Ask Lemmy
A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions
Rules: (interactive)
1) Be nice and; have fun
Doxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, and toxicity are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them
2) All posts must end with a '?'
This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?
3) No spam
Please do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.
4) NSFW is okay, within reason
Just remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either [email protected] or [email protected].
NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].
5) This is not a support community.
It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions.
If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email [email protected]. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.
6) No US Politics.
Please don't post about current US Politics. If you need to do this, try [email protected] or [email protected]
Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.
Partnered Communities:
Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu
view the rest of the comments
It's not, though. America is young as a nation, but as a country with a set political system it's one of, if not the oldest in the world.
And that's a problem. Other countries modernize and improve their political systems. The US clings to archaic institutions like the electoral college.
I'd say it's a testament to the stability of the US political system, which is related to but not the same thing as their political establishment's resistance to change. When I said "a set political system", I meant more as opposed to France's two kingdoms and five republics, the Ottoman Empire's transition to modern Turkey or the Russian empire becoming the USSR. I don't think not going through that kind of transformation can be called stagnation, though the US definitely suffers from that too.
France invented constitutionalism and you were the first to adapt it after them. That's important political history, but don't overestimate yourselves.
England has been the same kingdom since the early 10th century.
It hasn't, though. The modern UK is a union of England, Scotland and Ireland and was created by the Act of Union in 1800, and if you don't count that then you go back to the Treaty of Union in 1707. That's definitely older than the US so good point there, but either way modern Britain is hardly the same political entity as Norman England.
England is England. They have laws going back until before any of that. There's continuity all the way. Joining a union does not mean your country stops existing.
It does in the sense that it stops being a country and becomes a part of a country. There's no country called England today.
According to Wikipedia, anyway. I'm not sure what you think England is.
That is... Fair enough. I guess I don't understand the UK political system. Anyway that pushes us back to the mid-17th century when they tried their hand at being a Republic for a while.
Since the mid 17th century, really. And does not currently exist as an independent nation. Which is exactly the point, they were making.
The US is certainly not the oldest institution in the world. And as a people, as a culture, yes, the US is rather young. But the US is relatively mature as far as continuous national governments go, and the oldest surviving democracy.
Part of a political system is that it changes, but the House of Lords for example has roots back to the 11th century. Sure, things change through the centuries, but it's wrong to say they are not the same. The US has gained states and amended the constitution as well.