Or is there something like an electoral collage in the US?
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In Canada, you vote for your Member of Parliament, and whichever party gets the most seats has their leader become Prime Minister. So our system is kind of like yours.
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In countries with parliamentary systems, votes are allocated proportionally, or close to proportionally, though rules can be complicated. With presidential systems, it's usually whoever gets the most votes (first past the post). Some countries elect representatives through a combination of proportional and first-past-the-post.
the electoral college is quite a uniquely American institution. There was a great article about it today in the NYT (http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/11/us/politics/the-electoral-college-is-hated-by-many-so-why-does-it-endure.html?action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=span-abc-region®ion=span-abc-region&WT.nav=span-abc-region&_r=0), that discusses it's history and how its original design (amongst other things) is intimately linked to the balance of power between the slave-owning south and the north. With the 3/5ths compromise, it gave the south enough votes to determine the president. James Madison was instrumental to it, and Barney Frank had a great quote: “I am very mad at James Madison,” said former Representative Barney Frank, a Massachusetts Democrat. “But I don’t think there’s anything I can do about it.”
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In Austria and France it's a direct election. Austria votes for president next month after election results were contested this spring. There was supposed to be a redo in October but there was an issue and now it's scheduled for December. I'm very nervous. France votes for president next year and I'm even more nervous, but I can't vote in either (yet!).
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It is the same as Canada in Australia, we vote for a member and whoever holds the most seats, leads the country.
I don't like this system because it's the party heads who campaign so you vote based on who you want to be prime minister, not what your member can do for you. I think it should be a direct vote for PM and a seperate vote for a member of parliament.
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We have a first-past-the-post system here similar to how you elect Congress, as I understand it. First Past the Post voting takes place in constituencies that elect a single MP each. Voters put a cross on a ballot paper next to their favoured candidate and the candidate with the most votes in the constituency wins. All other votes count for nothing. The party with the most "seats" gets to form a government.
We had a referendum a few years back to determine whether to move to proportional representation but the majority rejected it.
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@erinbaderin: so does that mean that the same party controls the Parliament also has the Presidency, always? So the same party controls both "branches, " per se? I don't have time to look up the right terms, hope you see what I mean
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@Cherrybee: Canada is also looking at electoral reform right now: http://www.macleans.ca/politics/making-sense-of-electoral-reform-what-are-canadas-options/
@DesertDreams88: http://www.lop.parl.gc.ca/About/Parliament/senatoreugeneforsey/inside_view/canada_usa-e.html this is a great overview of Canada vs US!
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Not to be ignorant, but what is "first past the post?"
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We have a complex voting mechanism here in Germany. You get two votes, with the first you cast your vote for a direct candidate that shall represent your district in parliament, with the second you vote for a party. Now all directly elected representatives get a seat in parliament. If one of the parties got a larger proportional vote than the direct votes they get additional seats in parliament. Then the party with the largest group of representatives has the job to form a coalition (if they didn't earn more than 50% of votes by themselves). Once this is done they vote for a chancellor.
There is a second chamber that consists of representatives from our state elected parliaments (those are voted for at another time) that controlls the first chamber and all laws have to be signed into law by our president who gets elected by a special congregation that half of its members are from the 1. chamber and the second half stems from the 2. chamber. Now the president has a longer term than the house does to make sure that landslide votes aren't as easily possible.
This very complex way of dividing powers stems from the very negative past my country has.
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