Answer me this.

[Occhidiangela]

Considering:
- we spend 'only' 1% of GDP on defence forces source
- the army is now taking in asthmatics and overweight recruits
- politcians get voted out every three years
- we have a more democratic system that requirese onsensus between multiple parties to get laws enacted (as opposed to the U.S. dictatorship system)
- we are easily able to head elsewhere (e.g. if the govt. started increasing tax to fund a military, we could reduce its tax base by emigrating... who wants to rule a country that has no citizens to earn tax for you?)
... I think we have more chance of being invaded  (don't tell George about the large finds of offshore oil here recently  :P  ) than the govt. to go awol.
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1. NZ isn't a Power. Do you understand scaling? I am sure you do, you are in programming.
2. You are clueless about the nature of the American political process if you use the word dictatorship. Get a clue. What you are seeing at present is the unusual case of both Houses of Congress, and the White House, being in the hands of the same party. If you look at Reagan's era, or Clinton's era, you see a different dynamic since Congress and the President were continually at odds. See also Wilson. The system hasn't changed much since his day.

The balance of power is more or less evident depending on the mix. What you also aren't seeing is the leaking the Republican party is experiencing, but that won't manifest itself to the world at large until the 2006 election cycle.

If it looks like mob rule to you, well, mob rule is a feature of democracy, and can be a feature of constitutional republics if one party gets the preponderance of the votes. Enter the Judicial branch, to mitigate the process, which they do. ;)

Enter the Governors. At present, the are in the lead, but Virginia just changed hands, and I suspect a few others will in 2006.

Consider the importance of Governors and State legislatures: the Governors of Texas and California both have more people, each has IIRC a bit more land, and a larger economy than your nation. See, again, scaling. I predict Perry falls in Texas, 2006. NOt sure what the Governator will do. PS: some states have a recall process, which is how Governor Davis got fired.

Occhi