re fillibuster in article c dsyr ncratl atlantaga ncr com mwilson ncratl atlantaga ncr com mark wilson writes in article c buph fcp dscomsa desy de hallam dscomsa desy de phill hallam baker writes the filibuster does not make sense because the senate is elected as a last gasp assembly it is designed to be the repository of doddery old men with no power phill i don t know which senate you re discussing but it ain t ours phill probably thinks that the us senate is supposed to be the equivalent to the uk s house of lords the status of the house of lords today is quite different to its status in which just goes to show that where the us is concerned phill still has no idea what he is talking about maddison and hamilton were both studying existing forms of government for several years before they wrote the federalist papers that the us system is based to a considerable degree on the uk model is pretty widely accepted at the time there was no other major country with a representative body the french plebicite had been suppressed for years and its restoration eight years later would mark the start of the french revolution after the uk system the major influences were the dutch system and of course the classical systems nobody seriously suggests that rome or greece were models though because the political systems of both countries were acknowleged disasters the main lesson learnt from greece was that unless a federal state was constructed a war would be inevitable the greek democracies were always fighting amongst themselves which is how rome managed to invade had the federal consitution been rejected the new roman empire in the shape of britain would quite certainly have reabsorbed much of the colonies in due course moreover the states would have been at each others throats as soon as the louisiana purchase situation arose during the napoleonic period phill hallam baker
