I am referring to ALL elected governments, Doug. ;-) Without exception.

Being an incumbent affords great monetary and bureaucratic and procedural advantages in winning an election...and it makes it easier to manipulate the outcome. However, ANY incumbent regime can wear out its welcome eventually...as we've all seen...when they finally reach the point where a clear majority of the public is truly fed up with them. And they all do reach that point eventually.

Give 'em enough rope, and they'll hang themselves. ;-D

In the USA that translates to: When people are completely fed up with the Republicans, they vote in the Democrats. When they are completely fed up with the Democrats, they vote in the Republicans. When they are completely fed up with BOTH sets of rascals, they hold their noses, vote grimly for what they hope is the lesser of two evils, and pray that things won't get worse.

It works almost exactly the same way in Canada, Doug, only we alternate back and forth between the Liberal Party and the Conservative Party (both of whom are quite "liberal" by your standards!)...and we have the fun of also having a third party (NDP - Socialist) which gets about 15 to 20% of the vote every time, thus acting as a handy secondary influence and caution on the other two.

I like our way a tad better. I would just about be in despair if I had no other vaible alternative but the Democrats and the Republicans to choose between.