Furunculus 15:16 05-23-2011
Originally Posted by :
In a SPIEGEL interview, French social scientist Emmanuel Todd discusses why he believes Germany is not a part of the "core West."
I believe that the Germans still feel a secret and, at the same time, slightly narcissistic fear, as if they sensed that they are not quite part of the West. It seems to me that their preferred form of government is the grand coalition, not the abrupt change of power that occurs in France and the Anglo-Saxon countries. Perhaps Germany would rather be like a large Switzerland or a large Sweden, a consensus democracy in which the ideological camps come to resemble one another and the political extended family in the government takes care of everything.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/...763537,00.html
What think you?
Is this why Britain rejected AV, as it was percieved as a path that would lead to a consensus democracy in which the ideological camps come to resemble one another?
I believe that was certainly a factor in pushing the conservative end of the labour electorate into voting "no", because they define themselves by their opposition to the 'other' and thus revel in an adversarial form of politics.
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