presidents and parliaments

Seeing as it's election season here in the US, I've been thinking how much we take for granted our particular sort of government. The two-party, presidential style of governance is actually among the less common forms in the world, even among functioning democracies. Multiparty, parliamentary governments are common outside the United States and it's been found that they are less prone to corruption than presidential systems.

The primary benefit often cited for presidential government is the concept of a separation of powers among different branches of government, thereby preventing one branch from becoming too powerful. However, presidential systems often fail in this capacity as power tends to accrue in the hands of the executive branch over time. You could also make the case that multiparty, parliamentary systems actually achieve a separation of powers amongst different parties instead of different branches. In this way, power is distributed among groups which represent different segments of the populace.

Parliamentary systems work successfully in many countries all over the world. In a time when the President of the United States has more power than ever before in history, I can't help but wonder if it would work here.