American Politics Needs De-Presidentialization

In the course of a series of excellent observations on the UK leadership debate Rick Hertzberg says:

I have qualms about the Americanization—the Presidentialization—of British politics. These debates change the focus from the parties and their policies (which are outlined in manifestos that are taken seriously, even by those who draw them up) to the leaders and their personalities. I’m not sure that what Western democracies need is greater fealty to the Führerprinzip.

Ever since I first heard it in reference to Canadian politics I’ve been puzzled by these complaints about the “presidentialization” of parliamentary political campaigns. It actually makes much more sense for a country like Canada or the UK—with few veto points and strong party discipline—to have this kind of personality-focused campaigning. It’s the United States where it doesn’t make sense to have this kind of monomaniacal focus on the will and character of Barack Obama as the key determinant of policy outcomes. In the UK, Gordon Brown can do pretty much whatever he wants and the opinion of some random Labour backbencher in a marginal constituency is irrelevant. In the US, by contrast, policy outcomes are the result of a complicated bargaining process in which the White House matters more than anyone else in particular but most of the power is in the dispersed hands of sundry members of congress.