Soooo Rosie, lemme get this straight. The Queen is a yesman who can be replaced if she doesn't say yes? I still don't get how this would be a buffer. I have to admit ignorance on your specific form of goverment.
Yes, she is a yesman who can be replaced if she doesn't say yes. Thats pretty much it. The thing is so won't
ever say no, so its not really a problem. The Queen has nothing whatsoever to do with political parties- that acts as a buffer. See below.
And yes, a presidential system does have it's buffers too. The president cannot propose legislation. He needs the approval of congress to use military power. Also, he is kinda like a yesman. All legislation passed by congress is signed into law by him. He can choose not to sign it. Congress can override him by voting on the legislation again. If it passes with a 2/3ds supermajority, it goes into law anyway.
The three branch federal system is a great one in theory. But the problem is that some branches grow more powerful than others. For example, I believe that the Executive branch is waaaayyyy too powerful now. Also, the Federal goverment has been infringing on the powers of state goverments for far too long, wasting far too much tax money with duplication of effort and some people applying what is best for their region to the rest of the country. It doesn't matter if those actions would be disasterous elsewhere.
I don't believe that your system has buffers that act in the same way as ours. The way i see it, is that sections of society are always going to
hate the head of state. If the Head of State is neutral it goes some way to keep politics to do with
politics. If you hate something that is about the same as an inanimate object (lol) i believe you save your true judgement not for people, but for political policies and parties.
The Queen acts as a sort of fictional tradition- it is her head that is on the coins, her name that court cases are carried out in, her 'Inland Revenue'. I could go on, now what would happen if Blair had his head on the coins? What would happen if it was his name court cases were carried out in? That would create a great deal of friction in our political system. I don't believe anyone here would like it. There is security in knowing that every 4/5 years the figurehead for your country
isn't going to change.
A president is a 'yesman' with political strings attatched. A president becomes a target for hatred which can affect people's political stance on issues.
