March Of The Tyrants

USA Today points out the way that Vladimir Putin has crushed democracy in Russia. His latest move - to step down from the presidency only to turn around and run for prime minister - has a number of possible outcomes. All bad for Russia in the long term.

The clear implication is that he would manipulate a crony without a power base into the presidency — likely the relatively unknown Viktor Zubkov, whom he recently appointed prime minister — then manipulate him or transfer power to Putin's new office. The scheme has an extra Machiavellian twist. Because Putin is so popular and controls most of the media, the party list he will head is likely to get two-thirds of the seats needed in December elections to change the Constitution. A new president could also be persuaded to retire for health or other reasons, allowing Putin to quickly return for a non-consecutive third and fourth term.

Many things have improved in Russia under Putin, including the economy and international influence. That's why his approval rating tops 70%. Yet it's in Russia's long-term interest to break from the dictator model of its czarist and communist past. The ultimate strength of a country is not in individual leaders but in the strength of institutions, laws and rules.

For the longest time, the Russian president has argued that his authoritarian moves were intended to re-establish order and lay the groundwork for a return to full democracy. The fact that Putin insisted he would not run for a third term gave at least some hope for a democratic transition.

This, the United States and Europe hoped, would lead to steady increases in cooperation and decreases in tension. Those hopes have waned steadily in the past few years as Putin has consolidated power, imprisoned critics, muzzled the Russian media and tried to blackjack neighboring countries into bowing to Russia.

It is obvious that tyranny is making a big comeback in Russia. As it is in Venezuela. As it is in Ecuador, where the president is expected to dissolve that country's congress and rewrite the constitution along Venezuelan lines. In Burma, the ruling junta ignores the world's opinions and simply acts to keep its iron grip on that country and its people. Iran continues its mission to obtain nuclear weapons. The tyrants are gaining strength while the west stands around and talks.

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  By quilly mammoth, Wednesday, 3 October , 2007 @ 11:47 am

  From the 2107 edition of the Worldbook Encyclopedia

  The Century of Democracy

  In 1914 virtually all the democracies in the world were in places that spoke English, that traced their heritage back to England and thus to the Magna Charta and it’s Northern European common law ancestry (Viking law and heritage for example).

  By 2014 the same would be true again. The entire world, except for the English speaking countries and Western Europe, was devoid of democracy. That too would change in the following decades as Europe became Eurabia.

  The only way to avoid that, most historians agree, would have been to promote democratization, as espoused by certain American and other foreign policy experts known as “neo-Cons”, world wide. However, the now discredited Transnational Progressive Movement effectively prevented Western politicians from following that path.

  Democratic experiments are once again starting to develop in the world as colonies on the depopulated African Continent grow and expand. Though they face competition from the colonies of the South American People’s Federation….

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