American democracy, R.I.P.?

Earlier this week, Matthew Yglesias, continuing his longstanding intellectual crush on political scientist Juan Linz and longstanding skepticism about the merits of the American Revolution, wrote a Vox essay modestly titled “American democracy is doomed.” Why? Yglesias argues that presidential systems are more crisis-prone than parliamentary systems:

Linz offered several reasons why presidential systems are so prone to crisis. One particularly important one is the nature of the checks and balances system. Since both the president and the Congress are directly elected by the people, they can both claim to...