An executive with Chinese characteristics
The Economist editors, as usual, offer some good explanations of basics.
Xi Jinping decides to abolish presidential term limits
[T]he Communist Party announced its plan to get rid of presidential term limits… Such limits may not matter much in themselves… The presidency is a weak office. Mr Xi could stay in power as the party’s general secretary and military chief, to which term limits do not apply. But the abolition is still important partly because it is the clearest evidence that Mr Xi does, in fact, plan to ignore convention that party chiefs step down after ten years, and keep all of his jobs after 2023. It also pierces the veil of politics and shows what kind of ruler he wants to be. At a time when he is trying to boost China’s image globally as a modern, outward-looking and responsible state, the political system he governs seems premodern, opaque and treacherous.
The system itself is extremely unusual. China has two ladders of authority: the government and the party. The party hierarchy outranks the state one. In other countries, the ministers of finance and foreign affairs (government jobs) are usually the most important ones after the president or prime minister. In China, they are not even in the top 25. Neither man is a member of the Politburo, let alone its inner sanctum, the Politburo Standing Committee. Formally, the People’s Liberation Army is controlled by the party, not the government. In one respect, though, Chinese politics is all too normal. As with other Leninist systems, it is bedevilled by the problem of leadership succession…
In the 1980s, reacting to the chaos of the Mao era, Deng Xiaoping tried to make the system more orderly and predictable by introducing new rules, norms and precedents. These included the reinstitution of the post of president (there had not been one since 1968), along with a two-term limit for the holder of that office as well as the vice-president. Mandatory retirement ages were also introduced… In a speech in 1980 [Deng] said the system should avoid an “over-concentration of power”, which, he warned, was “liable to give rise to arbitrary rule”. He said it should make a clearer separation between the party and the government. And it had to “solve the problem of succession in leadership”…
As the abolition of term limits shows, he failed—or at least, his reforms failed to rein in Mr Xi. Instead of avoiding an over-concentration of powers, the president has made himself chairman of everything. Instead of separating party from state, he has injected party control into areas which had once been relatively free of it, such as private companies…
Mr Xi has used his anti-graft campaign to rid himself of other rivals… This hardly looks like a predictable, orderly system…
So why has he done this? He could have stayed on as general secretary. His ideology, called “Xi Jinping Thought for a New Era”, would still have been in the party’s own charter, giving him the status of final arbiter in any dispute. The answer must be that it is because of the kind of leader he wants to be: with his power on full display, not hidden behind the scenes…
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Labels: China, executive, leadership, politics, state
Another absent Nigerian president
Some Nigerians are anxious about Buhari's "medical tourism."
Why is Nigeria's President Buhari still in London?
As Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari was beginning his latest visit to London more than a month ago, a new series of Big Brother Nigeria was getting under way.
A former military ruler known for his no-nonsense style would appear to have little in common with a reality TV show where contestants engage in attention-seeking behaviour.
But both subjects were soon generating headlines for the same reason - neither of them were in Nigeria…
[T]he clamour over Nigeria's leader's extended medical stay in London is not going away.
President Buhari's absence comes as Africa's most populous nation is gripped by its worst economic crisis in decades, and faces the threat of famine in north-east Nigeria, which has been devastated by the Boko Haram insurgency…
The latest statement issued by the government said there was "no cause for worry" about the president's health but his medical leave was being extended.
Nigerians have now heard their leader's voice for the first time since he left for the UK after a telephone conversation with the governor of the northern state of Kano was played out loud at a prayer meeting…
In a country where rumours are rife, the presidential statements have done little to dampen the speculation about the leader's health.
Nigerians are acutely sensitive to leaders travelling abroad for medical reasons after President Umaru Yar'Adua died while in office in 2010.
For months, the public was kept in the dark while he received treatment in Saudi Arabia.
The period of uncertainty created deep political instability in the country.
The current president's supporters say that is emphatically not the case this time.
They point to the fact that President Buhari constitutionally handed over power to his vice-president, Yemi Osinbajo, as he has done on previous trips, rather than governing from afar…
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Labels: executive, Nigeria, regime
Mob interviews
When U.S. Senate committees interview presidential nominees for important government posts, there are a dozen or more Senators making long statements and sometimes asking questions.
Nominees for the EU Commission have to face the whole European Parliament. It might be great reality TV.
The article includes the names and nationalities of the Commission executive and the 20 commissioner nominees.
New EU commissioners face MEP grilling in Brussels
The nominees for posts in the next European Commission are facing confirmation hearings in the European Parliament - and some tough questioning is expected.
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| An MEP ready to ask a question |
The shake-up of portfolios by EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker has upset many MEPs, the BBC's Chris Morris reports from Brussels…
Each would-be commissioner faces a public grilling lasting several hours.
Many of the questions will be about technical details of policy, less than three weeks after the nominees found out which job each of them had been given.
The hearings will be televised live on the European Parliament website.
Hungarian nominees, as well as Lord Hill… A former lobbyist, he is likely to come under close scrutiny because of the Conservatives' Euroscepticism and concern about the power of bankers in the City of London…
There is particular concern among Green and Liberal MEPs that the climate action and energy jobs will be merged in one post, in the hands of a Spanish conservative, Miguel Arias Canete…
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Labels: EU, executive, legislature, politics, regime
PR campaign or analysis?
This analysis seems primarily based on an interview with a former Iranian government official. It's unsigned, so there's no hint about whose ideas shaped the analysis. And, we have to ask whether this is analysis or part of a campaign to put a more reasonable face on the government of Iran.
In spite of those reservations, the description of the limits on the Supreme Leader sound reasonably accurate. Just don't forget to use a grain of salt.
Iran’s supreme leader does not rule supreme
Though supreme leader, Khamenei does not rule supreme.
“Of course Mr. Khamenei has his own personal viewpoints… and he insists on them and repeats them,” said Ali asghar Ramezanpoor, a former deputy culture minister, listing Khamenei's deep distrust of the United States, Western cultural influence and his insistence on the nuclear program as a red line.
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| Khamenei |
Himself president from 1981 to 1989, Khamenei “knows that on administrative issues of the country he must be flexible,”Ramezanpoor told Reuters.
The Iranian political system is a complex mix of Shi'ite Muslim clerical authority and an elected president and parliament, overseen by numerous appointed regulatory councils.
Then there are the elite Revolutionary Guards who, as well as being engaged abroad… also control large parts of the oil-based economy.
Though all roads lead to the leader, Khamenei also has to satisfy these constituencies and balance their interests, especially those of the Revolutionary Guards.
“Khamenei is not a dictator in the classic sense, but there is no question that on particular issues such as the nuclear file he probably will have the last word,” said Gary Sick, an Iran expert and former U.S. National Security Council official…
Khamenei's public comments suggest he believes that even if Iran were to give up atomic energy work that the West deems a smoke screen for attaining a nuclear arsenal, the United States is bent on regime change and so any concessions are futile.
Indicating he will at least give Rouhani a chance to try out the new posture, Khamenei has most recently said he is also not against direct talks, but merely doubts they will succeed.
Khamenei allowed each of the two previous presidents, the reformist Mohammad Khatami and the populist hardliner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a period of grace in which they pursued policies he disliked before he blocked them and rendered them ineffective…
The question of whether sovereignty comes from God or the people has often played out violently across the Middle East but appears to be contained within a perennial tug of war in Iran…
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Labels: executive, Iran, politics, regime
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