The state of democracy
World democracy doesn’t seem to be very healthy at the moment:
- In the Russian gas dispute with the Ukrainian government, the Handelsblatt writes that the Mafia was almost certainly sitting at the negotiating table.
- In the USA it looks as if Jack Abramoff is going to be embarassing US politicians with revelations about who got illegal campaign contributions, bribes and backhanders as a result of his lobbying on behalf of industry. (Bush’s re-election team has already returned money received from Abramoff in an effort to distance themselves from the allegations.)