Anders Holmström via luv-talk wrote:
On 2019-12-07 01:39, Paul Dwerryhouse via luv-talk wrote:
US and UK politicians cross the floor to vote against their party's wishes regularly.
In Australia, the ALP will kick members out of the party if they cross the floor ...
Not quite. The UK is much closer to AU than US in this respect. It is fairly rare for Commons members to vote against their party and it can (and does!) result in the whip being withdrawn. This is normal in the Westminster system.
The US is modelled on the French system where the executive is formed *outside* the legislature and that is why all votes are essentially "conscience votes".
Minor nitpick, note that we have the "washminster mutation", viz. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westminster_system#'Washminster'_system_of_Australia