Mid-term elections as a check and balance on the Executive are impossible in Australia due to the Feds and States being Westminster systems. This means the Executive is embedded in the Legislative as the Prime Minister or Premier led Executive Cabinet, not to mention the Executive functions of the Governor-General/Governors and Monarch. Would Australia benefit by having a Presidential system at the federal level? We are certainly mature enough and there have been some Australian governments that could have done with a party-machine based check and balance on their behaviour in parliament.
(more)
One of the benefits of a parliamentary system is that the Executive Cabinet is made up of elected ministers. This gives them a face, and some accountability outside of their ministry itself. As this article;
Secretary Who? [reg]
notes, in the Bush Cabinet there are a lot of unknown secretaries.
(more)
