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Originally Posted by Mojo_PeiPei
In the last election Putin controlled over 70% of the media coverage, that's ridiculous considered there were over 7 parties running, the next closest party got something like 10-15% coverage, no other party got above 10.
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The same thing happens in the US as well, yet it doesn't seem to matter as much here. The only difference is that instead of just one person getting all the coverage it's two people.
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Originally Posted by NCB
BTW, remember the schoolhouse terror thing. Afterwards, Putin vowed to "crush the terrorists". Since then, he's done nothing except seize more power and curb civil liberties, all in the name of fighting terror. Does that trouble you? It troubles me, and it apparently troubles the Bush Admin enough to speak up about it.
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Remember that 9-11 thing? Afterwards, Bush vowed to "crush the terrorists." Since then he's done nothing except seize more power and curb civil liberties, all in the name of fighting terror. Does that trouble you? It troubles me.
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Originally Posted by Yakk
I am not aware of a modern democracy that doesn't have at least some socialist leanings, nor capitalist leanings.
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This is an important point. Democracy tends to cover a wide range of political and economic belief under one umbrella. Other forms of government tend to be much more strict or traditional.
I also believe that under a democratic system people tend to *feel* more free. That they have more freedom individually, and are not a "slave" of sorts to the state. Of course this does varry depending on the state/country, but in general it does hold true.
As to why the US feels the need to force democracy on other nations, i have no idea. In the case of Iraq (or any invasion in which the government is removed) it is understadable. When you completely remove a government the only way for any new government to have any legitimacy what-so-ever is for the people of that nation to come together and hammer it out. That process requires basic democracy, atleast primarily. The government that arises from that process is a different story. Iraq will most likely end up being a form of Constitutional Republic, similar to the US but with more blatant Theocratic leanings.
As for Russia, i believe we are trying to nudge them back toward a "better" form of government. The US had made a hell of a lot of progress, after a very long struggle, and don't like to see that progress get stomped out. After all, we put a lot of effort into the cold war and the fall of the USSR, and don't want to lose the battle after we've already won it. Putin claims that he wants a form of democracy that is more in line with the history of Russia, unfortunately that history was a rather brutal one and many people don't want to see Russia slip back toward that direction.