by Unknown | 9/30/2008 05:30:00 PM
From my course readings for this week:

Whether a parliament is of high or low intellectual quality depends on whether great problems are not only discussed but are conclusively decided there. In other words, it depends on whether anything happens in parliament and on how much depends on what happens there, or whether it is merely the reluctantly tolerated rubber-stamping machine for a ruling bureaucracy.

-- Max Weber, "Parliament and Government in Germany under a New Political Order," 1918


Use this as an open thread. What's on your mind?

[Update] For those curious about how this site is doing, over the flip is a graph of our site stats over the past twelve months (keep in mind we switched platforms and web addresses in early October):





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4 Comments:


Blogger Ahistoricality on 9/30/2008 9:45 PM:

"On one occasion I remarked that democracy had at least one merit, namely, that a Member of Parliament can not be stupider than his constituents, for the more stupid he is, the stupider they were to elect him." -- Bertrand Russell

Happy New Year!

 

Blogger Unknown on 9/30/2008 10:10 PM:

Awesome! I hadn't heard that one before.

L'shana Tova to you as well!

 

Blogger Unknown on 10/01/2008 2:49 PM:

Happy New Year.

I've got to say, I don't understand this attitude that even if the bailout legislation was fatally flawed, it's bad that it wasn't passed. Haven't we learned anything from 9/11, that passing flawed and dangerous legislation while in a state of fear is not a good thing?

 

Blogger Unknown on 10/01/2008 5:23 PM:

Hi, Ross -- perhaps you and I have learned that lesson, but sadly our elected representatives don't seem to have followed our lead.