Russian MPs back presidency move

[dipsydoodle]

Source: BBC News

Russian MPs have backed a bill extending the presidential term in its first reading, amid speculation it may herald Vladimir Putin's early return.

The bill was announced only last week by President Dmitry Medvedev and is being fast-tracked through parliament.

Mr Putin became prime minister this year after being obliged under the constitution to step down after two consecutive presidential terms.

But speculation is rife that he is planning to return to the presidency.

Read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7728789.stm

[nomorenomore08]

1. Kind of puts to rest any remaining illusions of Russia being a democracy, doesn't it?

:-(

[TheLastMohican]

2. In comparison to US, heh?

In a country where Al Gore actually had more people voting for him but still lost to a stupid system called "Electoral College" - one has to think how to apply the word "democracy".

[Tempest]

3. Gore lost due to something more insideous than the electoral college

He lost because of five conservative judges on the supreme court.

[Igel]

5. You want your democracy pure, welcome prop 8.

You'd also dislike when a few old men--or women--in court overrule majority opinion. With a majority vote, anything could be overriden. Civil Rights Act unpopular? It's history. Don't like some amendment? Scrap it.

We don't live in a pure democracy, and I wouldn't like to. 50% + 1 could strip me of my rights, of my property, of my life. The majority is absolute, and could, if it so willed, function as a dictatorship. Anything less is a curtailment of democracy. Long live the curtailments.

We live in a representative democracy, one that was founded on liberal principles, with a Constitution that probably would not have passed with 25% of the vote had all the groups allowed to vote today been allowed to vote on it in the late 1700s.

States are also set up the same way, since their constitutions have to be modeled, in some ways, on the federal one; and the federal government, in a very real sense, retains vestiges of what it was formulated to be--a body superordinate to the states, but also subordinate to them. The Civil War, FDR, and 1960s changed a lot of that, but the original framework is mostly still there.

It was the Senate, I believe, that wasn't even chosen by direct vote. The House, and only the House, was the voice of the people, and it's still a collection of state representatives. The President was chosen by representatives, the Senate chosen by representatives, the Supreme Court chosen by representatives chosen by representatives and ratified by representatives chosen by representatives.

[nomorenomore08]

6. No offense, but you're reading way more meaning into my post than I intended.

Of course "pure 50%+1 democracy" is neither feasible nor advisable. All I meant was that Russia now, for all the upheaval and supposed reform, seems just as authoritarian now as pre-1991.

[Tempest]

4. How so exactly?

The MPs are democratically elected.