and a little from column b. It's hard to tell where that line is. Certainly it's not a procedurally…

Presumably you mean that is your judgment based on your experience. Or are you saying your breakdown is some kind of policy or procedurally accepted system?

Sure, but the purpose of the reasoning is not directed at whether it should be done, it's at whether the other side can score points from it not being done. For that…

It doesn’t constitute a reason not to act… but it does point out the hypocrisy of the recently voted out suddenly saying “this is a desperate issue that you simply must attend…

Was [insert pet peeve] actually that broken?

Maybe if they'd had an election in the next year, they wouldn't have…

How many of them are actually disgruntled ex-Labour supporters, as opposed to trolls…

No it doesn't. As I have often found myself saying to people who…

this deafeats the position you suggest – say the Nats campaign with a…

Think about the US system – often they put a value on electing deadlocked governance structures – a Republican president and Democratic legislature because then they…

Longer than what, though? How long is a piece of string? There's no upper or lower bound set by such reasoning. Why not 10 years?

As a counter, a longer term also increases the…

What about the justification I put forward in favour Graeme? I think they're valid, do you?

the main impact is on the Executive.

The government Budget is set only once a year. It's got huge momentum: months to set…

'The electoral system in the early nineteenth century was radically different from the parliamentary democracy we have today. The system was not representative of the population in terms of wealth or region, and elections were open to corruption. Before 1832, just ten…

with little attempting to…

I'm not saying it's not a debate worth having, or that the debate doesn't help.…

Well, the transition to every administration serving two 5-year terms then retiring (albeit a very active retirement in the case of Jiang Zemin) has been a huge improvement over the old rule…

True, indeed. That's even worse. Amend my statement to "losing here generally means 9 years of the other crowd, using both median and mode as your measure of central tendency. If you prefer means, it's…

I think first off it’s important to distinguish between the Executive and Parliament. Yes, we’re talking about Parliamentary elections but I think the main impact is on the Executive.

A longer term means more time for a Cabinet…

Search and Surveillance was not knee-jerk. It was the result of a many year-long…

That's not how the reserved section is drafted. Some…

Whatever someone who want to claim that some other country is better governed than we are, or that some country has improved its government by increasing its term..

I'm not the one claiming a four-year term will lead to better government. If someone…

No it doesn't. There has been one two-term government in the history of New Zealand.

What is your/the measure of better government?

Consider the mess the world is largely from lack of regulation of financial markets and the considerable clout of corporations and govt over private citizens – has a longer parliamentary…

Of more concern to me is the abuse of Parliamentary process in the rushing…

It is. But finding evidence to show that one way or the other will be difficult. I think it should be the case that if countries are, on average,…

But surely it's not the point, surely the point is will WE be better governed comparable to how we are now?

That…

Interestingly, the United States has no constitutional provision to defer elections, and held presidential elections in 1944 during WW2 and…

Does someone have the evidence to show that UK, France, South Africa, Italy and Germany are better governed than NZ?