Posted by
JDW on Saturday, November 04, 2006 11:05:27 AM
Here is a good article about some of the people in Iraq that are trying to make progress there . Mithal al-Alusi,is one the the people that deserve a more prominent role but he probably won't ever do that because of a flaw in the Iraqi system
In Iraq it was set up as a parliament that allocates the political parties their number of representatives according to the % of the vote they took and that party gets to pick who serves in the parliament. So the candidates don't have to answer to the people in their district they just engage in a power struggle in their party to see who gets to serve which means the party leader can hold their feet to the fire if they don't toe the party line .
The problem with that is the party can state a moderate agenda and pick radical representatives .
In America each candidate has to win in their own district or state and then the party leader tries to hold them all together. so the people have a more direct says in setting the direction of their district and the nation.
So Mr al-Alusi probably could never be a leader of Iraq because his party which is small will never get enough % of the vote.
http://www.opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=110009177"Why has government been instituted at all? Because the passions
of men will not conform to the dictates of reason and justice
without constraint."
-- Alexander Hamilton (Federalist No. 15)
"Ambition must be made to counteract ambition. The interest of the
man must be connected with the constitutional rights of the place.
It may be a reflection on human nature that such devices should be
necessary to control the abuses of government. What is government
itself but the greatest of all reflections on human nature?"
-- James Madison (Federalist No. 51, 8 February 1788)
Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this
consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more
glorious the triumph."
-- Thomas Paine (American Crisis, No. 1, 19 December 1776)