SOUNDING BOARD is an outlet for opinions on good and crazy things going on at home (wherever I may be). All are welcome. You are not expected to bring anything except your common sense & sense of humor.
'If the automobile had followed the same development cycle as the computer, a Rolls-Royce would today cost $100, get one million miles to the gallon, and explode once a year, killing everyone inside.'
-Robert X. Cringely (from geek wisdom)
SOUNDING BOARD
Saturday, December 21, 2002
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Lula's balancing act: coalitions and centrist politics
Financial Times reports that the Workers' Party (PT) of Brazil's president-elect Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on Friday failed to form a government alliance with the centrist PMDB party. As Lula aims to get a majority in Congress, the world watches this familiar coalition game.
Lula is now engaged in a difficult balancing act. He needs to forge a coalition to maintain majority in Congress. The process of tending toward the center is quite predictable in the field of coalition building and interest group politics. Any majority bloc can be broken up by a counter-offer from the minority, thereby forming a new majority. The majority bloc maintains the coalition through political favors and matching counter-offers, or it ceases to exist. It's the same interest group politics anywhere. What is shaky is the kind of outcome that will turn out. The current centrist governance could not afford to fail as it may invite extremism and plunge Brazil into more serious troubles. That's why US supports Lula and urges US banks to keep credit lines open to Brazil. That's why world is closely watching.
posted by Allan at 12:10 PM (GMT+8)
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