Teaching Comparative

Potemkin "villages"

All five of these things may be trivia, but they were interesting to me. The examples come from the UK, Russia, and China. It is possible that some of these examples will be more than trivia and more substantial than "Potemkin" events in the future. Keep your eyes open for developments. (That's Grigory Potemkin to the right.)

1. Potemkin crisis (This one reminds me of the debate between Jefferson and Chief Justice John Marshall in which Jefferson insisted that Congress had the power to decide what the Constitution meant through its legislation. Read Marbury v. Madison to see how Marshall won the argument.)

Judges spark 'constitutional crisis'

"Judges have sparked a 'constitutional crisis' by their decision to quash the government's control orders, the chair of the home affairs select committee claimed today.

"A key plank of the government's anti-terror legislation is now in legal limbo after a high court judge ruled yesterday that orders confining suspects to their home and curtailing who they can meet breach the European Convention on Human Rights.

"Today John Denham, a former minister and highly respected backbencher, put the blame firmly at the door of the judges and demanded urgent talks between politicians and the judiciary to resolve the situation before it escalated any further...

"Mr Denham told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: 'There is a constitutional crisis emerging here, I think, about the way in which the judges and the courts are approaching these issues. When many of us, as I did, supported the Human Rights Act and indeed still support it, we thought that on great matters of state of this sort - if the elected parliament had taken a careful view of what was in the wider public interest - that would be given considerable weight by the courts.'"

2. Potemkin reform

China navy chief sacked for graft

"A top-level Chinese military official has been sacked for corruption after his mistress turned him in, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported...

"China's ruling Communist Party is worried that widespread official corruption is undermining its legitimacy, and has taken care to highlight a number of high-profile falls from grace.

"Earlier this month, in an unrelated case, a former deputy Beijing mayor, Liu Zhihua, was sacked over unspecified corruption charges."

3. Potemkin Square

On Red Square, a Czarist Ritual Revived

"Just before 2 p.m. on the last Saturday of each month from April to October, a dozen saber-bearing cavalry officers of the Kremlin Regiment, in tall hats and czarist military uniforms adorned with gold buttons, yellow tassels and epaulets, mount their horses and gallop through the Spassky Gates, past the impossibly colorful onion domes of St. Basil's Cathedral in Moscow.

"Their destination: the center of Red Square, near the podium where Communist Party bosses once stood and where thousands of tourists from around the world have gathered.

"The Presidential Orchestra's marching band, dressed in white and playing grand imperial marches, and infantry officers with saber rifles follow close behind the mounted officers. Taking their positions in the middle of the square, they launch into half an hour's worth of elaborate formations, graceful pirouettes and breathtaking saber tosses...

"The Kremlin commandant, Sergei Khlebnikov, and Grigori Antyufeyev, the chairman of Moscow's City Tourism Committee, introduced this recent recreation of a czarist cavalry and marching ceremony as Russia's answer to events like the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace in London.

"'The main goal of the event is directed at the further forming of a positive image of Moscow as an international tourist center and the development of international and domestic tourism in Russia,' read a joint news release reflecting the very capitalist desire for tourist dollars, or euros, as the case may be, since the dollar continues to fall in Russia...

"Moscow's tourist development program is involved in other projects that look back in time, among them the restoration of prerevolutionary palaces and estates. In one case —Catherine the Great's unfinished Tsaritsyno Palace — Moscow has decided to finish what she never did. Other projects include a "retro train" around the city, meant to evoke the era of Czar Nicholas II; it will have a test run later this year..."

4. Potemkin Democracy

Russia: Bill Widening Definition of Extremism Moves Toward Approval

"Parliament's lower house gave preliminary approval to amendments that would expand the definition of extremism, a measure critics say is so broadly worded that it could allow the authorities to quash political and public protests.

"The amendments ... would label as extremist those who 'impede the activities of state bodies' or organize or take part in public disturbances... It would also apply to 'public slander' of state officials. The measures would allow the authorities to disqualify political parties or, in extreme cases, prosecute violators."

5. Potemkin reform (again)

House of Lords Creates New Speaker's Post

"LONDON (AP) -- The wig will be gone, but the cushy seat known as a Woolsack will still await the winner of an unprecedented election in the House of Lords. Their Lordships voted Wednesday to choose their first Lord Speaker, an innovation to replace the centuries-old office of Lord Chancellor. The winner will be announced July 4...

"The new Lord Speaker's post is one aspect of Prime Minister Tony Blair's unfinished project to remodel the House of Lords -- making it more democratic and ejecting many of those who had simply inherited their seats...

"The Lord Chancellor's role was changed amid concern that a single position had so many responsibilities in separate branches of power. Besides the role in the House of Lords, the job also came with a seat in the Cabinet and the post of head of the judiciary.

"Those responsibilities will now be split. The Lord Speaker will still preside over the House, but will be independent of the government. The newly restyled Lord Chancellor, who is appointed by the prime minister, will take the judicial role as well as the title of secretary of state for constitutional affairs...

"The Woolsack -- the Lord Speaker's seat in the chamber -- dates from the 14th century reign of King Edward III, when sacks of wool were placed in the chamber as a reminder of the source of national wealth.

"The Lord Speaker will wear a gown while presiding -- but he will not be sporting a wig."


In case you missed out on the references to things "Potemkin," here are the definition and some examples of Potemkin Village from Dictionary.com.

posted by Ken Wedding @ 11:09 AM