Back to the U.S.S.R.

[Voronwë]

No more voting for political candidates, just vote for the party, and lots of other fun changes.

By the way, no independent television news organizations exist in Russia anymore.

Curiously, however, the Russian leader's proposals focused largely on electoral changes. Putin said he would propose legislation abolishing the election of local governors by popular vote. Instead they would be nominated by the president and confirmed by local legislatures. (Reforms in full)

He said the change was needed to streamline and strengthen the executive branch to better combat terror.

Putin also asked for a revision of the method by which Russians elect their parliament. The entire 450 seats would be chosen from candidates on party lists.

At present about half are chosen that way, meaning many candidates can win seats while representing no party. The current rules also allowed a candidate to win a place in the legislature even if representing a party that garnered too few seats as an organization to win representation.

maybe we were just in Halftime of the Cold War.

[Kluden]

Holy Christ!!! Bring out the clone of Ronnie, quick!!!!

[Kelshara]

Back when Putin was about to take office I remember reading a lot of articles in Norwegian papers about him, and none of them were really flattering or positive. He is a scary, frightening man.

[Thess]

Offtopic - but now I have 'back to the u.s.s.r' song stuck in my head

[kyoukan]

I love Putin for shit like this. He's gotten away with shit already that would have made Gorbachev blush. The scary part is he is ultra-popular even among the pro-democracy crowd. It goes to show you how different cultures define freedom.

[Marbus]

Different countries have different needs. Our version of democracy work well, most of the time, for us. However to think that exact same model, as obviously many people do, will work everywhere else is abhorently shallow IMHO.

Just like the Contras in El Salvador... those people did just fine under a Commnunist Gov. the people were happy, had food and were living their lives without complaint... but of course they were "free" so we gave some of their criminals guns to fight those red bastards. First result of course was people started getting hungry... hrmm... don't hear much about how things are going there today either... must be going well now, you know since they are free and all.

Marb

[Zaelath]

Democracy is over-rated, and representative democracy moreso.

At least 50% of people in America were pissed about the last election and about 50% will be this time.

If your local representation is impotent in thngs you actually care about like war, healthcare, education, etc, if they're so prone to being funded and swayed by special interests, what does it really matter if you are purely electing the party?

You can talk checks and balances until you're blue in the face, but when the crunch comes they seem pretty elastic to me.

[VariaVespasa]

Just as a note, in Washtington state, at least, you are also required to vote by party, not candidate, more or less. If all your votes are not for candidates in the same party your vote is discarded. So I guess you can vote positively for the candidates you like, but can only abstain if you dont like the candidate of that party for a particular position.

*Hugs*
Varia

[Traz-KOE]

Just as a note, in Washtington state, at least, you are also required to vote by party, not candidate, more or less. If all your votes are not for candidates in the same party your vote is discarded. So I guess you can vote positively for the candidates you like, but can only abstain if you dont like the candidate of that party for a particular position.

*Hugs*
Varia

Only in the primary. The federal elections are not so, to my understanding.