Russia moving towards one-party rule (Full Version)

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cyberdude611 -> Russia moving towards one-party rule (11/21/2007 6:25:08 PM)

Polls are showing that President Putin's political party "United Russia" will cruise to another huge victory in elections on December 2nd.

Because of new rules that mandates a 7% threshold for a political party to participate in the Parliament, only one other political party stands a chance of getting enough votes to beat the threshold....CPRF (Communist Party of the Russian Federation) which is expected to barely pass the threshold and is polling at 7.3%.

If these polls are representative of the turnout on Dec 2, the liberal parties will be shut out of parliament and Putin's conservative-leaning United Russia party will control practically all aspects of the government.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20071121/ts_nm/russia_vote_poll_dc




Griswold -> RE: Russia moving towards one-party rule (11/21/2007 7:01:14 PM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: cyberdude611

Polls are showing that President Putin's political party "United Russia" will cruise to another huge victory in elections on December 2nd.

Because of new rules that mandates a 7% threshold for a political party to participate in the Parliament, only one other political party stands a chance of getting enough votes to beat the threshold....CPRF (Communist Party of the Russian Federation) which is expected to barely pass the threshold and is polling at 7.3%.

If these polls are representative of the turnout on Dec 2, the liberal parties will be shut out of parliament and Putin's conservative-leaning United Russia party will control practically all aspects of the government.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20071121/ts_nm/russia_vote_poll_dc


So?




cyberdude611 -> RE: Russia moving towards one-party rule (11/21/2007 7:09:52 PM)

Is it a healthy democracy when a country is being ruled by a single political party? Take a look at history....

No....it is not healthy. And what happends in Russia certainly has a potential to effect the world in a huge way.




Arpig -> RE: Russia moving towards one-party rule (11/21/2007 7:12:42 PM)

Hey, if the people of Russia want to elect a single party, that is their right...that is a healthy democracy.




Zensee -> RE: Russia moving towards one-party rule (11/21/2007 8:26:35 PM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: Arpig

Hey, if the people of Russia want to elect a single party, that is their right...that is a healthy democracy.


If they freely elect one, perhaps. If they understand and have discussed the consequences of such a decision, perhaps. If they can reverse the decision without bloodshed, perhaps.

But since this situation seems to be due to twisted electoral regulations, machinations by the ruling party and a populace not well versed in choosing leaders, I'd hardly say their endorsement of such a system would be properly informed, entirely uncoerced and therefore truly voluntary.


Z




awmslave -> RE: Russia moving towards one-party rule (11/21/2007 10:21:56 PM)

Russia is so called "Potjomkin democracy" meaning a country that masquerades as a democracy. We can not speak about United Russia as a party in western sense. The major goal of  United Russia is to support Putin and his policies (whatever they are).  Nobody really expects democratic elections there: the opposition has very limited access to media and  the fraud is very likely.




Lordandmaster -> RE: Russia moving towards one-party rule (11/21/2007 10:26:15 PM)

Yeah.  Come on, Arpig.  You ought to know that a government elected by 90% of the population is not a true democracy.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Zensee

quote:

ORIGINAL: Arpig

Hey, if the people of Russia want to elect a single party, that is their right...that is a healthy democracy.


If they freely elect one, perhaps. If they understand and have discussed the consequences of such a decision, perhaps. If they can reverse the decision without bloodshed, perhaps.

But since this situation seems to be due to twisted electoral regulations, machinations by the ruling party and a populace not well versed in choosing leaders, I'd hardly say their endorsement of such a system would be properly informed, entirely uncoerced and therefore truly voluntary.


Z




UtopianRanger -> RE: Russia moving towards one-party rule (11/21/2007 11:15:26 PM)


quote:


Is it a healthy democracy when a country is being ruled by a single political party? Take a look at history....




Is it a healthy democracy when both parties in our two party system are dominated and controlled by trans-national corporations?

Is it a healthy democracy when the entire content of mainstream television is controlled by thirteen corporations?

Russia's citizenry had their fill of the free market, and the average Russian ended up with week-old bread and dishwater soup for dinner every night.

Run with the dogs get bitten by the fleas.....



- R





awmslave -> RE: Russia moving towards one-party rule (11/21/2007 11:31:07 PM)

quote:

Hey, if the people of Russia want to elect a single party, that is their right...that is a healthy democracy.

Nobody in Russian elite cares what people want. Russia is typical junta type dictatorship. During Soviet years Russians also "wanted" to elect single party.




cyberdude611 -> RE: Russia moving towards one-party rule (11/22/2007 3:18:05 AM)

There are widespread reports of voter intimidation and candidates claim intimidation. In the last election, one candidate who was running against Putin claims he was kidnapped and threatened. Every television station and most of the radio stations are controlled by the federal executive. There is no independant thought and you are not permitted to even discuss the Chechnya issue inside Russia. If any TV station dare do such a thing, they will be shut down.
Just a few years ago, Putin eliminated election of local governors. In other words, Moscow is now installing governors over the different regions. The people dont even vote for their local leader anymore.

During the Soviet Union, they claimed it was a democracy too. In fact the communist party called it "democratic centralism." Which was a joke because there were rules in place that guranteed that the communist party couldn't be voted out. And the main principle of the Soviet government was centralized power. Everything was controlled by Moscow. And you seeing a very similar thing happen today in Russia. Power is centralizing. The only difference is that this bunch in power now are capitalists.

And why does this matter?
1. Russia is the largest nation on the planet.
2. They are the largest oil producer outside OPEC.
3. They have a massive stockpile of nuclear weapons.
No matter what, the world can't ignore this country. They are going to be a major world player.




OrionTheWolf -> RE: Russia moving towards one-party rule (11/22/2007 7:42:24 AM)

Russia is already a major world player. Now that we have helped them after the cold war, they have a good economy, access to vast natural resources, and all those hard liners before the Cold War are still there. The Soviet Union was beaten via economics, well I guess they learned their lesson and are making things stronger in the economic area, and now the political part is moving back to similar to what it was during the cold war.

Orion




crazychris52285 -> RE: Russia moving towards one-party rule (11/29/2007 3:13:32 PM)

another "Cold War" in our future thanks to this? keep watching.




OrionTheWolf -> RE: Russia moving towards one-party rule (11/29/2007 3:33:48 PM)

Another?

"New boss is the same as the old boss."




crazychris52285 -> RE: Russia moving towards one-party rule (11/29/2007 3:34:35 PM)

that's exactly what i see. either that or the beginning of "Czar Putin"




OrionTheWolf -> RE: Russia moving towards one-party rule (11/29/2007 4:02:14 PM)

Doubt it will ever go back to a Czar, but the political power in Russia, is the same as it was before, just dispersed into more compartments. If all those comparents align on an issue, you have the same power brokers together.

Orion




Real0ne -> RE: Russia moving towards one-party rule (11/29/2007 4:04:13 PM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: cyberdude611

Is it a healthy democracy when a country is being ruled by a single political party? Take a look at history....

No....it is not healthy. And what happends in Russia certainly has a potential to effect the world in a huge way.




you mean like when the republicans control the presidencey the house and congress?  Sounds pretty single party to me.




OrionTheWolf -> RE: Russia moving towards one-party rule (11/29/2007 4:08:58 PM)

You are missing a branch of the checks and balance.




Politesub53 -> RE: Russia moving towards one-party rule (11/29/2007 4:20:46 PM)

Although Russia is the largest country area wise, and its only slighly bigger than Canada, it is way down on the largest population. It`s no coincidence that many of the top players since the fall of communism were also top players in the KGB. They are still the ones with the contacts both inside and outside of Russia.

The west couldnt wait for communism to fall, whats in its place isnt a perfect democracy but who are we to argue.




cyberdude611 -> RE: Russia moving towards one-party rule (11/29/2007 4:29:11 PM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: Real0ne

quote:

ORIGINAL: cyberdude611

Is it a healthy democracy when a country is being ruled by a single political party? Take a look at history....

No....it is not healthy. And what happends in Russia certainly has a potential to effect the world in a huge way.




you mean like when the republicans control the presidencey the house and congress?  Sounds pretty single party to me.



Not even close... to put in perspective... it would be like if the GOP controlled the White House, 3/4th of congress, the Supreme Court, and the White House had the authority to hire and appoint state governors whenever it wishes.

Putin claims he needs all the power in order to move the country towards democracy.




cyberdude611 -> RE: Russia moving towards one-party rule (11/29/2007 4:31:17 PM)

“Whoever does not miss the Soviet Union has no heart. Whoever wants it back has no brain.”
-Putin




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