May 10, 2007
DEMOCRACY, BUT ONLY IF EURO ELITES APPROVE OF THE RESULTS:
Parliament Votes to Let the People Decide (Der Spiegel, 5/10/07)
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan (right) and his Foreign Minister Abdullah Gül are old friends. Gül was a candidate for president until last Sunday.Posted by Orrin Judd at May 10, 2007 11:49 AM
The Turkish parliament on Thursday approved a major amendment to its constitution to allow the public -- as opposed to legislators -- to vote directly for president.The amendment must be signed by President Ahmet Necdet Sezer to become law, but it sailed easily through parliament with 370 votes out of 550.
Sezer is among critics of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) who say the law was rushed through without enough debate. He's hinted at a veto. It's true that the Islamic-rooted, center-right AKP promoted the amendment after its presidential candidate, Abdullah Gül, lost two divisive votes in parliament. The AKP has broad support in Turkey, and its leaders believe Gül can win a popular election.
There are two long-standing examples of how to structure your government to elect the President.
The American way, with its first-past-the-post winner-take-all way. Which leads to moderation and co-operation. Oh yes---and the people get to directly vote for the President.
And the British way, parlimentary. Which leads to myriads of splinter parties-many of them extremist, and unstable governments. The co-operation and alliances are essentially held together at gunpoint (figuratively). Oh yes---and the people do NOT directly vote for the President, their voting is second-hand.
So which example do countries pick??
Posted by: ray at May 10, 2007 3:51 PMray: Um, in America the people actually don't get to directly elect the President.
Posted by: b at May 10, 2007 4:05 PMUm, de facto, they do. Via the mechanism of the electoral college, where the votes are clustered by state.
When you enter the polling booth in the Pesidential election, you cast your vote to the name of a presidential candidate. You don't cast your vote for, say, Dick Durban who asserts that he'll vote to make Kerry the President.
AFAIK that's true in every state in the Union.
Remind me again, what percentage of the national vote did Tony Blair get in the last UK election?
They consider Gul too tied to the USA.
Posted by: Sandy P at May 10, 2007 6:13 PMRay, this explains why Al Gore became President in 2000. And why Cleveland was elected to two consecutive terms. And Tilden in 1876.
De facto, Britain elects their PM directly via the mechanism of Parliament by your logic. Everyone knows who the party will nominate as PM. It's not a surprise.
Posted by: Chris Durnell at May 14, 2007 4:45 PM