

The status of the House of Lords today is quite different to its status 
in 1789. 



Maddison and Hamilton were both studying existing forms of government for
several years before they wrote the federalist papers. That the US system
is based to a considerable degree on the UK model is pretty widely accepted.
At the time there was no other major country with a representative body.
The French plebicite had been suppressed for 140 years and its restoration
eight years later would mark the start of the French revolution. 

After the UK system the major influences were the Dutch system and of course
the classical systems. Nobody seriously suggests that Rome or Greece were 
models though because the political systems of both countries were acknowleged
disasters. The main lesson learnt from Greece was that unless a federal
state was constructed a war would be inevitable. The Greek democracies were
always fighting amongst themselves which is how Rome managed to invade. Had
the federal consitution been rejected the new Roman empire in the shape of
Britain would quite certainly have reabsorbed much of the colonies in due
course. Moreover the states would have been at each others throats as soon
as the Louisiana purchase situation arose during the Napoleonic period.
