I suspect you're talking in generalities, but from an outside perspective the US is far from best practice.
Three things that you could implement that other democracies already have:
- electoral boundaries are controlled by a statutory independent body, not the government.
- voting and counting are controlled and supervised by a statutory independent body, not the government. The Bush-Florida mess could not have happened here.
- all political donations over a trivial amount, say $5000, must be reported.
As well, Ministers cannot take jobs in their portfolio's area for some period of time, from memory it is 5 years, after leaving politics.
I agree with your first point; gerrymandering is the cause of a lot of our problems, I believe. But a 3rd party would be just as susceptible to tampering.
I think a better approach is to define an algorithm for setting boundaries: something like "minimal border perimeter of districts, starting from the northwest corner of the state". But we might need to find a way to avoid breaking up cities between districts, that makes it a lot more complicated.
Your proposal would not have saved the Bush/Gore election mess. The big controversy there wasn't over the recounting, but in the way that State laws governing the counts would be enforced, in the context of the 14th and 15th Amendments. Any legislation you propose would probably fall afoul of the same problems. In any case, I believe that actual voting and counting is a very minor issue today in America.
And your third suggestion is already in force. Political donations must be reported today.
I think our (the US) government has a lot to say against it. But America's not great because of its government, it's great in spite of it. America is great because of our culture of risk taking and experimentation, a culture that we are slowly losing to increasingly mind-numbing entertainment (which, I admit, is quite addicting) and restrictive legislation.
All fair points with which I agree. Again, the US could get better, but that doesn't mean it's necessarily bad now. (I, like many, have days where I feel the US is going to hell in a handbasket). But I agree with the things you've pointed out.
Three things that you could implement that other democracies already have:
- electoral boundaries are controlled by a statutory independent body, not the government.
- voting and counting are controlled and supervised by a statutory independent body, not the government. The Bush-Florida mess could not have happened here.
- all political donations over a trivial amount, say $5000, must be reported.
As well, Ministers cannot take jobs in their portfolio's area for some period of time, from memory it is 5 years, after leaving politics.