Grumble,

There are several voting systems which attempt to address the point you raise.

The upper house of our federal legislature, the Senate, is composed of two senators from each of the states - regardless of the state's population. This was implemented to prevent the heavily populated states from running roughshod over the preferences of the smaller states. This is an issue the EU must soon come to terms with. The proposed EU constitution is a reasonable, if bulky, attempt to do so.

The lower house, the House of Representatives, is proportionally representative of the population at large. A mandatory national census is taken every 10 years, and is used to determine the number of representatives a state may send to Congress. Needless to say, the census figures have on occasion been hotly contested. This proportional representation is made even more important as spending bills must originate from this body.

The executive, the President, here in the States comes to power in a way that is almost identical to that practiced by parliamentarian democracies such as those of Australia and the UK. The major difference is that here in the States we hold a special election to do so.

Consider the way that Tony Blair or John Howard came to hold their current positions. Having been elected as their party’s leaders, they campaigned for or against a set of policies. The electorate cast their ballots, and more candidates from Mr. Howard’s and Mr. Blair’s parties were elected to represent the people. Messrs. Howard and Blair then presented their credentials to their respective heads of state, who prudently entrusted the governance of the countries to the parties whose policies most closely matched those of the citizens

The way the Presidential game is played in the States is to appeal to the party to become the candidate, and to the electorate to become the President.

In the last presidential election, Senator Gore and Governor Bush each campaigned for or against a set of policies. The electorate cast their ballots, and the votes were counted in each state. If you now refer back to the composition of the Electoral College, you can see that it is vital to win the vote in the populous states. Governor Bush won the famous Florida count by some 530 odd votes, and thus was awarded all those votes for the Electoral College. He succeeded in winning the right mix of states.

Now for the entertaining part. Once this Great American Democracy has been saved from perdition for the nth time, and the votes are (eventually) in, the College of Electors meets. With much solemnity, they cast their votes for the forgone conclusion, and then they go home. That’s it. They have served their country well and faithfully, and having done so, return to the lives they led before the circus came to town. I always thought it somewhat anticlimactic, but there you are.

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Eudaimonia