In a lot of countries, heads of state are derived from parliament, so people vote for parties and platforms rather than people. The fixation on individuals is a bit of a weird quirk of the US system.
In France they also elect their president directly, but it is not exactly a short election cycle, with two rounds of elections: If no candidate receives 50% of the vote in the first round, the two candidates leading the race advance to a second stage and people have to vote all over again. And then the new president generally dissolves the parliament, unleashing two new elections with a similar procedure on the more local level.
I am so happy to be voting in proportional representation systems.
How do other countries have such short election cycles?
Reliable news publications and actively informed voters would be my guess.
In a lot of countries, heads of state are derived from parliament, so people vote for parties and platforms rather than people. The fixation on individuals is a bit of a weird quirk of the US system.
In France they also elect their president directly, but it is not exactly a short election cycle, with two rounds of elections: If no candidate receives 50% of the vote in the first round, the two candidates leading the race advance to a second stage and people have to vote all over again. And then the new president generally dissolves the parliament, unleashing two new elections with a similar procedure on the more local level.
I am so happy to be voting in proportional representation systems.