Germany is a parliamentary democracy. For my American readers, I emphasize the differences to your Presidential system: If there is a President or monarch, its function is representative only.The most important election is that for the House.The House elects the government (the cabinet of ministers).The cabinet is supposed to make collective decisions, the prime minister leads them but has no ultimate power. (That's theory; practice is murkier.)
(That's theory; practice is murkier.)
At the beginning of the second paragraph on Merkel, I'd add for dKos: "From afar, Merkel may seem a gentle, conflict-shy person. However, the real " *Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
Note: liberalism is about liberties: freedoms. But, while US liberalism focuses on creating equal opportunities to enjoy freedoms, with Big Government intervention if necessary; not so in the rest of the world. In fact, many liberals in the world today focus on the same modern free-market fundamentalism that is expoused by US liberal-haters. From Buenos Aires to Stockholm, this market-fundie form of liberalism is often called "neoliberalism".
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/10/27/797618/-Meet-the-new-German-(conservative)-government In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
