Election Day and Heterocracy

In comparison with that of virtually every other case hitherto, the history of regime-change in the American Experiment has been remarkably stable, with nothing but seamless transitions.  On the other hand, its system is less flexible than those in many polities that have adopted its basic Democratic model, because unlike in those, there is no routine option of dissolving the regime and calling for elections prior to the next scheduled date.  Indeed, evidence that the stability has become sclerotic includes intransigence in considering a change of Election Day to a more convenient weekend day, and the priority of deadlines over a conscientious counting of votes in the 2000 election.  Such privileging of impersonal procedure over acts of Consent and their tabulation is characteristic of Heterocracy, rather than of Democracy.