American Political System....

Why is US such a stable and strong nation politically and socially compared to other nations? Throughout its history of just more than 200 years, it seems to me that it is one of the countries with least political and social turmoils especially when compare to most of the nations around the world.

Suddenly, it occurred to me that it has best of all the political philosophies in the world working in tandem. It seems unbelievable yet its true. This co-opting of different political,social and economic systems provide the foundation for the most vibrant society in the world. With the help of these systems, it has progressed to achieve most technological advances during 20th century directly leading to the highest standards of living for most of its population.

Think about it. It has a two party political system which is as close to a communist party political control as possible. It enforces order by forcing its citizens to choose alternatively between the two parties whenever one party overreaches and falls out of popularity. It makes sure that only two mainstream candidates are present most of the time in all political battles - rest of them are trounced in primaries or inconsequential independents - making sure that only best of each side can duke it out.

It has a market based economy(capitalism) which thrives on least path of resistance. Goods are manufactured and services are rendered as efficiently as possible. It drives innovation and growth in the different segments of the economy. The prices are controlled by the market, the procurement and distribution of the materials is done in transparent manner in the open market. Of course, where regulation fails, this philosophy fails. So regulation is the second 'party' to the capitalism. There is a third component to it called "creative destruction" - which makes it necessary to shed the bloated wasted that gathers over a time in the economy.

It has a broad social safety net (socialism). The citizens are guaranteed social security from the government after retirement. They have unemployment insurance to get through the bad times. There are vast programs of different subsidized medical services for older generation. There are food stamp program and federal low-income housing programs that give poor people - a subsidized subsistence.

It also has a strong streak of civil libertarianism through its constitution. It also has strong institutional support for civil liberties in terms of its executive, judiciary and legislative branches of government with enough checks and balances. (Noting Slavery and segregation, it is through this system that these civil liberties were fulfilled and those practices abolished).

Well, there are couple of other models that still exist in the world - monarchy and feudalism - which are definitely out of fashion since the fall of British Empire.

Last but not in any way the least, freedom of press - fourth estate. It is strong and getting stronger through various media. This has been a very strong institution in US and it helped keep its leaders and people in hooked to the realities of the world. It has championed peoples cause, informed them and checked excesses of the leaders.

All in all, it is a remarkable political and social system. It has survived very remarkably - without a figure head in its democracy because of these systems. These systems have been developed over a period of time, culminating in the sixties - launching itself into the modern times as strongest and idealistic nation for the humanity.