On last night's "Laura Flanders Show," Robert Reich made this observation.

[NightTrain]

When Laura Flanders inevitably asked for his views on the Reagan legacy, Reich prefaced his answer with an observation:

America is unusual in that it combines the head of state and head of government into one job, the presidency. Reich noted that in most industrialized nations, those jobs are divided between two people. In England, for example, the head of state is the queen while the head of government is the prime minister.

Reich then opined that Ronald Reagan was a very good head of state but not a very good head of government.

Comments?

[NewJeffCT]

1. I can see England

But, is there a king of Germany, France & Italy that act as head of state? How about Japan & China?

[Eric J in MN]

7. Japan has a royal family (nt)

nt

[Anarcho-Socialist]

10. Heads of State in Europe

Germany and Italy have presidents as HOS that have largely ceremonial duties. The real political power lies with Germany's Chancellor and Italy's Prime Minister.

France's President has political power which he shares with France's Prime Minister who can be from a different political party.

[qanda]

2. Brilliant point!

And Bush* is not good at either.

[rfranklin]

3. As a wooden figurehead he was perfect...

Now that he's stuffed and mounted, he's even better.

[Cocoa]

4. interesting, and informative

unlike all the repetitive worthless crap on the TV. Yes, we saw the "Tear down that wall" clip already!

[RoyGBiv]

5. Bill Moyers...

Bill Moyers made that same observation and gave a lengthy discussion of it in one of his books. I have no clue which one it was in. I remember reading it some time in the early 90's, and he referred specifically to Reagan.

[Mika]

6. That's how it works in Cuba too

Despite the mewlings by US administrations, Fidel Castro is the H.O.S. of Cuba.

The head of the Cuban government is their Prime Minister, currently Ricardo Alarcon.


The Cuban system of government was reorganized to a variant parliamentary system in 1976.

[ElementaryPenguin]

8. And Bushler is AWFUL at both jobs!!!

Incredibly awful!

:mad:

[shraby]

9. Worst part of Shrub being

awful is that he doesn't even know it.