Mike,

>A few weeks ago British PM David Cameron was on the Letterman show. (A nice change of pace from some actor promoting their new movie). He described the British electoral system, in which it's all over a short time after the election is declared. He said by law he was only allowed to spend 150,000 pounds. As David Letterman likes to say himself, cut me a slice of that.

don't sell sell the US system short. Electing gov purely from parliament has its own, different pitfalls.
Establishing checks and balances in the system is the key to stability.

In ancient times those paying more taxes had often more voting power
(and had to fight on horses as part of their civic duty before entering gov career) -
not sure if the current lobby, election contribution and media ownership/control
is that much better than the old system, as debt control seems to be impossible today.
Not that it was always under control back then...