> ...I'm not a huge fan of the royal family on principle, but Queen Elizabeth has been such an excellent head of state for us...
This is a vastly underappreciated aspect of government, and of human social institutions in general. The principles-on-paper version of something can be mediocre, or just plain horrid. But if the actual people running things are sufficiently capable and caring, the on-paper failings doesn't much matter.
Flip-side, even a perfect-on-paper system, implemented with incompetent & uncaring people in charge, will be crap at best.
I would frame the above comment as this question: If the form of government is chosen first and the people that fill the roles are chosen later, which government(s) are statistically more likely to serve their people and to what degree?
This is a vastly underappreciated aspect of government, and of human social institutions in general. The principles-on-paper version of something can be mediocre, or just plain horrid. But if the actual people running things are sufficiently capable and caring, the on-paper failings doesn't much matter.
Flip-side, even a perfect-on-paper system, implemented with incompetent & uncaring people in charge, will be crap at best.