Interesting article in yesterday's FT by Francis Fukuyama proposing that the US move closer to a Westminster-style budget process in order to strengthen the policy focus (amongst other things):
‘If we are to get out of our present paralysis we need not only strong leadership, but changes in institutional rules. If constitutional amendments are off the table for the moment, there is nonetheless a list of reforms the US could undertake to reduce the number of veto points and simplify decision-making...
But the most important potential change would be to move the budgeting process towards something that looked more like the Westminster system. Budgets would be formulated, as in the case of the failed supercommittee, by a much smaller group of legislators. Unlike today’s strongly partisan committee, it would have heavy technocratic input from a non-partisan agency like the Congressional Budget Office that would be insulated from the interest group pressures that afflict the sitting legislators. A completed budget would be put before Congress in a single, unamendable up-or-down vote. The procedure has already been used successfully to get around interest group deadlock in fast-track trade legislation and by the non-partisan commission that decided which military bases to close.’
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/d82776c6-14fd-11e1-a2a6-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1eJvKVzBfThis is consistent with Fukuyama's latest book suggesting that too much democracy can be debilitating (just as too little can), allowing interest groups to dominate against the common good.
It probably won't happen, but interesting all the same!
