December 12, 2005

THE ADVANTAGE OF DEMOCRATIZING LATE:

Palestinian 'third way' rises: A new political group offers voters a choice between Fatah and Hamas. (Ilene R. Prusher, 12/13/05, The Christian Science Monitor)

A group of respected Palestinian leaders and intellectuals has formed an independent list to run in January's elections for the Palestinian Legislative Council. The new "party" presents a potential challenge to the two major forces of political life here: Fatah, the ruling Palestinian faction, and Hamas, the Islamic Resistance Movement.

The names topping the new list are well-known: Salam Fayyad, the respected finance minister and former World Bank official - a man seen by the international donor community as one of the most reliable and capable people in the Palestinian Authority (PA) - and Hanan Ashrawi, a former minister and Palestinian spokeswoman who has lobbied for an improved human rights record and respect for the rule of law in areas under the PA's control.


Jobs vs. efficiency as Afghan Ma Bell goes private (Scott Baldauf, 12/13/05, The Christian Science Monitor)
Afghanistan has become a nation of state-owned industries that don't make anything, bureaucrats who don't do anything, and citizens who don't get anything from their government. The solution seems simple on paper: Tear it all down and start from scratch. Yet laying off thousands of well-educated bureaucrats would only add to the angry unemployed.

For now, the state is easing citizens into the free market and quietly making Afghanistan a decent place to make a buck.


The Islamic world has had the enormous benefit of having seen socialism and welfare statism fail, but one could fairly doubt whether they'll manage to take advantage or our experience.

Posted by Orrin Judd at December 12, 2005 7:16 PM
Comments

They won't until they actually have to earn a living (oil countries).

Until they become producers instead of extractors, they won't change.

Posted by: Sandy P at December 12, 2005 8:58 PM

Say, oj, didn't Marx nail the 3rd way theme eons ago with his notion of "synthesis"?

Posted by: ghostcat at December 12, 2005 9:47 PM

No. Marx, following the French, believed we should end equal and that government ought to redistribute wealth in order to effect that end.

Posted by: oj at December 12, 2005 10:35 PM

oj -

Understood ("dreamy Mountie", indeed) as to outcomes. But he was approximately correct as to process, no?

Posted by: ghostcat at December 12, 2005 11:11 PM

Ghost: I think you're thinking of Hegel (thesis, antithesis, synthesis), which was a tool Marx used. However, Hegel is dead.

Posted by: David Cohen at December 12, 2005 11:40 PM

ghost:

I'm unaware on Marx ever opining that free markets were a good way to increase wealth generally and made tolerable vast inequalities.

Posted by: oj at December 12, 2005 11:47 PM

So he messed up the details. But David's right, I was confusing Marx and Hegel. Hegel's dead. And ...

Posted by: ghostcat at December 13, 2005 1:49 AM

wrong.

Posted by: oj at December 13, 2005 7:14 AM
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