Russia a democracy after all - sort of

[Terxpahseyton]

Look at this face gentlemen and see what democracy does even to the greatest of us:

Russia is having an election - the Russian variant with many allegations of fraud of course, for now mostly fueled by bloggers and youtube videos.

In the last election, United Russia - Putin's party - got 64%. A decent majority. The counting hasn't finished yet for this year, but the UR is struggling to reach 50% right now.

Good, bad? Will Russia eventual overcome it political deficits? Does Russia need Putin? And will he smile again?

 

[Cutlass]

I would be truly amazed if Putin didn't win by a sizable majority.

 

[plarq]

Russia is not ruled by political party, but elite groups.

 

[Terxpahseyton]

So Putin is just their puppet?

 

[squadbroken]

Russia is not ruled by political party, but elite groups.

So no different than many western "democracies".

 

[Terxpahseyton]

It depends on how you define "ruled by elites". In a way we are all ruled by elites, yes, except Switzerland maybe. Where people actually may rule instead of appoint elites to rule for them.
But of course the question is how the ruling elites are determined. By party policy and election? Or by the circles of the rich? Or by the military? etc,

 

[aronnax]

Well this is interesting.

http://en.rian.ru/infographics/20111205/169328821.html



Looking at it, Putin's United Russia Party will just get the bare minimum to form majority government in a hung parliament.
(I'm working on Westminster Parliament thinking so someone correct me if I got it wrong)

 

[Terxpahseyton]

You are probably right because the parties with less than 7% get no seats, which then as a consequence go to the other parties. So barely 50% means in reality more than 50% of the seats.
Dame shame, I hoped for a coalition.

 

[wilycoyote]

Well, Russia has little press independence to speak of... so that is a strike, but perhaps their elections are not quite as rigged as I had thought.

 

[Lillefix]

Doesn't Yabloko mean apple?

 

[Artifis]

Not much of a democracy when many of the other candidates are there to create the illusion of opposition.....

 

[squadbroken]

It depends on how you define "ruled by elites".

I define it as "vote for whoever you like, bankers and capitalists will still be the ones calling the shots".

 

[Ayn Rand]

Russia is making great progress compared to how it used to be - a mafia wild west where anything goes.

Good luck to the Russians - their model of capitalism is also quite interesting, it serves as an example which we can look to for inspiration when we try to pull ourselves out of the current Bolshevist mess we are in here in Europa.

 

[Algeroth]

Doesn't Yabloko mean apple?

Yes, it does. I don't know why Russian liberals choose this one either.

 

[Masada]

Ehhhhhhhh, even with a hung/hostile Parliament Putin would still be kept around. United Russia seems really to just be Putin's personal electoral vehicle. Useful to ram through legislation without much in the way of debate or oversight. But not critical to Putin's out-sized role in the nation. It's that out-sized role - and the accrual of power to the President - that's makes him indispensable to everyone include a coalition. At this stage, I honestly think he'd be capable of ignoring a hostile Parliament and governing by decree if need be. Hell he'd use it to his advantage and carve out an even more significant role in Russia. Simply put, he has to be amongst the canniest politicians on earth.

 

[luiz]

I was happy to see that Putin's Party (that's what United Russia is) may get less than 50% of the votes. Then I saw who the other main parties are: communists and racists. It's more depressing than Brazilian politics.

 

[Rulle_Kebab]

In WHAT country is democracy not a sham?
I haven't seen any clean elections in my lifetime.
So the one they have in Russia is as good as the one we have in Denmark, the first they had in Greece or the recent one in DRCongo...

 

[Terxpahseyton]

I define it as "vote for whoever you like, bankers and capitalists will still be the ones calling the shots".

Did ever the thought cross your mind that you make it yourself a little too easy with such statements?

In WHAT country is democracy not a sham?
I haven't seen any clean elections in my lifetime.
So the one they have in Russia is as good as the one we have in Denmark, the first they had in Greece or the recent one in DRCongo...

I don't know about Greece or Denmark (???), but I am pretty sure the recent German elections were clean.

 

[Traitorfish]

Good luck to the Russians - their model of capitalism is also quite interesting, it serves as an example which we can look to for inspiration when we try to pull ourselves out of the current Bolshevist mess we are in here in Europa.

Words are just playthings to you, aren't they?

Yes, it does. I don't know why Russian liberals choose this one either.

Presumably they noticed that the Zyuganovites were going by "Communist Party", and thought that the idea was to pick a joke name.

 

[Ayn Rand]

Words are just playthings to you, aren't they?

Something we have in common, although in different ways