Changing the rules in mid-game is a symptom of a government sickening.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

There is nothing wrong with not having term limits for the ruler of your country. But if you *do* have term limits, and you want to remove them, *don't* make that change applicable to the current ruler. That he has tried to get round this is one of the reasons I am most suspicious of Hugo Chavez.

I don't know if there's anything particularly wrong with the current rules for changing party in the Knesset, or with the current government's proposed changed system. But if they *do* introduce the change (whose goal, it is uniformly agreed, is to make it easier to split up the opposition), it shouldn't take effect until after the next electoral cycle.

The salaries of public servants obviously have to rise with inflation. But I was most impressed by the US rule that required Hillary Clinton to take the job of secretary of state under a "Saxby fix", rather than at a salary that had increased during her term in the senate.




There are lots of good ways of running a democracy. There are also plenty of legitimate reasons to switch from one to another. But, when the rules do change, the change should generally be delayed so that there is no possibility of it benefitting the current incumbents. There are exceptions - rectifying something that is clearly a gross injustice, arguably - but even then, it needs to be handled with great care, and it's usually a warning sign that your democracy may not be as healthy as it might be.

[AuntPatsy]

1. I am not sure what you are alluding to?

[Donald Ian Rankin]

2. No one episode.

I've just seen various political issues recently that have made me think that, and am drawing a common thread between them.

There have been lots of other examples, too - I just picked a few off the top of my head. I believe something similar is likely to happen in the future in Russia to let Putin back, for example, and I think Mugabe in Zimbabwe is another example.

The point is more the connection and the general issue than to draw attention to any one of them.

[timeforpeace]

3. Wouldn't Zelaya's term limit have been lifted for Zelaya if Zelaya had been successful?

[Donald Ian Rankin]

4. Pass.

My recollection is yes, but I didn't follow the story as closely as I might have.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

5. No, he still needed a constitutional convention

His position is that it was a preference poll. The legal issues get worse from there. Neither side has clean hands...