In a statement issued by the Russian news agency Tass, [Prime Minister Dmitri A. Medvedev], a lawyer who has known Mr. Putin since they worked together in St. Petersburg in the 1990s, linked the unexpected resignations to an overhaul put forward earlier on Wednesday by Mr. Putin.... Mr. Putin, who under current law must step down in 2024, proposed amending the Russian Constitution to expand the powers of Parliament and a body called the State Council, which currently carries little weight....Term limits are easily portrayed as an enhancement of democracy, even though they are also and even more easily portrayed as detrimental to democracy. The American Supreme Court case showing how that's done is U.S. Term Limits v. Thornton (in which the Justices disagree about whether "the right of the people to choose whom they please to govern them" is helped or hurt by term limits on members of Congress).
It was not immediately evident whether the resignations signaled a rift at the top of Russia’s hierarchy or were part of a coordinated but as-yet-unclear plan by Mr. Putin to hold onto power and reshape the political system that has been in place with only minor adjustments since the early 1990s.... Mr. Putin described the proposed constitutional changes in his annual state of the nation address on Wednesday as an effort to enhance democracy..... Russia has been abuzz for months with speculation about whether he would come up with a maneuver to extend his rule — or, if not, who might succeed him.
January 15, 2020
"Russian Premier Abruptly Quits Amid Swirl of Speculation on Putin."
The NYT reports.
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47 comments:
Putin power move
whether "the right of the people to choose whom they please to govern them" is helped or hurt by term limits on members of Congress
which ONLY makes sense, if you COMPLETELY IGNORE the systematic advantages of being an incumbent
New boss similar to the old:
https://www.ft.com/content/38967766-aec8-11e9-8030-530adfa879c2
Putin The Great and his Russian Empire doing some house cleaning.
I've not viewed term limits as a fix. It's not like there's a shortage of incompetent assholes ready to take the place of another.
The balance to the incumbent advantage is the inability of the incumbent to overcome their own suckage.
There is an appeal to Congressional term limits. People spending their whole adult lives as members of Congress is sub optimal at best. However term limits would just shift power to unelected staff members and bureaucrats and make things even worse.
Little do they know the whole thing was engineered by Trump.
Terms limits was just a campaign gimmick that aspiring pols used to get into state legislature. Ya gotta have a gimmuck.
Then they get in and have this mysterious change of heart...lol.
When they're termed out they hustle and run for some other office. Dems get appointments to cushy admin jobs by Dem governors
Anyway, the word now is that term limits gave lobbyists way more power than before.
Russia uses the popular vote method for its power consolidation.
The New York Times and its inimitable style.
However, reading another report, it looks like Putin is trying to move the Russian government toward a more (actual) parliamentary system in the post-Putin age.
gahrie said...
There is an appeal to Congressional term limits. People spending their whole adult lives as members of Congress is sub optimal at best. However term limits would just shift power to unelected staff members and bureaucrats and make things even worse.
1/15/20, 12:41 PM
This!
That said, I feel that local government should NOT have term limits because the people deserve who they elect "good and hard". What I do mind is when a group of morons consistently elect people that are then inflicted on the rest of the country, at the Federal level.
I would much prefer one term for each elected Federal official AND their staff. Roll all that sh@t over every term. I would also fully support doing away with omnibus bills. Require department level budget bills, individually approved. Combine this with a full novice crew every term and that may just do the trick to returning the Federal government to its original, intended purpose and get its grubby fingers out of all the things that it should NOT be involved in.
Putin would make a good Democrat.
""Russian Premier Abruptly Quits Amid Swirl of Speculation on Putin.""
Impeach Trump!
Collusion!
My hope is that Mr Putin, like Generalissimo Franco in Spain, decides that the restoration of the monarchy best suits the Russian condition. He ought to have begun this process a decade or so ago, however.
Well, yes, it's a power grab. And Putin is scum. But, can anyone deny that Putin actually is quite popular in Russia?
Wake up Bob Mueller.
He needs to investigate!
THe link to Wikipedia on the supreme court case illustrates the difference between Justice Stevens and Justice Thomas in how they reach decisions: Justice Stevens first determines which decision (allow or disallow a state to adopt term limits for Federal officeholders) is "best" in terms of "serving justice" or "adopting good public policy." Then Justice Stevens finds a legal foundation for supporting the decision he has made. Justice Thomas comes to the question with a rule of legal interpretation (in this case "where the Constitution is silent, it raises no bar to action by the States or the people") and applies that rule to the case at hand.
gahrie said...
There is an appeal to Congressional term limits. People spending their whole adult lives as members of Congress is sub optimal at best. However term limits would just shift power to unelected staff members and bureaucrats and make things even worse.
I disagree with this completely.
Being a politician should not be a career. Volunteers should serve for a time then go back to real lives.
Congressman and Senators should be forced to read the entire text of their bills on the floor out loud without abbreviation.
What the government is supposed to do is not that complicated. But having career staffers and politicians just creates a bureaucratic leach class that makes more powers for itself.
Someone who is going back to real life in a few years is a lot less likely to give their successors more power over them.
Lifetime politicians are constantly seeking more power. It also attracts people who want that power.
Post-Soviet empire news continues to generate headlines. Russia's new natural gas pipeline to Europe has been delayed by up to a year because of new US sanctions, Putin announced yesterday. (I put the link below narciso-style so you can see it goes to Standard & Poor's Global news aggregate.) So this allowed Ukraine to negotiate a more favorable 5-year deal with Russia's Gazprom and hampered Putin's plan to make Merkel even more beholden to him for energy. Trump once again proves to be a very unreliable stooge for Russia, again thwarting them and helping real allies at the expense of false ones. Unfortunately this further delays Ma Merkel's turn to green energy. Once Europe uses gas like we do maybe they too can meet their Paris benchmarks.
https://www.spglobal.com/platts/en/market-insights/latest-news/natural-gas/011320-nord-stream-2-gas-pipeline-could-be-delayed-to-q1-2021-putin
Why does speculation always swirl? Why can't it tumble, or undulate, or wobble?
Could Putin be looking for a way to extend his rule beyond 2024? Sure, but he will be 71 at that time, and I will point out that his only children don't appear to be politically inclined, so a family dynasty looks like no motive for such an extension.
If you don't really have a family to whom to pass such a dynasty, then you might well start looking for a way to forestall anyone else grabbing it when you die.
Speculation in the US media is probably best described as reeling like a drunken halfwit.
Congresscritters should be limited to a single personal assistant.
I am serious.
gahrie said...
There is an appeal to Congressional term limits. People spending their whole adult lives as members of Congress is sub optimal at best. However term limits would just shift power to unelected staff members and bureaucrats and make things even worse.
Personally I would also insist on similar term limits on most unelected government employees in management level positions or higher. Make pretty much all non-military related Federal government jobs temporary, like say no more than 5 years. Eliminate pensions for government employees and abolish all Federal Unions for good measure.
Of course I'm fully aware that this will never happen, but it's a nice fantasy.
See California for the negative effects of term limits. Lobbyists and permanent staff hold the real power while the politicians migrate between the state legislature and the state sente. When term limits dictate the pols abandon Sacramento offices they then either become lobbyists themselves or they run for county offices. County Supervisors are among the most powerful people in California government.
this has nothing to do with term limits, gah, it does have to do with the deteorating Russian economy, however, in part,
But having career staffers and politicians just creates a bureaucratic leach class that makes more powers for itself.
How are you going to eliminate career staffers? What are you going to replace them with? It would just force the politicians and temporary staffers to become even more dependent on lobbyists.
The currents system sucks, but at least the responsibility and power theoretically is held by people who face election.
Yancey Ward said...
Could Putin be looking for a way to extend his rule beyond 2024? Sure, but he will be 71 at that time, and I will point out that his only children don't appear to be politically inclined, so a family dynasty looks like no motive for such an extension.
If you don't really have a family to whom to pass such a dynasty, then you might well start looking for a way to forestall anyone else grabbing it when you die.
I'll come at it from a different angle.
Putin is riding the Russian Deep State (aka the Oprichnina). He has no dynastic heir and unlike the Roman's hasn't adopted an heir. He can't turn over power without being at great risk of execution or imprisonment.
I have always thought Khrushchev organized his own retirement as a bloodless handover of power within the Communist style of Mafia government.
Putin is getting old, it is time to think of retirement, he does not see anyone with his own capabilities as a successor, and anyway he would like to see the Russian Federation with a more broad-based and stabler form of government.
Putin is a Russian; not a Communist.
Putin is one of the better leaders Russia has ever had, certainly one of the best in the last century or so. Hey, maybe that's why so many in the West don't like him.
The benefit of term limits is the prevention of entrenched power by career politicians.
Todd suggests: I would also fully support doing away with omnibus bills.
Most definitely!
The New York Times today twists everything as agit-prop for its own leadership of the NYT faction within the Democratic Party.
This is not reporting.
Term limits prevent the voters from getting the representation they want and deserve to get - good and hard!
Hagar said...
Term limits prevent the voters from getting the representation they want and deserve to get - good and hard!
1/15/20, 3:22 PM
I absolutely agree at the local/state level but due to the way the Fed has snaked its hands into everything and has so much power, I am fed up with localities (think CA and others) electing these absolutely batsh!t crazy @sshats and inflicting them on the rest of the country for years and years! And since they keep getting elected, they amass massive power with their party so that they get on the most important committees and have massive influence on the rest of us. The rest of the country deserves some protection from these morons! Apparently it is no longer OK to use rope and lamp posts so term limits seem to be the only answer...
Term limits cause constant turnover among the elected representatives ensuring that more such morons ignorant of the workings of government will be elected and the power of the un-elected bureaucracy to increase.
Rots of ruck with that!
"Democracy is the worst possible form of government - except for all the other forms that have been tried!"
(W.S. Churchill)
Democracy, taking the more charitable modern meaning of the word, still does not mean you get everything your way!
I wonder how long Putin expects to live. Obviously he wants to be in power for all that time. But does he plan on another 10 years, 20, 30? Will they put his head in a jar and have him continue growing production of Russia's chief export, sorrow?
Good grief, people, who says the unelected bureaucracy has to be permanent?
This country had a patronage/spoils system for the bureaucracy for a little more than a century, and now we've had a civil service system for a little more than a century. Time to go back to patronage for a century!
well kruschev was 29 years which is the record, Brezhnev was maybe 15 or so, but it felt longer,
Congresscritters should be limited to a single personal assistant.
That's fine. Just as long as you're willing to tell the thousands of people demanding constituent services of each congresscritter.
You know, the farmer who's got the feds taking away his water rights. Or the person whose road washed away during the winter rains and the thugs at the National Park Service refuse to make good. Or the people who run the local airport they can't get a repaved runway because the feds refuse to cooperate with the state. Or ....
...[Prime Minister Dmitri A. Medvedev], a lawyer who has known Mr. Putin since they worked together in St. Petersburg in the 1990s, ...
Just that puts doubt on whatever else is in stated in that report.
According to what I read elsewhere, Putin wants his successor to have to deal with a cabinet appointed with the "advice and consent" of the legislature and indeed be required to pay more attention to the Duma than he has had to. If that is what it is, I don't see that as a "grab for power." Let's wait and see what more comes to light.
Riddles inside mysteries within enigmas--and toss in some puzzles and unsolvable chess problems.
Narr
Maskirovka and disinformatsya, the old games
Putin, like everyone, wants to have it all.
He's just one of the few who've finagled a position to actually demand it.
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