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Not having had to live with the politicians bickering in this way (UK system has less democracy, but also less negotiation) I have to say that whilst time lost is annoying, isn't this also part of the democratic process?

By nature, multi-party government requires some negotiation, which will involve some grandstanding, horse trading and taking of the ball home at various times. Yes, the politicians are visionless and selfish, but I would really argue they always have and will be, democracy is simply the best way we have found to convert the energy of these all too human politicians towards better government.

by Metatone (metatone [a|t] gmail (dot) com) on Tue Aug 16th, 2005 at 08:46:21 AM EST
Any multiparty system will require some time to negotiate individual wants into something larger. I guess what is bothering me is that the something larger seems to be only what the parties can get out of it. Many Bulgarians have just grown tired at the inability to come to an agreement, and when an agreement was finally made, it was not too far from the original agreement. In the meantime, a crisis has affected the central part of the country and little was done. In the meantime, the clock on EU accession was ticking and nothing was done.

It is the inability of these bickering folk to see the larger picture...particularly at such a vital time in the history of the entire society...accession into the EU. The inability to put aside petty quarrels about who gets which cabinet posts (and this is what has been seen as a large part of the problem).

by gradinski chai on Tue Aug 16th, 2005 at 10:35:29 PM EST
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